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Garrett deGraffenreid, a 23-year-old New York University graduate student, knew the rent on his one-bedroom Manhattan apartment would jump when he saw a Trader Joe’s grocery store pop up down the block. “The writing was on the wall,” he says.
What he didn’t anticipate was just how much his rent would rise. When deGraffenreid and his partner signed a lease last year, they paid about $1,600 per month. On Feb. 11, they received notice informing them that a new lease beginning next month would cost $2,750 per month: a 69% surge.
“It felt defeating,” says deGraffenreid. He responded to the notice with a plea for a more reasonable rent increase, but was met with a “brick wall” response. The gist of their message was: ‘”There’s nothing you can do so don’t waste your time trying. Good luck!’”
He isn’t alone. Similarly jarring double-digit rent spikes are happening all over the country. In Henderson, Nevada, rents rose 26% between 2021 and 2022, according to rental platform Zumper, and in New York City renters they leapt 30%. Folks in Miami will likely see rents rise by 39%. Nationwide, rent for a one-bedroom apartment between March 2021 and March 2022 rose an average of 12%; it was the eleventh time in the last year that one-bedroom rent averages hit an all-time high.
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For millions, these rent hikes are not merely uncomfortable; they’re existential. If you can’t afford your new lease, but you also can’t afford the thousands of dollars required to move—what happens? The problem is also intractable, since it’s born of a deep, nationwide disconnect between supply and demand: There just aren’t enough affordable places to live, period.
Housing construction has moved…
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Source : time
