{"id":514744,"date":"2026-03-10T09:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514744\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:28:22","slug":"in-post-dobbs-era-abortion-bans-reshape-the-rental-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514744\/","title":{"rendered":"In post-Dobbs era, abortion bans reshape the rental market"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published<\/p>\n

2026-03-09 05:00<\/p>\n

5:00<\/p>\n

March 9, 2026<\/p>\n

am<\/p>\n

America\/Chicago<\/p>\n

People are leaving or avoiding living in states with abortion bans, a new paper shows \u2014\u00a0resulting in lower rental prices and higher vacancies than in states that protect reproductive rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research \u2014 published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit economic research organization \u2014 compared housing markets in states with abortion bans to states without those restrictions. They found that between July 2022 \u2014 the first month after the fall of Roe v. Wade \u2014 and June 2025, housing markets with abortion bans experienced a 2.2 percent decline in rental prices, compared to similarly trending markets in states without bans. Rental vacancies went up by an average of 1.1 percent in housing markets with abortion bans compared to similar markets in states without bans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s authors concluded that abortion bans had an \u201ceconomically meaningful and statistically significant\u201d effect on rental markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis combination of findings\u2014falling rents alongside rising rental vacancies\u2014is consistent with a demand shift,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The paper is part of a growing body of research showing how abortion bans are reshaping communities. Other studies have linked abortion bans to higher rates of poverty and higher property crime<\/a> rates, and found that they may be driving young people<\/a> to leave their home states. Surveys have shown that aspiring doctors \u2014 especially those training to OBGYNs \u2014 are less likely to choose residencies in states with abortion bans.<\/p>\n

Abortion rights may not be the only factor people weigh when choosing where to live. States with abortion restrictions may have cheaper housing, for instance, or offer people a chance to live closer to family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Next:<\/p>\n


\n \"Abortion
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Read Next:
\n
\n Abortion bans seem to be driving young people to move out of state
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

But the paper\u2019s findings suggest access to reproductive health care is influencing a meaningful share of people in the United States regarding where they want to live \u2014 especially renters, who have more mobility than homeowners. Rental prices declined more as time progressed, which suggests the trend may continue as long as states\u2019 approaches to abortion continue to diverge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we establish in our paper is that the policies around abortion matter to some people \u2014 to enough people to move the needle significantly when it comes to the real estate market,\u201d said Jason Lindo, an economist at Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the paper\u2019s authors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That, he added, may stem from people thinking about abortion itself \u2014 and what health care they may need if they or their loved ones become pregnant \u2014 but also considerations about the broader political environment in a state with abortion restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be about the social message or about the broader policy climate or concerns regarding bodily autonomy or concerns around how issues concerning women are treated in the state,\u201d he said. \u201cAbortion bans affect abortion access, but also it\u2019s possible the effects we find could be a result of what the abortion bans signal more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kayla Smith moved from Idaho, where she had lived for more than a decade, the state\u2019s abortion law was a key factor. Smith was 18 weeks pregnant in 2022, when her doctor discovered the fetus had fatal anomalies, including inoperable heart issues. Smith had developed severe preeclampsia, a high blood pressure condition, in her previous pregnancy. Staying pregnant with a nonviable pregnancy didn\u2019t feel like an option.<\/p>\n

Idaho\u2019s abortion ban had taken effect two days prior; Idaho\u2019s law does not have an exception for fetal anomalies, even fatal ones. In fact, of the 13 states with near-total abortion bans and four- with six-week bans, only six have exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies. But even those are difficult<\/a> for people to use.<\/p>\n

Smith and her family traveled to Washington state for an abortion. Idaho\u2019s law left them unsure if the procedure \u2014 which would cost more than $10,000 \u2014 would be covered by insurance. The couple took out a loan to pay for her health care. Smith later joined a lawsuit against the state of Idaho, seeking to clarify exceptions to the state\u2019s ban. Last April, <\/a>a state court in Idaho ruled in the case to broaden the state\u2019s abortion exceptions, but it did not add an abortion allowance for cases of fatal fetal anomalies.<\/p>\n

Still reeling, Smith and her husband began talking about whether it was safe to stay in Idaho, where they owned their home and had a close network of friends. Down the line they had talked about moving to Washington to be closer to her family, but they\u2019d never imagined it would happen so soon. They knew a state with abortion rights protections would be more expensive to live in. But what they would gain felt evermore worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became a nightly conversation with my husband and I,\u201d she said. \u201cWe felt personally victimized by the state of Idaho.\u201d<\/p>\n

After becoming pregnant again in 2023, Smith worried about what health care she would need in Idaho and whether she\u2019d be able to receive it. So did her maternal-fetal medicine specialist, who told her she didn\u2019t believe the state was a safe place to be pregnant. Smith thought about her daughters \u2014 the one she already had, and the second one she was now expecting. She was maybe 28 weeks pregnant when they decided to leave the state. That September, they sold their house. A month later, she gave birth. If not for the abortion ban, she said, she doesn\u2019t think they\u2019d have made that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks. But ultimately, we feel like we made the right choice in moving to Washington,\u201d she said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t matter what ZIP code you live in, right? But here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published 2026-03-09 05:00 5:00 March 9, 2026 am America\/Chicago People are leaving or avoiding living in states with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-514744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}