Grand Rapids was recently named the top real estate market to watch in 2016; A new report further backs this up!

According to the Grand Rapids Business Journal, Chicago-based Triad Real Estate Partners released a report showing Grand Rapids has a 98 percent occupancy rate among the 17,000 units in 50 apartment complexes surveyed.

The survey was conducted was conducted in Dec. 2015.

Triad's director of research, Dan Olmstead said,

“Among secondary markets, Grand Rapids has pulled off one of the great turnarounds. In the past four or five years, the hard work from a decade or more ago is coming to fruition, from the riverfront development to re-concentrating on the downtown core. It’s better than a whole lot of other places.”

Olmstead credits the city's size and industry diversity for GR's turnaround:

“Grand Rapids is bigger and it’s not completely tied to one industry. There are a lot of not quite as big cities that are one-horse towns.”

Here are some key findings from Triad's study:

  • Grand Rapids has a 98 percent apartment occupancy, above the 95 percent national average.
  • Unemployment dropped to 3.1 percent, one of the lowest rates in the country.
  • Labor force is up 2.5 percent in the past year.
  • Employment is up 3.84 percent in the past year.

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