TUCSON, AZ (Feb. 16, 2026) — Affordable housing construction has hit a turning point nationally, and Phoenix affordable building surges is showing up in the data as one of the fastest-growing major metros for income-restricted apartment deliveries. In a new RentCafe.com analysis, the U.S. completed more than 91,000 affordable apartments in 2024, the highest annual total in the past decade, and nearly 310,000 affordable units were delivered nationwide from 2020 through 2024.
In Metro Phoenix, developers completed 4,625 affordable apartments between 2020 and 2024, roughly tripling the prior five-year period (2015–2019), placing the metro 19th nationwide for affordable housing construction. Even with that acceleration, the analysis shows affordable deliveries remain a relatively small slice of overall apartment production in the metro: the 4,625 income-restricted units represent 6.27% of the 73,758 total apartments built in Phoenix over the same five-year period.
The broader takeaway is that Phoenix’s affordable housing segment is expanding rapidly, up 206% compared with the pre-pandemic period, but among the nation’s top 20 affordable-housing builders, it allocates one of the smallest shares of new development to income-restricted projects. By contrast, the report notes that roughly one-third of new apartment construction in some high-cost coastal markets is income-restricted, while only Dallas posted a smaller affordable share than Phoenix among the metros highlighted (4.9%)…