Downtown Fresno housing projects have stalled. Is there enough demand, entertainment?
Long-stalled development plans promise to one day add hundreds of new apartments to downtown Fresno’s housing inventory.
But if developers build all those new homes, will new residents move into them? Is there demand for market-rate housing in downtown Fresno?
The short answer is “yes,” said Jeff Kim, a multifamily housing specialist with Colliers International’s Fresno office.
“But the answer is a little complicated,” said Kim, who publishes a quarterly report on Fresno’s multifamily housing market using data from CoStar, a real estate information firm.
From the macro-perspective, Kim said there is an overall housing shortage across California and that translates to demand for housing across the state, including in Fresno and its downtown area.
“But all things being equal — price, amenities, etc. — I wouldn’t say there is any more demand to live in downtown Fresno versus a north Fresno or Clovis,” he said.
Between 2012-2024, 14% of Fresno’s new multifamily housing units opened in downtown, according to a city study from last year. But in recent years, several plans for large downtown apartment projects have stalled.
Downtown will need those projects — and the hundreds of new homes they promise — completed for the city to accomplish its goal of tripling the Downtown area’s population to about 10,000 residents. City leaders are betting the arrival of a California high-speed rail station in the next decade will boost downtown’s economy and housing demand.
Mayor Jerry Dyer has said the reason housing development has stalled downtown is the cost of construction, not low demand. Downtown City Councilmember Miguel Arias has pointed to the quick filling of apartments after they have opened downtown as evidence that people will move into new units once they are built.
Kim agreed, adding that the demand for downtown Fresno housing is high enough that a few hundred new units could be filled in the area over the course of a few years.
But with downtown asking rents hovering among the lowest in the city, the level of development downtown could depend on how much the government helps construction in the area, and how much competition downtown faces from the parts of town that are open for sprawl.
Housing demand in downtown Fresno vs. other parts of city, county
Kim said Fresno County’s overall vacancy rate for multifamily housing has historically been low. In the third quarter of 2025, the county’s vacancy rate hovered at about 4.4%, according to a Colliers report by Kim.
Downtown’s vacancy rate was at 5.3%, which is still low but higher than most other parts of the city and county.
Kim said he attributes that to downtown not being the most attractive part of town for families who prefer houses, more space and better schools. Fresno also does not have very high levels of traffic, so people who work downtown can live elsewhere and still commute comfortably to work, he said.
Generally speaking, he said people who rent in downtown areas are young professionals with some disposable income and who want entertainment and nightlife near their homes.
For downtown Fresno, he said it’s a “chicken-and-the-egg-type of problem”: Business people say downtown’s population doesn’t justify the nightlife, and potential renters say the level of activity downtown doesn’t justify living there.
He said downtown today has a stronger attraction with bars and restaurants than it had in the past decade, “but I wouldn’t say it’s really strong.”
Downtown Fresno rents vs. construction costs, sprawl
According to the city’s housing study from last year, downtown Fresno’s asking rent in the year 2000 ranked in the middle of asking rent levels across the county. By mid-2024, the area had the lowest asking rent of all submarkets in the county.
“Because the rental rates don’t justify new construction, people aren’t going to just put a bunch of money into a project to break even,” Kim said. “There needs to be some sort of incentive.”
Mayor Dyer has said similar, and that the city is doing what it can to help.
The city is hoping to incentivize private developers by using $250 million promised by the state for the renovation of downtown’s infrastructure — including water and sewer mains, streetlights and parking garages — so it can sustain new housing.
To date, the state has provided Fresno $150 million of what was promised, and the upgrades have begun. The city is also using $20 million from the state money to help downtown developers cover their financing gaps with short-term loans.
The area has the capacity for more than 8,000 multifamily units, according to the city’s housing study. But Kim’s report shows downtown only had 1,961 of those units in its total inventory as of the third quarter of 2025.
Like many cities in the Midwest, he said, Fresno has no shortage of open land to build on. That has caused Fresno to sprawl outward with suburban neighborhoods as developers are attracted to the open land.
The City Council in December postponed a decision on the controversial Southeast Development Area plan, known as SEDA, which has drawn heavy opposition from residents who say continued sprawl means continued neglect of existing parts of the city.
Speaking generally, Kim said until “there’s some regulation or reason why people can no longer build on new land,” it will take outside help, such as from the the government, for downtown Fresno to grow.
“It will grow,” Kim said. “But I think improvement is going to be slow until there are multiple motivations. Right now, the biggest motivation seems to be from the outside rather than from within.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 5:45 AM.
