I just want to say I appreciate that you have posted the archive link instead of the original link. Cut out the paywall, thanks.
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Typical WSJ. Rents stopped skyrocketing, so renters have the upper hand. Like it’s a surprise that there is a limit to what people can afford to pay?
Nope, not until we have social housing making it’s return. There are a lot more vacant homes than there are homeless people.
Would like to buy, but many properties are over priced, interest rates aren’t favorable, and don’t have the money for the required down payment, so stuck renting, and landlords/leasing agents are taking advantage. We need rent control.
We need landlord control. Y’know, like pest control.
Duluth, Minnesota, tried to do some control for absent landlords, requiring that landlords live within or have a representative within X miles of the rental. Unfortunately, all that did was make management companies more overbearing when owners turned to them to be the local contact.
Interesting article. I appreciate that it included the example of a couple in Jersey City, NJ being forced to move because of increasingly exorbitant rent. That article could have been about me personally. I lived in a shitty overpriced 1br apartment that overlooked the Holland Tunnel. Rent was around $2200/year, but they wanted $2700/year for us upon renewal, and after we said no, they upped it to $2900/year when offered to the general public. This was June 2022, and a quick look on their website suggests similar units sell for $3300/month now. I make a decent living, but that increase was way too much for me. That was the final straw to get me to move out of NJ entirely and down to the relatively more affordable DC area. It was similar for many of my neighbors. The NYC area will always have a special place in my heart, but there’s only so much you can take before you begin looking to alternatives.
Oh, thank goodness, if this is the actual trend. We’ve been debating moving, but rental markets have been ludicrous everywhere.
No they won’t. Rental rates may flatten out or even fall slightly, but it will not be some sort of benefit for renters. The vacancy rates are still far too low for that in most cities.
Yeah, with vacancy rates being so low the rates flattening seems to be an indication that landlords have squeezed almost as much rent as tenants can bear.
If milk shot up to $15/g before flatlining I wouldn’t think that the cost would soon decrease, but rather that nobody would buy $16 milk.
