Experts Expect Rent to Drop, Along With Incomes

Dennis Romero reports expert opinion on the expectations that the cost of rental housing in many U.S. cities will decline as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Rent discounts will come as small solace to many renters facing unemployment and reduced wages, however.

Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a research associate at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, is quoted as saying, "With this pandemic, what is likely to happen is people will lose a significant portion of income, so we're likely to see more doubling up for housing [....] We're also going to see rent discounting and a lot of rent concessions."

Another housing expert, John Affleck, vice president of market analytics for CoStar, offers a similar opinion in the article: "We're seeing rents nationwide down [....] I don't think anyone's going to be migrating or relocating soon except to a family home."