You probably already know this if you’re a Rocket City resident, but Huntsville is building a lot of new apartments. An awful lot.

Hunstville – already Alabama’s largest city – is growing like a weed, adding an average of nearly 3,500 people per year since 2010, and all those new residents need somewhere to live. That’s where all the new construction comes in.

Huntsville saw more than 3,700 new housing units completed in 2022, the most in any year since the city’s the Development Review began keeping records in 1983. More than two thirds of those were apartments.

And while 2022 was a record year, the pace isn’t slowing down. Nearly 20,000 more apartment units in 78 different complexes were either under construction or had already been approved by the city’s planning commission as of December 31. And the city is on track to add another 5,000 new apartments in 2023.

Those new projects in 2022 were most concentrated in west Huntsville, from Research Park west. But there were areas of growth all over, ranging from south Huntsville to Zierdt Road to downtown to Chapman Mountain. You can see the total number of units either under construction or approved by census tract area in the map below.

[Can’t see the map? Click here.]

In total, some 11,327 new apartments were already under construction as of Dec. 31, and another 7,155 had already gotten approval.

And 2023 is already seeing plenty of action.

Huntsville issued 5,926 residential building permits in 2022, of which 4,905 were for apartments.

For 2023, as of March 4, the city has already issued 1,075 permits, 920 of which were for apartments. That’s a pace of nearly 15 apartment permits per day, putting Huntsville on course for another 5,300 new units over the course of a year.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.