In the Media

One thing that could somewhat dampen price increases—as well as the bidding wars that have pleased homeowners and exasperated buyers—is a rise in interest rates, which is expected to happen this year. If that rise is sharp, “that will take away one of the fuels for this fire,” Chris Herbert, the managing director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, told me.

Eleven million households, or 1 in 4 renters, spend more than half of their monthly income on rent, according to an analysis of 2018 census data by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, though experts say that figure is likely even higher now.

Last week, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University reported that annual increases in spending on home remodeling rose from 4.7 percent in the first quarter of 2021 to 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter, and double-digit increases are projected into 2022.

The demand for rental housing not only reduced vacancy rates to historic lows but also drove up rents, according to America’s Rental Housing 2022, a new report released Thursday by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Climate change is on a collision course with the affordability crisis in U.S. housing — and renters are poised to fare the worst. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, which found that renters face the greatest risk from climate-related disasters striking their homes.

There may have been a brief price dip in rental homes, especially high-end apartments, at the beginning of the pandemic. But last year showed a surge in demand across all price points sent rents soaring, according to Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University’s America’s Rental Housing 2022 report released Friday.

The reason that rents are rising so quickly is more people are competing for places to live. The rental vacancy rate fell to 5.8%—the lowest it’s been since the mid-1980s, according to a recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

“The big thing right now that’s pretty obvious is just this crazy rise in home prices,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a research associate at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

Before the public health crisis, just 3% of landlords forgave rent when a tenant fell behind, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University found. Yet during the crisis, more than 1 in 5 did.

Year-over-year spending on home remodeling grew by more than 9 percent from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2021, to $357 billion a year, according to the Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.