COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE'S ECONOMIC ADVISORS

Using ACS microdata for the 50 largest rental markets, we find that cost burdens for lower-income renters rose most where high-income renter growth was fastest.

Tepid shifts in cost-burden levels can conceal sharper increases in severe cost burdens, proving the topline number doesn't always capture concentrated distress.

Renter households that work from home have seen lower median rent burdens since 2020. But the data suggest that this is less about remote workers moving into cheaper housing and more about higher-income renters being more likely to work from home.

Homeownership barriers have caused the number of high-income households to surge, bust cost pressures have filtered down the income ladder