Downward pressure on rent prices is causing a “cascade” effect across all unit types. Whether you live in a luxury apartment or budget-friendly multifamily building on a busy street, you’ve probably seen asking rents lowering around you with apartment concession offers in many leasing offices. With multifamily supply hitting “peak completions,” apartment operators have had to tackle rising vacancy rates by lowering rents. But this trend could be reversing soon, just as things were getting more affordable for renters.

Jay Parsons, rental housing economist, spends much of his day searching through rental data to find trends pointing to what could happen next. We’ve brought him on to understand why rents are dropping, where they could be heading, and what happens now that multifamily construction is starting to pause.

Jay speaks on the rebounding rental demand that’s starting to show, why our “oversupply” of multifamily could quickly become a shortage, which apartment classes are seeing significant rent price discounts, and whether or not these problems could spill over into the single-family rental market. Plus, Jay gives his outlook for the next few years on whether or not rent growth will reaccelerate as multifamily construction starts fall significantly.