In the Media

“With the pandemic exacerbating localized slowdowns in house prices, existing-home sales, and homebuilding, many metros will see even more pronounced erosion of home renovation activity this year,” said Abbe Will, associate project director in the Remodeling Futures Program at JCHS.

From June of 2018 to July of 2019, Harvard researchers found that the median rent for an unfurnished apartment in a new building was $1,620, a 37% increase from the median rent in 2000. To state the obvious, that’s more than Trump’s one-off stimulus check.

Nearly one half of renters spend more than a third of their income on rent payments, with one fourth of them giving more than half of their income to a landlord, according to America’s Rental Housing 2020.

People may be forced to spend more time at home because of the viral outbreak, but that doesn’t mean they’re spending more money to make their properties nicer

The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered large swaths of the U.S. economy. The real estate market — where just weeks ago sellers and agents had been counting on a brisk spring selling season — is no exception.

Don Layton, senior industry fellow at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and former CEO of Freddie Mac, states in a recent blog post that the reforms to the banking system, exemplified by the Dodd-Frank Act, have taken hold and are working.

While Abbe Will expects an uptick in smaller, DIY projects, “the bulk of remodeling spending really is major home improvements,” she said. “We think homeowners are dreaming about doing those projects but are not likely to undertake them anytime soon.”

About one-third of U.S. households are renters, and nearly half of them were paying more than 30% of their incomes on rent and utilities before the coronavirus pandemic struck, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Considering that renters are a financially vulnerable demographic, there is no doubt that massive waves of evictions could be coming. A report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) found that 25% of all renters in 2018 spent more than half of their income on housing.

Housing activists are trying to raise their voices despite social distancing. The United States had a housing crisis long before the new coronavirus: in 2018, about a quarter of tenants — close to 25 million people — paid over half their income on rent, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.