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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums7 Reasons Why the Rent Is Too Damn High {CHARTS}
http://www.alternet.org/economy/7-reasons-why-rent-too-damn-highMore Americans than ever before are unable to afford rent. Here's a look at why the rent is too damn high and what can be done about it.
Part of the problem has to do with simple supply and demand. Millions of Americans lost their homes during the foreclosure crisis, and many of those folks flooded into the rental market. In 2004, 31 percent of US households were renters, according to HUD. Today that number is 35 percent. "With more people trying to get into same number of units you get an incredible pressure on prices," says Shaun Donavan, the former secretary of housing and urban development for the Obama administration.
It's not just working-class folks who have been pushed into the rental market. More middle-class Americans are renting too.
Alongside the foreclosure crisis, the financial collapse and ensuing recession jacked up unemployment and squeezed incomes. Check out how rental costs compare to renter incomes over the past quarter century:
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Rapillion
(51 posts)Why haven't prices in turned dropped as houses and apartments are built and refurbished?
It's happening now in NYC.
mythology
(9,527 posts)In some places it's hard to get new building permits. In others it's hard to find a place to put a new apartment building, or there's a larger population growth than can be kept up with.
Rapillion
(51 posts)You may be right, but it is absent from the article's analysis.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)properties around the country to support the supply and demand argument. Sure there are more renters but there are also many, many more rental units and rental homes. The rent is high because it can be without consequences. The profit margin on building and renting ought to be examined. Even in NYC, the rents need not be that outrageous. The main rent that is too high is the rent for small businesses trying to make a go of it. It's not just living units that are suffering but our entire economy is suffering from the high rents. Business close every week in my neighborhoods that are upscale because of the rents. If small businesses are what drives our economy than high rents are driving them out of business. They can't hire more people NOT because of taxes (a lie by big money) but because of high rents. I know this first hand from an acquaintance with two small business owners trying to make a go of it.
Huge corporations like Home Depot will buy up all the property surrounding it including strip malls and raise the rents and drive the small business out who can't afford the rent. The new landlords like HD will not make any improvements either.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)and my four apts are never empty. My tenants stay for years. It works out well for all of us. I also get repairs done right away
BlueinOhio
(238 posts)HUD, realtors get garanteed money from the government. So working and not qualifing for any help makes renting any where out of the question. The realtors have set up a pretty good payoff for themselves. They also get any money for low income house repairs because they say they do not own the property they just manage it.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)after all... they already have homes. Tons of anti-development nimbys here in California, even though housing is unaffordable to many.