Filtering to Affordable: Does Multifamily Housing Become More Affordable as It Ages?

Housing affordability and potential sources of affordable housing remain national concerns. Using the 10 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), this study measures the degree to which a multifamily housing property's age affects its affordability, hence examining the rate at which a necessary step in the filtering process is taking place. We find that a property's affordability increases by about 2.7% during the first decade of its existence and by about 0.5-1% every following decade, with some variation across MSAs. While this indicates that filtering could be taking place at a relatively slow rate, we show that this can add up to significant rent savings for a low-income family. Lastly, we conduct two follow-up case studies of affordability in Atlanta and Philadelphia.