While apartment demand is picking up in some areas of the country, the recovery has stalled in high-priced gateway markets, according to a new report from Yardi Matrix.

As the pandemic has sent workers home, these gateway markets have experienced the largest exodus of people. They may face long and difficult recoveries, according to Yardi, which studied the 17 million apartments in its database. Landlords in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Jose experienced steep drops in rent growth and absorption year-to-date through August. In New York, rents declined sharply as absorption floundered.

Overall, apartment demand rebounded in many metros in the third quarter. The Yardi report,  called Multifamily Absorption Resumes After COVID-19 Slump: How Durable Is Demand?, says the resurgence helped stabilize the market apartment market and kept asking rents from declining as much as would be expected after the historic Q2 declines. Still, Yardi says a second wave of COVID infections could set the recovery back.