This article articulates the current soaring demand for rental housing in the United States, citing September 2021 apartment market statistics from RealPage.
It quotes RealPage director of forecasting and analysis Carl Whitaker, saying: “We were bullish on apartments heading into 2021, but the magnitude of the demand boom is far beyond even the most optimistic forecast. And the absorption numbers could have been even bigger if not for the historic lack of availability.”
The article states that apartment vacancies hit another historic low in September, declining to 2.7% for a fourth consecutive month of record-breaking lows. Additionally, new lease demand in the year ending in September 2021 also increased by 50.5%, with apartment resident retention surging to 58.%, an all-time high, according to data from RealPage.
The article offered perspective including: “More new renters than ever are knocking on the front door, but fewer existing renters than ever are leaving out the back door,” said Jay Parsons, deputy chief economist at RealPage. “This is an unprecedented phenomenon that translates to a severe shortage in rental housing availability at every price point and in essentially every city across the country. This is no longer just about supply shortages for low-income households. There’s more demand than supply even at the upper-income levels.”
Additionally, the article offered perspective on rising rents: “With rents rising virtually everywhere, only a few cities remain cheaper than they were pre-pandemic,” a recent Apartment List analysis notes. “And even there, rents are rebounding quickly.”
Read the full article published in GlobeSt.com on October 8, 2021 (free account may be required to read the full article):
