Omaha Is Building More Apartments Than Houses. What Does That Mean for Home Buyers?
Drive around the Omaha Metro right now and you may notice something.
We are building a lot of housing.
But increasingly, it isn't the traditional single family home.
New apartments, townhomes, rental communities and mixed housing developments are appearing across Omaha, Elkhorn, Papillion, Gretna and other parts of Douglas and Sarpy Counties.
And recent data shows this isn't just something we're noticing from the road.
For the first time in recent history, the Omaha Metro has been building more multifamily housing units than single family homes.
That represents a pretty significant shift in the Omaha real estate market.
So what is driving it? And perhaps more importantly, what could it mean for people hoping to buy a home in Omaha in the next several years?
Omaha's Housing Mix Has Changed Dramatically
A recent Flatwater Free Press analysis found that between 2022 and 2025, approximately 12,600 multifamily housing units were started across the Omaha Metro compared with approximately 10,900 single family homes.
Most of those multifamily units are apartments.
Compare that with about two decades ago, when the Omaha area was building roughly five single family houses for every one multifamily unit.
Even a decade ago, approximately twice as many houses as apartments were being built.
That is a major change in the type of housing being added to the Omaha Metro.
And it didn't happen overnight.
Omaha Never Fully Rebuilt Its Starter Home Pipeline
One of the most interesting pieces of this story goes all the way back to the Great Recession.
According to Flatwater Free Press, Omaha Metro single family construction dropped from approximately 5,000 new homes in 2005 to fewer than 2,000 in 2011.
Construction recovered from those lows, but the region never fully returned to its previous pace of single family homebuilding.
At the same time, Omaha continued growing.
Millennials entered their prime home buying years. Construction costs increased. Land and infrastructure became more expensive. Home prices rose.
The result is something Omaha home buyers are very familiar with today:
It has become increasingly difficult to build an inexpensive new house.
The traditional new construction "starter home" has become harder to produce at a price first time home buyers can afford.
So Omaha Started Building Something Else
The Omaha housing market still needed places for people to live.
Developers responded increasingly with apartments and other forms of multifamily housing.
In 2022, multifamily building permits surpassed single family permits in the Omaha Metro for the first time in recent history.
Approximately 3,500 multifamily units were permitted in both 2022 and 2024, among the highest totals in federal records dating back to 1988.
And the trend hasn't stopped yet.
Flatwater's analysis indicates the Omaha Metro is on pace for approximately another 3,500 multifamily units in 2026, again slightly outpacing single family construction.
That helps explain why apartment construction seems to be everywhere.
Because, increasingly, it is.
And This Isn't Just a Downtown Omaha Story
One of the most interesting parts of the current apartment boom is where it is happening.
Multifamily housing used to feel primarily associated with Downtown Omaha, Midtown and other parts of the urban core.
Now it is becoming a major part of suburban development too.
A current Omaha multifamily development pipeline compiled by MMG Real Estate Advisors includes projects throughout the metro.
In Papillion, Thread recently entered lease up with 307 units, while The Parker Phase II has another 78 units under construction.
Gretna has multiple projects underway, including 110 units at The Collection at Gretna Landing, 110 townhome units at Brixin at Sunset Meadows, and 244 units at Teal Ridge Village.
Elkhorn and West Omaha also have numerous apartment, townhome and rental developments in various stages of construction and lease up.
This is no longer simply an urban Omaha housing trend.
It is becoming part of the suburban landscape of Sarpy and Douglas Counties too.
Papillion Offers a Particularly Interesting Example
One of the most fascinating developments in this conversation is happening near 72nd Street and Capehart Road in Papillion.
Tallgrass is planned as a roughly 600 unit community incorporating apartments and townhomes.
But it isn't simply a traditional apartment complex.
The development includes a mix of market rate rentals, subsidized rentals for qualifying households and townhomes for sale.
That combination may offer a glimpse at where Omaha area housing is heading.
Instead of communities consisting almost entirely of detached single family homes, we may increasingly see neighborhoods containing several different types of housing.
Apartments.
Townhomes.
Attached homes.
Rental houses.
And traditional detached homes.
The "Missing Middle" May Become Much More Important
There is a phrase increasingly used in housing discussions: missing middle housing.
It generally refers to housing that falls somewhere between a traditional apartment building and a detached single family house.
Think duplexes.
Townhomes.
Row houses.
Small attached developments.
For Omaha, that middle category could become increasingly important.
If building an affordable detached starter home is difficult, but a household wants something different from an apartment, attached housing can provide another option.
And Douglas County just made a noteworthy change related to exactly this type of development.
Douglas County Just Changed Its Rules for Attached Housing
In August 2026, the Douglas County Board approved a zoning amendment intended to streamline the development process for single family attached residential projects.
