Real estate expert on ‘high’ demand for apartment rentals as housing affordability poses nationwide challenges

CEO Hessam Nadji of Marcus & Millichap joined “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday to discuss the strong demand for apartment rentals as the housing market sees a host of challenges following the pandemic.

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HESSAM NADJI: Well, the rapid rise in interest rates is causing a lot of concern, especially in the housing market. Affordability is already a challenge. Nationally, home prices have risen 36% since the start of the pandemic. So since the end of 2019, we have a few metros like Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, where house prices have increased by 50% since the start of the pandemic. It’s not sustainable. But on top of that, higher interest rates, which have come up very quickly over the past few months. And, of course, affordability becomes even more difficult.

We see a lot of people opting for apartment rentals. The demand for apartment rentals was already very strong. It gets even stronger. Year-over-year first-quarter apartment rent growth of nearly 18% nationally. And so investment dollars are coming into commercial real estate, particularly apartments, self-storage, hospitality. All of these segments are either doing very well or recovering fairly quickly.

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