U.S. builders are expected to add 371,000 apartments to the nation’s housing stock this year, a 50-percent increase over last year and more units than in any of the last 30 years.
Available units could double or more in high-demand markets such as Houston and Los Angeles.
But as many as 80 percent of these new flats are targeted to affluent renters. “A typical renter can’t afford this brand new product,” one analyst said.
TREND FORECAST: As evidenced by the latest Oxfam report, the rich have gotten much richer while the rest have gotten poorer. The world’s 2,153 billionaires now have more wealth between them than a combined 4.6 billion people.
Therefore, even as economies decline, considering a global population of some 7.8 billion people, sizable affluent market segments will have the cash to support high-end luxury markets.
