Apartment Starts Are Slowing and Rents Are Rising — The Latest

Turns out, high mortgage rates aren’t just bad for prospective homeowners — they’re bad for renters, too. Per research from Redfin, permits have dropped below pre-pandemic levels after a years-long building boom, with the slowdown rearing its head during an affordability crisis. And even build-happy metros like Salt Lake City, Denver, and Austin are slowing down.

• As a result, 63% of major metros are now building less than they were before the pandemic — nationally, permits are down 27% from the pandemic-era boom and 5.5% from pre-pandemic levels.
• The slowdown is seen as a product of higher interest rates, tariff worries, and higher labor costs, all of which have made projects more expensive and introduced questions about the worthiness of projects.

Why does it matter? With single-family homes out of reach for the majority of Americans, a slowdown in housing construction could spur higher rents — insane, considering half of Americans now spend 30% of their income on rent per Apartments.com, which forecasts rent to rise another 1.5% by year-end.