For the first time in our history, Houston’s average multifamily rent topped $1. (It only took us 178 years!)

CBRE VP Clint Duncan tells us average rents are up 7% from a year ago. That’s largely thanks to strong fundamentals in Class-B and C assets, which account for more than 70% of Houston’s units. (B and C must stand for "big time" and "champions.") Inner Loop rents are still the highest in the metro; Clint says some one-bedroom units are achieving $2.20/SF in the Montrose/Museum District submarket. (Average rent is $1.83 there.) He’s forecasting continued rent growth as we push out this wave of deliveries, but at a slower pace.

CBRE’s latest multifamily data showed our other fundamentals aren’t so shabby, either. Overall occupancy climbed to 90.9% thanks to absorption outpacing supply. We delivered 4,199 new units in Q1, but soaked up 5,538 units (1% of the market). That puts us on pace with 2012 and 2013, when we averaged 16,300 units of net absorption annually. We’ve still got 22,246 units under construction (the Inner Loop tops the charts again, accounting for 8,342 of those).