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Rent Prices on the Rise Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

You are currently viewing Rent Prices on the Rise Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Rent prices in 2020 have been impacted because of the pandemic. Initially, they dropped drastically. Now, moreover, the bars, restaurants, and other businesses are starting to reopen, however, the rent prices are going up again, this is according to analyst John Gillem with the CoStar Group. “In fact, we are looking at a 1% increase since pre-pandemic levels,” Gillem said. “Therefore, the rents are, in fact, starting to really trend upward.”

Rent Prices in Portland

Gillem says he has studied rental prices through the area of Portland Oregon as an analyst with the CoStar Group. “The suburbs will still have the best value if you are working remotely,” Gillem explained.

As a result of people moving to the suburbs for more space, rents dropped in Portland’s urban core last year, Gillem said. However, people are coming back to downtown as the COVID-19 pandemic does improve. Yet, the rents are still going up in the suburbs. In Hillsboro, the average is around $1,600. It was $1,400 before the pandemic.

Apartment Renting Increases

In Downtown Portland, the cost of renting an apartment has gone up about 0.6% from the fourth quarter of 2020. Now to the first quarter of 2021. However, it still remains down 5.8% in comparison to the first quarter of 2020. It was the steepest decline of any neighborhood in the Portland area, according to CoStar.

High Demand in the Suburbs

Matt Crile owns several properties in Washington County. He said there’s still a lot of demand in the suburbs.

“Our places are usually full,” Crile said. “We do have some short-term rental pieces that accommodate people that come in for brief stays and those two have been surprisingly occupied. I would have thought we would have taken a hit because it seems like travel is down.”

Gillem said he expects rental prices to keep climbing downtown.

“As downtown opens back up and the vaccine is widely distributed, are we going to see downtown rebound exponentially and the suburbs kind of level off a bit. That’s something we are watching closely,” Gillem said.

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