In the Media

Rents nearly doubled in many major cities over the decade, despite slow wage growth that often failed to meet the rising cost of housing. That put renters in a financial vise, with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard reporting that nearly half paid rent equal to 30% or more of their income in 2019.

US cities are also seeing “absolutely wild increases in rents right now,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a research associate and author at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), which just released a report on the country’s surging rental market.

Carlos Martín, investigador del centro para estudios de vivienda en la Universidad de Harvard, explicó que esta situación se debe a un desequilibrio en la oferta y demanda de casas en muchos lugares del país.

A recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that there were nearly 900,000 more people renting in late 2021 than there were in early 2020. Meanwhile, the current vacancy rate is just under 6% — the lowest it’s been since the 1980s.

In a report the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released Tuesday, writer Whitney Airgood-Obrycki noted that “higher-quality apartments led the way” on price increases.

Also, the demand is so steep that the United States' overall rental vacancy rate dropped to just 5.8% – the lowest since the mid-1980s, according to a new report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

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.