Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released the America’s Rental Housing 2026 report with interactive maps, data, and other resources.
- The webinar recording from the report release can be found here.
Key facts include:
- Cost-burdened renters hit a record in 2024, with nearly half spending over 30 percent of income on housing.
- Multifamily construction remains high: 686K units in 2025, still about 80K above pre-pandemic averages despite slowing from a 996K peak in 2023.
- Multifamily completions stay elevated: 608K units in 2024 (highest since 1986) and 488K in 2025, even after a 20 percent drop in completions.
- Rising costs are squeezing returns: multifamily property insurance doubled since 2019, while most operating expenses climbed 10–20 percent.
- Total rental stock grew by 5.5M units (2010–2024)
- Supply of units in large multifamily buildings (20+ units) grew (4.1M to 13M units), accounting for 75 percent of the net growth.
- Supply of units in midsize multifamily buildings (5-19 units) grew 479K to 10.8M units.
- Supply of units in small multifamily buildings (1-4 units) grew 165K to 8.4M units.
- As rental assistance falls far short of need, cities and states innovate to fill federal gaps
- LIHTC has bipartisan backing, delivering 4M+ units; the changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could add 1.2M more by 2035.
- States and cities are innovating with new funding tools (housing trust funds, multifamily private activity bonds, lodging or real estate transfer taxes, etc.) and are expanding mixed-income and social housing models.
- More jurisdictions are easing regulations to spur supply, with major zoning reforms in states such as Maine, Montana, Vermont, and Washington.
- Cambridge, MA now permits four-story multifamily housing by right citywide.
