The multifamily market is strong in America’s Finest City, where employment and population gains, along with a high barrier to homeownership, drive rent growth. Demand is especially solid among Millennials drawn to the region’s well-paying STEM-oriented jobs.

Employment gains were led by professional and business services (11,500 jobs), followed by education and health services (5,000). As employers often recruit from outside the county, the tech industry is a significant contributor to the area’s positive net migration, with fields such as cybersecurity, biotech, software development, data analytics and robotics expanding.