Prices are soaring and the option to buy is receding for millions of tenants nailed by rising rents
The price of rented accommodation in the United States is up 26% since the early 2020s. The number of tenants with unaffordable rents and utilities — those paying 30% or more of their income — is at an all-time high. Half of the nation’s tenants are in this situation because rents have risen more than incomes for decades and the pandemic further complicated the situation, according to an annual report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, which also points out that buying a home is increasingly expensive, preventing millions from climbing onto the property ladder.
Home prices are 47% higher than they were four years ago. Median prices are five times the median household income. In the 1990s, they were just three times higher. Add to this the cost of mortgages with interest rates exceeding 7% and the fact that home insurance that has been rising steadily.
The conclusion drawn by the Harvard think tank is that solving this crisis — in addition to other housing crises regarding the record number of homeless, those in inadequate housing or subject to the threat of climate change — requires the private and non-profit sectors to join forces with the public authorities at all levels of government.
What do I need home owners insurance for? I got a gun. The tornadoes should get insurance out on me. That said mine went up 20% this year.
I’ve got Knob and Tube wiring in part of my home, so only the state of Ohio is willing to insure me, and my insurance premiums stayed the same. So at least I have that going for me. My bank still raised my mortgage by 20% because apparently they can’t set up an escrow properly and apparently that’s my problem now.
This just happened to me, it’s because insurance for the year jumped 30%. 🤯 I don’t like it, but it’s difficult for the mortgage company to predict that kind of shit. You can change your insurance, and I went looking, but everything I found was even more expensive.
Sure, but zero costs changed for me, insurance premium was the same, taxes were the same, interest rate was the same (fixed interest loan). And yet somehow they low balled it and now it’s my job to fix it.