Multifamily markets with a more educated tenant base posted weaker rent growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, as remote work opportunities remained concentrated among college-educated workers. 

In a new report, YardiMatrix senior analysts Ben Bruckner and Andrew Semmes note that a "negative, sizeable and statistically significant relationship exists between levels of higher education and year-over-year rent growth during the pandemic." Put more simply, properties inhabited by a large proportion of tenants with a bachelor's or post-graduate degree showed much smaller rent increases when compared to those with a less highly educated tenant base.

Expensive, coastal markets have shown the sharpest rent declines over the course of the pandemic, while affordable Sun Belt markets have recorded more robust growth. But "not every market fits this narrative," according to Bruckner and Semmes: certain Western and Sun Belt markets posted flat or declining year-over-year rent growth in February, including North Dallas (0.7%), Denver (0.3%), Nashville (-0.2%) and Austin (-2.1%).  The answer, the pair say, lies in educational attainment. Overall, there is as much as a 10.06 to 17.12 percentage point reduction in year-over-year rent growth for properties where 100% of the over-25 age population held a bachelor's or post-graduate degree, compared to those where the over-25 age population contained no college graduates.