Rental communities that include residential and office and retail space quadrupled over the past 10 years, according to data from Yardi Matrix Data and published by RentCafe [1].
The data found that 43,700 live-work units were completed in 2021, compared to 10,000 a decade prior. Yardi Matrix found the race to build “vertical villages” peaked during the pandemic with 49,100 apartments opening in 2020.
According to the report, mixed-use was non-existent in 2011 and earlier, making up just 2% of overall projects with a total of 225,100 apartments built in 2011.
After growing to 6% in 2012, the live-work sector now represents 10% of all apartments today. There are currently 580,000 apartments in live-work-place buildings nationwide--more than double that in 2011.
Census data reported zip codes with live-work-play buildings are home to high shares of Millennials, who account for an average of 40% of the area’s population. With the majority of them focused in Manhattan, which is home to one-fifth of the nation’s live-work-play apartments. Manhattan is home to 89,500 units and leads the nation with 49% of apartments incorporating the live-work-play concept.
Fellow New York borough Brooklyn was a distant second with 26,100 units. Washington, D.C. had 20,500; Chicago had 18,700 units; and Los Angeles had 18,600 units.
Houston has the nation’s lowest share of live-work-play units, making up just 7% with just 5,100 units.
Cities with more than 1,000 apartments located in mixed-use buildings were considered for rankings, totaling 83 cities in the U.S.