The coronavirus pandemic shook up the Dallas-Fort Worth apartment sector, pushing average rents down 1.4% from March to June, according to ApartmentData.com.

But despite turmoil in the market due to job and economic uncertainty, DFW still has submarkets booking relatively strong performances.

Five DFW submarkets reported annualized rental rate growth and positive market absorption over the course of the past three months. ApartmentData.com found the top five submarkets by studying 37 apartment markets across DFW and ranking them in terms of the best combination of rental rate growth and absorption over the past three months.

The strongest submarket in Q2 is Duncanville/DeSoto/Cedar Hill and Lancaster, according to ApartmentData.com's July DFW Market Line report. This cluster of South Dallas suburbs is generally understated and more affordable than the North Dallas suburbs. During the past three months, this area booked an 8.3% increase in annualized rental rate growth as absorption reached 2.2%.

The White Rock Lake/Tenison Park multifamily market came in second with an 8.7% annualized rental rate growth and 1.3% absorption.

Far South Dallas/Waxahachie (which reported a 0.2% loss in annualized rental rate growth and 4.4% absorption) came in third, followed by East Fort Worth/Woodhaven/I-30 East (2.5%, 1.7%) and Western Hills/Ridgmar/Ridglea (4.9%, 1%).

Landlords also continued to grant concessions during the last three months, with roughly 130,000 Class-A units in DFW coming with some type of concession from the landlord. The Class-B sector followed behind, offering up concessions on roughly 84,000 units, ApartmentData.com noted.

Class-C and Class-D issued concessions on roughly 59,000 and 23,000 units, respectively, during the same time period.