Apartment rents in the New Bern market rose at a 12.7% annual rate during the first quarter of 2023 and have posted an average yearly gain of 10.0% over the past three years. In addition to 290 units delivered over the past three years (a cumulative inventory expansion of 17.0%), there are 210 units currently underway. Vacancies in the metro were below the 10-year average as of the first quarter of 2023 and trended down over the past four quarters.
Employment in the metro was recently increasing at an annual rate of 1.0%, or a gain of about 430 jobs. While a positive result, this does represent the weakest rate of job creation in the past twelve months, which at one point was as high as 2.4%.
