Developers are on track in 2020 to complete 371,000 new apartment rental units, up 50% from last year and reaching levels not seen since the 1980s. Most of this construction is targeting affluent renters who, because single-family home construction is at historic lows, can’t find affordable housing to buy.
According to Calvin Schnure, chief economist at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, “These are people who would have been homeowners in just about any other market environment.”