Things are starting to look up for owners of big apartment communities more than a year after the pandemic knocked the economy into a recession and left millions of Americans unemployed and struggling to pay rent.
Rents are rising, buoyed by strong demand as U.S. home prices push to new highs, leaving many would-be buyers no choice but to rent. At least one measure of rent collections shows fewer tenants are failing to keep up with payments than just a few months ago. And while vacancies haven’t fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, they’re basically in line with the 10-year average.
