by about 0.5 % to 91 % overall thanks to a net loss of 150 units . As with Class C , this loss in rented units was smaller than the loss observed in the previous year for November through January . so , this level of demand outpaced that from the same portion of the previous year when Class B properties suffered a net loss of almost 300 rented units .
Average asking rent growth matched that of Class A with a gain of just over 1 %. However , unlike in Class A where average effective rent growth outpaced asking rent growth , average effective rent gained just under 1 % for Class B . The average unit ended January leasing for $ 1,135 per month . The difference was that whereas Class A managed to reduce concession availability , Class B properties did not . In fact , both the availability of discounts and the average discount value increased . For availability , the increase was marginal . A 1 % gain meant that about 42 % of conventional properties were offering a discount at the end of January . The larger increase was in the average discount value . A 13 % increase brought the average concession value to a hair over three weeks off an annual lease .
Classes C & D
Class C properties ended January with the highest average occupancy of the four price tiers at around 93 %. However , they did experience a loss of about 0.5 % in the three-month evaluation period . This average occupancy retraction was due to a net loss of a little more than 200 net rented units . While negative net absorption is obviously not ideal , almost 400 net rented units were lost in the same portion of the previous year . For Class D , average occupancy also fell
Like Class B properties , average effective rent underperformed average asking rent change due to continued concession growth . What was different for these two bottom tiers was average asking rent declined slightly for each – an indication that most operators did not try to push rents higher . Slightly negative asking rent growth and increases in rent concessions led to average effective rent declines of almost 1 % for both Class C and Class D . For the Class C subset , 44 % of conventional properties ended January offering a new lease discount . Class D finished at 45 % of properties offering a discount .
Takeaways
From November through January , the Greater San Antonio area exhibited a reversal of the macro trend observed at the national level for the year of 2020 as a whole . Namely , the strongest results were seen in Class A while the rest of the market lagged a bit . This could be partially attributable to the dichotomy between those with jobs that were able to be transitioned to remote work versus those like retail and restaurant employees that continue to be more affected by the COVID-19 disruption .
Lease concession availability and value were both down at the top of the market , while both metrics increased for the remaining three price tiers . Even though the results were not as rosy for price classes B , C and D compared to Class A , each of those three tiers managed to slightly outperform the same period in the previous year for both average occupancy and average effective rent .
* ALN assigns each property in a market to a price class A-D based on its average rent per
sq . ft . percentile