With the official end of the health emergency in May, it would be natural to assume that multifamily assets are operating in a much-improved environment versus three years ago, when policy responses to the pandemic locked down the economy, curtailed new applications, restricted tours and halted evictions. That’s especially true because once shutdowns loosened, robust renter demand for apartments drove double-digit rent increases in late 2021 and early 2022. But it could be argued that multifamily property managers face as tough an operating environment today as they did in 2020 …
