L'ville and The Strip are Red Hot "Apartment" Markets (Pittsburgh: apartments, rent)

[Blackbeauty212]

Pittsburgh’s apartment building boom continues with two new projects

Two more apartment projects are ready to get under way in the Strip District and Lawrenceville, one the second phase of the highly successful Cork Factory Lofts, the other the conversion of a long-established school building.

“That residential market has just exploded in terms of the value that’s been created down there,” said Aiello, whose family and its long-established development firm, JRA Development Group, have roots in Lawrenceville that date back more than 50 years.

Aielllo said he and his partners also own a neighboring open plot that could see future development as an apartment project, the specifics of which have yet to be determined. He also said the option remains to one day convert the apartments to condos and sell them off.

His project looks to be one of many apartment developments in the works for Lawrenceville right now. A spread sheet circulated by the Lawrenceville Corporation totaled up more than 100 apartment units in development in the neighborhood.

Bill Baron, a Lawrenceville developer who maintains a number of apartments in the neighborhood, confirmed the strength of the market demand there.
While the quality of the product is important, Barron said, “Overall demand is extremely strong. It’s hard to keep up with. I never have any vacancy. I put something up, and it rents usually immediately.”

Pittsburgh?s apartment building boom continues with two new projects - Pittsburgh Business Times

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[FreightTrainRunning]

One of these days I'll have to pony up and buy a subscription to the Business Times. They do seem to do some decent reporting, at least better than the two local dailies.

[BrianTH]

Despite all these projects, it seems clear supply isn't keeping up with demand. Unfortunately, that likely means we are going to see continued rent increases--although at some point better rent statistics will attracting a lot more development investment.