[gusmd]

> This is pretty ridiculously low

False equivalence. The other option in most cases isn't no decrease in rent (i.e., 0%), it is an increase in rent (> 0%). So if with no increase in supply the rent increase would have been 10% (like it has been on my rent for the past several years in San Diego), than it suddenly seems like a pretty good deal.

[sudosysgen]

The 1% decrease is instantaneous at the opening of the building compared to other spaces where no building was done at 0%. It's not an annualized rate. "No impact" in the study means that there is no detectable correlation, not that rent doesn't increase nor decrease.

Beyond that, if it actually was a 1% total decrease (which it isn't), you can bet your ass the author would have written that as 7.6% relative decrease cause by construction, instead of 0-2%.