The change addresses developments such as townhomes and other attached housing.
Previously, developers could encounter duplicative review requirements even after certain site details had already been addressed during the platting process.
The newly approved amendment removes some of that duplication.
The change was formally completed in September 2026.
It sounds like a small procedural change.
But it is interesting in the context of the larger Omaha housing story.
At the same moment that the metro is struggling to produce enough attainable detached housing, local government is making it somewhat easier to develop another form of home: attached housing.
What Does All of This Mean for Omaha Home Buyers?
This is where the story gets especially interesting.
More apartments are not necessarily bad for the Omaha housing market.
Quite the opposite.
Omaha needs more housing.
Every additional apartment, townhome or house adds to the overall housing supply. More supply can help absorb population growth and reduce some of the pressure created when too many households are competing for too few places to live.
But apartments and houses serve different needs.
For someone who wants flexibility, fewer maintenance responsibilities or simply a place to rent, additional apartment inventory can be extremely valuable.
For someone hoping to purchase their first home and begin building equity, however, an apartment does not replace an attainable home for sale.
And that is where Omaha's changing construction mix becomes important.
What Happened to the Omaha Starter Home?
This may be the bigger question behind all of these numbers.
There are certainly still affordable homes throughout the Omaha Metro.
But building a brand new detached house at a traditional starter home price has become increasingly difficult.
Flatwater's analysis found that the median Omaha Metro home sale price increased from roughly $150,000 in 2013 to more than $310,000 in 2025.
That is more than double in a little over a decade.
Add today's mortgage rates to that increase and the entry point into homeownership looks very different than it did for previous generations of Omaha buyers.
That may help explain why townhomes, attached homes and build to rent communities are becoming more visible throughout the metro.
The market is trying to fill the space between an apartment and an increasingly expensive detached house.
Omaha Is Even Experimenting With Entire Neighborhoods Built to Rent
Another relatively new trend in Omaha real estate is the rise of build to rent communities.
These developments can look much more like traditional neighborhoods than apartment complexes.
They may include detached houses, cottages, villas and townhomes, but the residents rent rather than own them.
Aerie Blue Sage near 204th Street and Blue Sage Parkway is one local example, and Aerie Heartwood Preserve near 144th and Pacific is another.
For renters who want more space, privacy or a neighborhood environment, this can provide an attractive option.
But from a real estate perspective, it also raises an interesting question:
Will the next generation of Omaha households increasingly live in homes that look like traditional starter homes without actually owning them?
We don't know yet.
But it is a trend worth watching.
Does This Mean Omaha Is Going to Become a City of Renters?
Probably not.
Single family homes are still being built throughout the Omaha Metro, particularly in growing areas of Sarpy and western Douglas Counties.
And homeownership remains an important part of the local housing market.
What has changed is the mix.
The Omaha Metro is adding apartments, townhomes, attached homes and rental communities at a pace that would have been unusual here twenty years ago.
That shift reflects a housing market adapting to higher construction costs, higher home prices, changing household needs and continued population growth.
Interestingly, there are already signs that Omaha's apartment construction boom may be approaching a peak. Local multifamily industry observers expect the enormous wave of new supply arriving in 2026 to begin slowing as the metro moves into 2027.
So this may not be a permanent ratio.
But the larger change in Omaha's housing mix is difficult to ignore.
What Should Omaha Buyers and Sellers Take From This?
For buyers, the definition of a "starter home" may continue to evolve.
A first home in Omaha might increasingly be a townhome, attached property or smaller existing home rather than a brand new detached house.
For sellers, especially owners of smaller and more affordable existing homes, the shortage of newly built entry level houses is an important piece of the competitive landscape.
And for anyone considering buying a home in Omaha, Papillion, Bellevue, Gretna, La Vista, Springfield, Elkhorn, Bennington or elsewhere in Douglas or Sarpy County, it is worth paying attention not only to home prices and mortgage rates but also to what kind of housing our metro is actually building.
Because today's construction pipeline becomes tomorrow's Omaha real estate market.
At Anthology Real Estate Group, we believe understanding the Omaha housing market means looking beyond this month's median sale price.
It means understanding where our communities are growing, what developers are building, how housing options are changing and what those changes may mean for people who want to buy or sell a home here.
And right now, the shift from primarily building houses toward building a much broader mix of apartments, townhomes and other housing may be one of the most important Omaha real estate trends to watch.
Market and development information referenced in this update includes recent reporting from Flatwater Free Press, Douglas County planning records and 2026 Omaha Metro multifamily development data from MMG Real Estate Advisors. Development plans, timelines and housing data can change over time.
