Don’t Miss The Biggest Opportunity of the Recovery!

It is becoming clear that we’re in the early stages of what will be an incredible economic recovery, especially for multifamily rental housing. In this post, I will summarize the reasons to be cheerful about 2021 and the things that revenue managers should be doing now to capitalize on the unique opportunities that this recovery offers.
First, the tailwinds
There are so many tailwinds in current economic data. The recent additional $1.9T in stimulus included many things that will help us: the extra $1,400 in payments to most adults, tens of billions in specific rent support and perhaps most importantly, the $300 per week in supplemental unemployment insurance payouts.
Then there’s the progress of our vaccine efforts. Through April 24, almost 42% of Americans (52% of the eligible population 16 and older) have had at least one vaccine, with 35% fully vaccinated. While experts still say we need 75% penetration to get herd immunity, prior results from Israel indicate that vaccination rates approaching 40% have a material impact on the transmission rate. 
Case numbers are also encouraging: the trailing-7 average of daily new cases is down more than 18% since the peak of what was initially feared to be a true 4th wave. Barring a new variant that defeats current vaccines, we are heading to the low rates of new infections that will support the near-complete reopening of all elements of our economy.
Multifamily demand suggests that these trends are already playing out as demand surges into our high season. New……