The student housing industry has recovered from its pre-pandemic slide, according to Q1 numbers from Yardi's Matrix, with rent growth and pre-leasing coming in strong.

Stephen Shockey, senior manager of portfolio risk and operations at Alliant Credit Union, tells GlobeSt.com that despite reported reductions in enrollment at some schools, the overall student housing sector, in particular power 5 conference universities, continue to show positive trends as evidenced by continued year-over-year increases in pre-leasing and occupancies.

And there is little danger that the shift to online learning during the pandemic will become an established trend, according to Will Baker, senior managing director of real estate finance at Walker & Dunlop, who tells GlobeSt.com that overall, most major operators and students would agree that the online learning experience during COVID was extremely challenging and they do not see the potential increase of online learning opportunities to impose any threat whatsoever to increasing enrollment trends.