This is a fantastic question, and sparked a lot of thought. The story shows 28/44 metro areas had decreasing rents last year, so 64%. That still means that the

This is a fantastic question, and sparked a lot of thought. The story shows 28/44 metro areas had decreasing rents last year, so 64%. That still means that the other 16 had rising rents. My guess is that rents lag inflation quite a bit, so the (slight) decrease is basically reflecting the drop in inflation over the past couple years. So, yes rents dropped 1% last year but they’re up 20% over 5 years. I do believe that the US has a significant shortage of housing that is high quality in city centers. Families don’t want to live in apartments in this country so they end up living 20+ miles from their work and spending a huge amount on transportation.