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Oklahoman
Jake and Kristin Fisher started out their marriage by buying a house because they didn’t know any better. We felt like that was what we were supposed to do, Jake Fisher said. That s what a married couple did.
Now they rent an apartment by choice.
Others may feel “stuck” in an apartment while home prices spike across the Oklahoma City area. In the past year, prices jumped 15%, according to the Metro Association of Realtors.
But apartment rents have risen here no more than usual, with one-bedroom units up 3.1% and two-bedroom units up 2.5% year over year, according to Capstone Cos.
Renters struggled in 2020, but in the Oklahoma City area they mostly kept their rent paid up, and it shows in the apartment sales data for the year.
As "difficult and unpredictable" as it was, "the roller coaster ride may have been more emotional than financial," said Mike Buhl, broker-owner of multifamily property brokerage Commercial Realty Resources Co. in Norman. "The effects of COVID‐19 on the multifamily sector have so far proven to be more of an interruption than a trend. . Renters have prioritized rent payments."
Collections were largely unfazed, and rents are on the rise. Occupancies remain firm.