The Impact of COVID-19 on Renters and Rental Markets

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have disproportionately affected renter households, particularly those that rely on wages from at-risk jobs. In this talk, Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a research associate at the Center, will review some of the hardships that renters are facing and the effect the pandemic will likely have on rental markets, which our researchers have been documenting in a series of blogs about COVID-19 and housing. These impacts are troubling because the pandemic hit at a time when nearly half of all renters were cost-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Moreover, Black and Latino households, who were more likely to be cost burdened before the pandemic began, are more likely to rely on income from at-risk jobs.

Watch the recording:
 

Download Presentation Slides