Posted on 02/21/2022 6:09:44 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
Rents have exploded across the country, causing many to dig deep into their savings, downsize to subpar units or fall behind on payments and risk eviction now that a federal moratorium has ended.
In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms. And nowhere was the jump bigger than in the Miami metro area, where the median rent exploded to $2,850, 49.8% higher than the previous year.
Other cities across Florida — Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville — and the Sun Belt destinations of San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee, all saw spikes of more than 25% during that time period.
Rising rents are an increasing driver of high inflation that has become one of the nation’s top economic problems. Labor Department data, which covers existing rents as well as new listings, shows much smaller increases, but these are also picking up. Rental costs rose 0.5% in January from December, the Labor Department said last week. That may seem small, but it was the biggest increase in 20 years, and will likely accelerate.
Economists worry about the impact of rent increases on inflation because the big jumps in new leases feed into the U.S. consumer price index, which is used to measure inflation.
Inflation jumped 7.5% in January from a year earlier, the biggest increase in four decades. While many economists expect that to decrease as pandemic-disrupted supply chains unravel, rising rents could keep inflation high through the end of the year since housing costs make up one-third of the consumer price index.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
“The
shut down has shown that paper pushers aren’t needed as much.”
Agreed, so that does not bode well for housing/condo prices in the big cities.
Also, commercial real estate in the big cities. Why have anyone work in these sky scrapers other than the executives.
That is what Fidelity Investments did years ago. All the employees other than the two executive floors moved to NH. They rented the rest of the building in downtown Boston to other companies.
I know a guy who works for Goldman Sacks. He used to take the train in everyday from CT to Manhattan/5th Ave. He has been working from his Nantucket house(life is tough) for a year. He is going to sell his CT house because he will not be going into the city regularly ever again. Plus the kids are grown or in college. No need for the 4000 sq ft house in the suburbs.
Another refugee into my state huh?
Lucky you got here when you did.
rents follow housing prices, housing prices follow new housing prices, new housing prices follow building materials prices, building materials prices follow inflation, inflation is caused by out-of-control government spending/borrowing, Democrats cause out-of-control government spending/borrowing ... no one could have possibly predicted Democrats would cause rent increases, right?
Here in the Los Angeles area, 400-sq ft Single apartments (no bedroom, just a living room, kitchen, and bathroom) are going for $1,500 a month.
One-bedrooms are over $2,000 and two-bedrooms are $2,500 minimum (and not always in a great neighborhood). In Orange County it’s even worse. Two-bedrooms for $3,000 and up. Very few middle class people can afford this.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been done yet.
It’s always amazes me that everyone has to live in the highest priced areas with granite countertops, and every luxury thinkable.
If you want to have an affordable home like you grandparents did..
You have to compare apples to apples.
You would have to build or buy outside of the city in the country where land is cheaper. Then build something modest, a 2 bedroom 1 bath with no appliances and no central AC sitting on blocks instead of a slab.
This is the type of home your grandparents started with that they could afford to buy on a modest income.
The cities grew up around those modest home they build out in the country, they added additional bedrooms, added AC and additional baths and appliances later.
Almost no one on FR rents, but I have seen some posts showing a few rent as I do. It's just how things are for my wife and myself now. A few medical expense crises shot down some careful savings plans and here we are.
Worse rent gouging along with inflation will do us in. Not to mention how can I work again at 75 if employers discriminate in the 50s to save money? I dodged that for years as they tried "efficiency" moves to push out employees.
Thanks for caring.
I watched a video on Youtube about a new teardrop camper going for $10,000 to $11,000. Low enough to fit in a standard garage, and has lots of features. Queen bed or twin beds, cabinets, stove, sink, A/C & heating, and rooftop rails for luggage etc. They seem like a good deal - affordable and mobile, while able to stow in a garage. Quality so-so but reviewers say you can do upgrades yourself and save thousands.
Landlords trying to recoup losses due to illegal eviction moratoria. Current renters have to pay for prior deadbeats or those who had to break a lease because of lockdowns and other COVID related government actions.
Well duh.
the moratorium has ended.
I am not hearing anything about evictions.
why is that?
Where are the celebs who praised Biden when he was running for president? Where is say Rob Reiner praising the over 9% inflation rate (you know biden is lying about the 7.5%) or the high gas prices and food prices or the rents or the massive homeless population in Calif or the looting and support of the thugs the democrat party employs?
#55 Best to sell moonshine.... : )
You can DIY something like that - I’ve researched “DIY camper trailer” before and there are some really good plans, though some are quite labor intensive. Getting an old one and refurbishing it is good for the handy-with-tools. It would be a fun project, I think.
You can have adequate heating/cooling with propane (cheap, efficient, clean-burning propane!) and/or marine batteries - with solar chargers.
Home prices are through the roof in some major cities. Part of the jump in rents may be because owners did not raise rents for 2 Covid years so as not to force out known people for unknown people who might have been less careful about health issues. I know I spent years of eating hotdogs and chicken, buying clothes at thrift and church stores, and rarely spending money on anything but healthy food, and staying healthy. Was able to save the 20% downpayment. Subsequently gave my 2 sons $10,000 each around 2001 using my equity line of credit on the house, so they could get out of their 1 bedroom apartments, and buy 3 bedroom fixer uppers and provide me with 4 grandchildren.
About the same, La Jolla oceanfront 1 bedroom in 1988 $800.
The vast majority of people have absolutely no clue how easy it is to save money. Lets just take one thing like the bad habit of smoking for instance.
Take a working class guy just getting by, but who has a smoking habit:
He smokes 1 pack a day.
The average cost of a pack right now nationwide is about $7.
That doesn’t seem like much does it?
But that’s $2,555 a year.
If instead of smoking a pack a day, he put that money into a relatively safe investment. Say.. a fund that tracks the S&P for instance. And he were to get even a modest 8% return on average over his working life 20-65. He would have about a million saved for retirement.
And that’s if the price of cigs never goes up!
And that’s just ONE seemingly tiny thing. And could just as easily be a 6 pack of beer, or eating out one meal a day.
Read later.
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