Authored by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,
US headline inflation exceeded 7% in 2021. But rent increases put the Consumer Price Index to shame, soaring an average of 13.5%. And within that already-brutally-high average, there were some absolutely astounding outliers. Phoenix rents soared 25.3%, followed by Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Austin, all of which exceeded 20%.
That means an Austin barista could receive a 10% salary bump and have most of it wiped out just by an increase in their rent. Add in the soaring costs of food and gasoline, and our hypothetical worker is actually losing ground despite their double-digit pay raise.
A confluence of things
Rents do tend to rise a bit each year, with 3%-4% being typical. So how did 3% become 20%+ in so many markets? A confluence of factors, including:
Rent forbearance. State and federal programs designed to prevent evictions during the worst of the pandemic lockdowns hit landlords – who have loans of their own to pay off and can’t do so without rental income – especially hard. Many are now raising rents where they can to offset where, for over a year, they couldn’t.
Continue reading “Soaring Rents Eat Americans’ Wage Increases… And Then Some”
