Q: Rents seemed to go down in many places during the pandemic. Do you think that will continue? Jules, Montvale, NJ A: Rents are actually rising precipitously in many local real estate markets now because of two main reasons: 1) jobs recovery (almost 90% of jobs slashed during the pandemic have been recovered 2) many first time home buyers can’t afford current home prices which have risen nationally 20-25% on average in the last year and job gains are creating more rental demand. In addition, the eviction moratorium has reduced the availability of rentals. High home sale prices have resulted in falling new mortgage applications and the % of home sales to first time home buyers has fallen recently. The […]
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