COVID-19: Impact on Apartment Pricing (Webcast Summary)

To help our customers and the multifamily community as a whole through the current COVID-19 crisis, we’ve launched a series of discussions, COVID-19: Multifamily Impact and Performance Insights, centered around its impact on the rental housing industry with the latest data, expert insights and actionable measures stakeholders can take to minimize fallout. Following is a condensed summary from the second webcast in the series, COVID-19: Impact on Apartment Pricing (broadcast on March 24), featuring NMHC President Doug Bibby with RealPage’s SVP Keith Dunkin,  VP and Deputy Chief Economist Jay Parsons and Industry Principal for Asset Optimization solutions Andrew Bowen. It includes summarized responses to the Q&A with Doug, along with links to NMHC commentary and guidance related to the information he shared in the session. Pricing in a Downturn Many of today’s property managers and leasing agents weren’t in the industry back in 2008-2009, and they’ve experienced only strong demand over the last decade. They’ve now been thrown into the deep end of the pool very abruptly. Measuring same-store change on a rolling seven-day average, traffic to property websites is down 15% year-over-year, and guest cards are down nearly 3%. Lead volumes will likely plummet further as more cities adopt shelter-in-place ordinances, and even after the virus runs its course, the economic fallout could translate to sustained job losses and weak demand for housing. What lessons learned from 2008-2009 can we apply to today in how we price units? Here are 10 takeaways from today’s webcast: Avoid panic. It’s always important to take emotion out of pricing, and it’s even more important in a downturn. Build your pricing strategy with a balance of science and operational expertise. Protect your rent roll in ways that allow you to capitalize when markets improve. Simply slashing rents won’t necessarily buy you demand if that d...