Rents Rising Despite the Pandemic

Understanding the state of the rental housing market after a year of pandemic disruption of the economy and day-to-day life requires some nuance, and a distinction between different varities of rental units.

According to the latest data from CoreLogic, rents for single-family homes rose 3.8% nationwide in December 2020 compared to December 2019. Rents in Phoenix jumped 10.7% in the same time period.

Veronika Bondarenko shares the news of the new CoreLogic data for Inman, noting that while rents dipped nationwide early in the pandemic "the cost of renting a home has continued to climb at unprecedented rates throughout both the coronavirus and subsequent unemployment crises."

According to the data, single-family rental prices are now growing faster than they were before the pandemic, thanks to new demand for more spacious abodes.

The trend in single-family rents stands in contrast to urban multi-family units, which "were one of the only types of real estate to see prices drop somewhat," according to Bondarenko. The disparities are obvious in segments within the single-family rental market too:  

Higher-priced homes, or properties whose values are above 125 percent of a given area’s median, saw the single biggest jump in rental prices from 2.4 percent in December 2019 to 4.3 percent now. Lower-end homes, which are worth 75 percent or less than a given area’s median, were the only category to see prices drop, down from 3.5 percent in 2019 to 3.3 percent now.

Some of the cities with the highest rent increases rental prices in 2020 were already experiencing explosive growth before the pandemic—Bondarenko specifically mentions Phoenix, Tucson, and Charlotte as the three cities with the largest rent increases in 2020.