URBANITES INVADE SUBURBIA

As Trends Journal subscribers well know, we had forecast this trend at the onset of the COVID War. Now is big news in the mainstream business media. Fearful of the virus, unable/unwilling to pay high rents and dreading the rise of crime… no longer tethered to a downtown office location and an attendant commute, corporate employees are fleeing cities in search of more home for less money.
Rental rates in the suburbs and exurbs of Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Norfolk, VA, rose 3.2 to 4.6 percent from March through September, according to data firm CoStar Group. And of 181 cities in America, Kingston, NY saw the highest spike with the price of homes rising 18.1 percent. (Kingston is the home of the Trends Journal!)
In contrast, rents in San Francisco have slouched 17 percent since March, 9.6 percent in Boston, and up to 6 percent in Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia.
Apartment rents in urban cores are sliding at about 1 percent per month, CoStar reports.
Even so, urban digs still command a premium of up to $2,000 for similar spaces, agents and brokers say.
“In downtown Houston, rent is probably $2,600 to $2,700 a month for a two-bedroom apartment,” said Ric Campo, CEO of Camden Realty Trust, which owns 60,000 apartments around the U.S. “If you go 10 miles to the west, it’s $1,500.”
The new suburbanites tend to be young marrieds seeking space to start a family and also young adults who have been sharing apartments but are tired of dealing with roommates, Campo noted.