The Rocket City is rapidly becoming Apartment City.

According to the 2022 Huntsville Development Review, the number of new apartment units increased by almost 65% in the past year in a city that has grown more than 5.8% since the 2020 Census.

“We’re making sure we have the housing for those people when they come here needing a place to live,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “We have had a good set of apartments coming in over the last four of five years.”

It was a phenomenon that didn’t exist a decade ago, the mayor said in a previous interview. But the arrival of advanced manufacturing jobs at places like Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Greenbrier, Blue Origin and the expansion of the FBI at Redstone Arsenal have increased the need for housing in a city with an estimated population of more than 227,000.

Multifamily units – which also include single family rentals – made up the majority of the 3,719 residential units granted certificates of occupancy in the last year, a 30.4% increase over 2021.