SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Sioux Falls had slightly more apartments available for rent this past January compared to last year, according to the most recent Vacancy Report from the South Dakota Multihousing Association.
The impact record new building projects could have on vacancy rates for the next couple of years in tonight’s Your Money Matters.
“We’ve found a lot of people moving to South Dakota in the last couple of years and that I don’t think has changed at all,” The Villas at Canyon Creek Apartment Manager Angie Stingley said.
Like many Sioux Falls properties last January, the Villas at Canyon Creek struggled to find available apartments for people looking to move to town.
“Last year in January we were at 2.88 percent vacancy,” Jill Madsen, the President of Bender Midwest Properties and the past chair of the South Dakota Multi-Housing Association said.
This year, the market vacancy rate in Sioux Falls is now nearly 4 percent according to the Assocation’s most recent report.
“I have a 2-bedroom apartment available for you today, but I do not have a one bedroom,” Stingley said.
But that rate still leaves a significant strain on housing availability, it’s why Madsen says this January’s report is good news for the city.
“It’s healthy, when you’re at 2.88 percent where we were last year, that’s not healthy for our community to have that few vacancies,” Madsen said.
She says the record number of new multi housing projects in 2022 are already helping to open up more vacancies in Sioux Falls, but many of those units were still being built this January.
“I don’t think we’ve even started to see the full impact of those units, I think there’s been a delay on many of those projects, and so here in 2023 we’ll really start to see an impact of all those new units coming on,” Madsen said.
She expects the vacancy rate will continue to go up in Sioux Falls as all of the new apartments become available.
“We will see the vacancies and we’ll have to absorb them, and that might take a year or two to do that. So it will be a change for the industry,” Madsen said.
But she says it’s a healthy change that will help prevent rental payments from rising and will make it easier for more people to move to Sioux Falls.
“With a tremendous amount of people coming, we didn’t have anything available last year, this year it’s getting a little better,” Madsen said.
The SD Multi-Housing Association’s new chair says the state’s new $200 million affordable housing funds should also help ease the workforce housing needs across South Dakota.