This article is part of our Moving Guides.
Data pulled October 21, 2026, from 1,943 apartment buildings with 617,818 units across nine cities.
The kind of building you’ll live in depends a lot on the city. In New York the typical large apartment building is a 31-story tower. In Austin it’s a three-story garden complex with more than 370 units. In Nashville and Miami, three out of four buildings went up in 2010 or later, while Chicago and Denver still have a real share of prewar buildings. This page compares the age, height and size of apartment buildings in the nine cities Go Big City covers, using building-level data from the apartment-building directories for each city.
How do apartment buildings compare across big cities?
| City | Buildings | Units | Median units per building | Median floors | Median year built | Built 2010 or later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 239 | 120,584 | 379 | 31 | 2009 | 48% |
| Chicago | 290 | 79,170 | 230 | 19 | 2014 | 60% |
| Miami | 157 | 45,482 | 250 | 13 | 2018 | 75% |
| Denver | 194 | 34,357* | 187 | 6 | 2014 | 67% |
| Atlanta | 199 | 74,716 | 344 | 5 | 2015 | 61% |
| Dallas | 259 | 74,749 | 289 | 5 | 2014 | 54% |
| Houston | 176 | 59,317 | 326 | 4 | 2010 | 50% |
| Nashville | 232 | 49,204 | 224 | 4 | 2018 | 75% |
| Austin | 197 | 80,239 | 375 | 3 | 2014 | 53% |
Which city has the newest apartment buildings?
Nashville and Miami. In both, 75% of the buildings were built in 2010 or later, and the median building in each opened in 2018. Nashville’s boom is the most recent: 45% of its buildings opened in 2020 or later, the highest share of the nine cities. Miami is close behind at 43%.
Chicago has the most older stock. About 12% of its buildings were built before 1940, and another 11% between 1940 and 1979. Older buildings cluster in Lakeview, Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast, where the median building dates from 1969 to 1986. Denver is similar, with 10% prewar buildings; in Capitol Hill and Cheesman Park the median building dates from 1966.
| City | Before 1940 | 1940–1979 | 1980–1999 | 2000–2009 | 2010–2019 | 2020 or later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | 12% | 11% | 10% | 7% | 39% | 21% |
| Denver | 10% | 15% | 2% | 6% | 43% | 24% |
| New York | 5% | 11% | 16% | 20% | 34% | 14% |
| Dallas | 5% | 12% | 14% | 14% | 29% | 25% |
| Nashville | 3% | 13% | 7% | 2% | 30% | 45% |
| Atlanta | 1% | 6% | 19% | 13% | 34% | 27% |
| Miami | 1% | 4% | 5% | 16% | 32% | 43% |
| Houston | 0% | 13% | 16% | 20% | 30% | 20% |
| Austin | 0% | 3% | 27% | 17% | 22% | 31% |
Where will you live in a high-rise?
New York and Chicago are high-rise cities. 187 of New York’s 239 buildings have 20 or more floors, and so do 141 of Chicago’s 290. Miami follows with 48 of 157.
Everywhere else, most large apartment buildings are low- or mid-rise. The median building in Houston, Nashville and Austin has three or four floors, and towers are mostly downtown: Austin’s downtown buildings have a median of about 40 floors, against 3 for the city as a whole. If you want a high-rise in a Sun Belt city, look downtown, in Atlanta’s Midtown (median 27 floors) or in Houston’s Downtown (21).
Where are the biggest apartment complexes?
New York’s median building has 379 units, the most of the nine cities, and its buildings average about 505 units each. Austin is next at 375, even though its buildings are short: Austin’s complexes spread out over many three-story buildings on large sites. Atlanta (344) and Houston (326) also lean toward big complexes, especially in the suburbs, such as Perimeter, Dunwoody and Sandy Springs in metro Atlanta (median 504 units).
Denver has the smallest buildings, with a median of 187 units. In Capitol Hill and LoHi the median is around 60 to 70 units, the closest any of these cities gets to the small vintage buildings common in older neighborhoods.
What does this mean for your apartment search?
- New construction is the norm in the Sun Belt. In Nashville, Miami, Austin and Atlanta, most large buildings you’ll tour were built in 2010 or later, with the amenities and the prices that come with them.
- Older buildings mean more variety. In Chicago, Denver and parts of New York, older and smaller buildings sit next to new towers. They can cost less but may lack in-unit laundry, central air or an elevator, so ask.
- Height changes daily life. A tower means elevators, a doorman or front desk, and views. A garden complex means stairs, surface parking and often a pool. Decide which you want before you tour.
To budget the move itself, see our move-in costs by city.
How we built this
The data comes from the apartment-building directories for each city (for example chicagoapartmentbuildings.com), which list each building’s units, floors and year built. We pulled every listing on October 21, 2026: 1,943 buildings. The directories focus on large, mostly professionally managed rental buildings, so this data describes the big apartment buildings a newcomer is likely to tour, not every home in each city. Small two- and three-flats and single-family rentals aren’t included.
A few limits. Atlanta’s and Houston’s directories include nearby suburbs, such as Sandy Springs and The Woodlands. Twelve Denver buildings have no unit count and 18 have no year built, so Denver’s figures cover the buildings that report them. Year-built shares are based on buildings with a reported year (1,917 of 1,943). We’ll refresh this page every quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Which big city has the oldest apartment buildings?
Chicago, where about 12% of the buildings in our data were built before 1940. Denver is next at 10%.
Which city has the most new apartment buildings?
Nashville and Miami: 75% of buildings in each were built in 2010 or later. Nashville has the highest share built since 2020, at 45%.
Are Austin apartments mostly high-rises?
No. The median Austin building has three floors and 375 units, a garden-style complex. High-rises are concentrated downtown and in West Campus.
Author: Go Big City Team
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