Rent Growth Catches Up to Income Gains After Slowdown (November 2017 Market Report)
For the almost two years leading up to and including May 2016, rents grew faster than incomes, at times more than three times as fast. Then incomes outpaced rents for more than a year. Now rent growth is catching back up.
As Rents Rise, More Renters Turn to Doubling Up
Thirty percent of working-age adults—aged 23 to 65—live in doubled-up households, up from a low of 21 percent in 2005 and 23 percent in 1990. Adults living with roommates or family members earn 67 cents for every dollar made by adults who live on their own or with a partner.
Rising Single-Family Rentals Dampening Home Sales
Hundreds of thousands of homes that may have otherwise sold in a typical year over the past decade – particularly more-affordable homes – have instead been taken off the market and converted to single-family rentals, a trend that exploded in popularity in recent years and is only now beginning to level off.
For people who don't like their market too hot or too cold, these “sweet spots” have strong job and income growth but relatively affordable rents.
Worsening Affordability Costs Renters Nearly $2,000 a Year
Rising rents are eating up an increasingly large share of tenants’ incomes, costing the typical U.S. renter almost $2,000 more per year than they would if renters were devoting the same-sized chunk of their paychecks to their landlord as they used to.
The Impact of the Amazon Jobs Boom on Seattle Rents
Across the Seattle area, the South Lake Union job boom is associated with faster annual rent increases between 2011 and 2015.
September 2017 Market Report: U.S. Rent Growth on the Rise Again
Don’t look now, but after a largely uninterrupted, almost two-year slowdown, U.S. rent growth is picking up again.
Asking Rents in Wine Country Jump in Wildfires’ Immediate Wake
An early look at mid-October advertised rents on Zillow in California’s Napa and Sonoma Counties, which have both lost thousands of homes to a series of devastating wildfires, suggests an increase in rents from September, but also an increase in rental listings.
Here’s Where Housing Assistance Falls Short
Only about a quarter of people who are eligible for federal housing assistance nationwide actually receive it. The largest form of assistance is Housing Choice Vouchers -- and in many markets where rents are rising quickly, voucher holders scramble for places to live, because the value of their vouchers isn’t keeping pace with market realities.
Proposed Health Care Changes: Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Pains?
In 24 of the country’s 25 largest metro areas, low-income renters spend more than 45 percent of their incomes on rent. Against that backdrop, the rising cost of health-care premiums can be hard to bear. Whatever short-term savings low-income households might gain from newly proposed changes, the unknown is how much they might pay in the long run if they become sick.
