– Rental housing demand came roaring back in the second year of the pandemic, reducing vacancy rates and driving up rents, according to America’s Rental Housing 2022, a new report released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The report indicates that some of the rental rebound reflects the lack of inventory in the for-sale market, which has kept many higher-income renters from buying homes. At the same time, however, many lower-income households, and especially lower-income households of color, still struggle to pay the rent.