A record number of Americans can’t afford their rent. Lawmakers are scrambling to help
A record number of Americans can’t afford their rent. Lawmakers are scrambling to help
A new Harvard University study found that half of U.S. renters are paying nearly a third of their income on rent.
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Until and unless they break up these predatory property management companies, anything they do push through won't be anywhere near enough.
Talking to my neighbors, they're dealing with a ~30% YoY rent hike.
Property is managed by RealPage (or some flavor of subsidiary/partner company).
I really hope that company gets SUNK after the anti-trust lawsuit they're dealing with (it's a really slow moving one, and I haven't heard a substantial update since Summer 2023).
Oregon tried a rental increase cap, it's not working:
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/26/oregon-rent-increase-caps/
"In 2019, Oregon became the first state in the country with statewide rent control. For market-rate housing 15 years or older, the rent increase can be 7 percent plus inflation as measured by the consumer price index, according to state economist Josh Lehner.
But as inflation spiked in recent years, so did rent. In July, lawmakers amended the limit to impose a potentially tighter cap of 10%, when the calculation of 7% plus inflation would be higher than that.
“If that number of 7% plus inflation is larger than 10%,” Lehner said, “then the cap applies.”
Next year the allowable increase would have come in at 12.6% if not for the cap, Lehner’s office found, because of high inflation.
Tenant advocates in Oregon applaud the new cap, but point out some renters will still be dealing with steeper rent increases.
“This does not apply to our newer construction apartments,” Kim McCarty, executive director of the nonprofit Community Alliance of Tenants, said. “That’s still a problem.”"
That hardly sounds like “it’s not working” and more like the cap was just calibrated poorly at the start and needs to be expanded to cover more renters.
Yeah, and there have also been weird things with cutoff dates. There was one year where the cut off was just before the highest inflation, so landlords increased prices as high as they could to make up for "missing" the inflation bump:
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/09/13/oregon-maximum-rent-increase-announced/
I am so lucky I got out when I did. I had been renting a 3 bedroom apartment for $1,800 a month.
In 2021, I took the cash I banked working from home and bought a 3 bedroom house. Mortgage is $2,000 a month.
My old apartment is now $2,300 a month.
Yikes. Good on you for buying a place. I got straddled with a $2500/mo place during COVID because my roommates all flaked before me lol. That shit was not fun.
Man, I would love a 3 bedroom apartment for that!
Living in SF Bay area.
Well, you just need to downgrade to Tualatin, Oregon. :)