For the first time ever, the median rent in the U.S. topped $2,000 a month in June — and the increases show no sign of stopping.
Those rising rents mean that households representing a total of 8.5 million people were behind on their rent at the end of August, according to Census Bureau figures. And 3.8 million of those renters say they’re somewhat or very likely to be evicted in the next two months.
The combination of soaring inflation, the end of most eviction moratoriums and rental assistance payments and an extremely low vacancy rate has pushed rents up — and many renters out.
Rents up nearly 25% since before the pandemic
Since 2006, rents have risen faster than home prices, but at the same time, the shortage of available rental units has been steadily increasing since the Great Recession.
In the year before the pandemic, the country recorded a shortage of seven million affordable housing units for low-income renters, according to the Center for American Progress, creating a crisis that left just 37 affordable rental homes for every 100 low-income households looking to rent.
And the homes that are available are often still out of reach. Rent rates are up nearly 25% since before the pandemic, with an increase of 15% in just the past 12 months, according to the real estate tracking service Zillow.
Evictions are up, too, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. In August, evictions were 52% above average in Tampa, 90% above average in Houston and 94% above average in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
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While the federal government has distributed the bulk of pandemic-related rental assistance grants, some states and cities have been slow to make the money available to landlords on behalf of tenants who can’t pay their rent.
As of May, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reported that 12 states and the District of Columbia had distributed half of their last assistance allocation, while Idaho, Iowa and Ohio hadn’t spent any of that money. Two states — Nebraska and Arkansas — refused to accept the federal rent assistance money.
Nearly half of renters have seen rent hikes
The annual median household income for all renters in the U.S. is about $42,500, according to Zillow, 37% lower than the national median income of $67,500.
As of early August, the Census Bureau reported that while 56% of renters had household incomes of less than $50,000, 24% of renters surveyed were paying more than $2,000 a month in rent.
Nearly half of all renters — more than 30 million people — had been hit with rent hikes in the past 12 months, with 19% paying a monthly increase of $100 to $250, 7% paying $250 to $500 more and 4% needing to find another $500 a month to stay in their apartments.
To meet higher rents, 57% of renters said they relied on credit cards, loans, savings or selling off some assets, including raiding their retirement accounts.
Despite that, 14% of renters told the survey that they weren’t completely caught up on back rent.
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Rising rents hurting some more than others
Rising rents are hitting minorities harder than others, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data.
Among households headed by Black adults, 58% are renters, while 52% of those headed by Latino adults rented. That compares to a rental rate of slightly less than 40% of Asian-led households and 25% for households led by non-Hispanic white adults.
While inflation gets the blame for much of the problem with high rents, the cure for high inflation also may be contributing to the tight rental market, as renters who wanted to become homeowners are increasingly being priced out of the housing market.
As the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates to cool off the economy and bring down inflation, that move has pushed U.S. mortgage rates up from less than 3% a year ago to 5.13% by mid-August.
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The combination of higher home loan rates and already high home prices has resulted in an 18% drop in mortgage applications from August 2021 to a 22-year low.
Economic, societal and financial collapse is playing under our eyes… And it seems governments prefer sending our money to Ukraine… What the hell! [Yahoo]
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Allowing a private central bank always leads to hyper inflation in the end. Its the end for the USA.
I don’t believe it has anything to do with politics. More like the signs of the times. Stimulus money got you maybe two months of rent. I know some weathly people that didn’t need it got it. And those that needed it didn’t get the money. In the long run, it hurt us.
Biden will probably sign an exectutive order to give them free rent.
no one asks why the govt has tons of money for war in ukraine. while the usa crumbles by design. and still the dumbed down public worries about the voting scam.
A lot of former workers losing their homes equals a lot of angry voters in the Fall.
voting has zero to do with anything.
Women need to stay in the workforce helping with basic expenses even after married. No sense in raising children that won’t have a meaningful future. America is trashed because of apathy and nihilism. 90 percent of adults lack critical thinking skills and many of them stay in debt for life, never saving anything for retirement. Few understand globalist agenda 2030 and don’t keep up with anything important. We are headed for a financial meltdown and many soon to be retiring will have to keep working because they are not keeping up w/ their 401k and now moving money into US treasuries.
Deb Haaland (her father was Norwegian-American), born in 1960, is Secretary of the Interior.
Both she and her daughter attended the University of New Mexico. They are both still paying off their student loans.
https://mercmessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/deb_haaland_secretary_interior-1024×400.jpg
Did you all really believe that you would live rent free forever – STUPID…
Yep! Have seen several reports that indicate President Trump got 82% of the vote in 2020. Took every State except maybe NY. This is why the Cabal had to go to such extremes to get Joey in. Which means only 18% voted Democrat. Probably 10% are just Democrats that automatically vote the Party candidate. So maybe 8% are true Communists. We are not a divided nation. The Cabal controlled media just makes it appear that way.
People do not realize how how the media controls the narrative. You have to deprogram yourself from all the misinformation you have gathered over the decades. No one is going to do it for you. The depths of this misinformation and out right lies can be hard to fathom. This covid debacle shined a light on the problem, but I can a sure you that that is the tip of the iceberg.
@Gary,
It always makes me smile when I view the red vs. blue counties map. It’s 80-85% red. Makes it easy to see how mockingbird media hoodwinks sheeple into believing liberals are the majority. Conservatives are the majority and it’s plain as day.
still stuck on the old vote scam? 2 years on and still haven’t learned anything.
Yeah, irish. They haven’t resolved voter fraud. Most people understand that already. It’s clear. That’s why we need a National divorce, and let the marxist-satanist buttclowns have their pervert world separated from Conservative people and their world.
The attack on the middle-class continues. Homobama shrank the middle-class by 15%. Now we have bozobiden, a compromised and corrupt clown, doing the bidding of redchinesey land. Now, more people will be homeless, on the government dole, and vote left—exactly as planned.
Good! They get what they vote for!
People are cheated out their votes, Kate. Voter and election fraud is the problem, sure you have lame leftists voting for marxism, but only 23% of the country wants socialism. 8 out of 10 think America is going down the crapper. The majority of people are therefore cheated out of their votes and free and fair elections. Welcome to America, the newest third world shithole.