“Shift­ing sup­ply and demand dynam­ics in 2023 will like­ly give renters the upper hand as they look to lease new units, tem­per­ing rent growth after a his­toric run-up in prices dur­ing the course of the pan­dem­ic,” reports Lynn Pol­lack in Globe St.

Despite record new inven­to­ry of mul­ti­fam­i­ly units, experts expect that few­er renters will be try­ing to move, giv­ing them more bar­gain­ing pow­er, Pol­lack explains. “We’re on track to end 2022 with the weak­est net apart­ment demand since 2009. Low con­sumer con­fi­dence and weak house­hold for­ma­tion tells us Amer­i­cans are in ‘wait and see’ mode,” says Jay Par­sons, Head of Eco­nom­ics and Indus­try Prin­ci­pals at Real­Page.

Accord­ing to Apart­mentList, “This shift already appears to be under­way, as evi­denced by the recent declines in the nation­al medi­an rent. The fac­tors that have dri­ven that dip – name­ly, cool­ing demand col­lid­ing with ris­ing inven­to­ry – are like­ly to per­sist into next year.” This is good news for renter house­holds, par­tic­u­lar­ly as pan­dem­ic-era evic­tion pro­tec­tion and rental assis­tance pro­grams come to an end.