From 2005 to 2015, the number of units with inflation-adjusted rents of $2,000 a month or more doubled, while the amount of units with rents below $800 shrunk 2 percent.
The Harvard Joint Center reports that this contrast is even more evident in some of the nation’s largest metro areas. In Austin, Texas, the number of units with rents under $800 decreased 40 percent over the decade, a loss of 27,000 units. Meanwhile, units with rents above $2,000 tripled.
The pattern was similar in Denver, where the number of units renting for under $800 declined by nearly a third, a loss of 31,000 modest-priced rentals, even as the number of units with rents over $2,000 per month tripled, an increase of more than 24,000 units (Figure 3).
San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles are among the other cities that have booming high-end rents with fewer lower-priced options.
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