logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2023
55m 56s

775: BiggerNews: Rent Unaffordability Cr...

BIGGERPOCKETS
About this episode

Rent prices have steadily risen for as long as we can remember. But, few of us would have ever expected the unimaginable rent hikes of 2020-2022. With major metros seeing double-digit year-over-year rent percentage bumps, residents were forced to throw a larger chunk of their income toward housing. Now, with higher rent prices than ever before, America has become “rent-burdened,” and a dangerous threshold has been crossed.

What’s causing this rise in rents? Are investors to blame? And what’s a solution that could benefit builders, buyers, and renters? We’ve got Lu Chen and Thomas LaSalvia from Moody’s Commercial Real Estate division to give us their findings. Lu and Thomas’s team have been tracking rent prices carefully, logging which cities have seen the most significant price increases, which are becoming increasingly unaffordable, and what can be done about the problem. With a lack of housing supply and inflation eating away Americans’ income, what can everyday investors like us do?

Thankfully, there is a solution to this problem that could help curb unaffordability while presenting a profit for investors. Lu and Thomas go over exactly what would have to happen to return to a normalized, affordable housing market and what’s hurting our efforts to get there. Plus, with rents becoming unaffordable for many young Americans, our Dave duo asks, “Is real estate still safe to invest in?” All that and more in this edition of BiggerNews! 

In This Episode We Cover

America’s “rent-burdened” status and why prices have crossed a critical threshold 

Real estate markets that have seen the largest increase in rent over the past three years

Luxury housing and how its development is hurting the effort to increase affordable housing 

Whether or not investors are to blame for rents skyrocketing 

“Inclusionary housing” and how investors can fill the affordable housing need while making a profit 

Whether or not real estate is still safe if renters get priced out of the market 

And So Much More!



Click here to listen to the full episode: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-775

Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
2025 Long-Distance Investing Blueprint (Listen Before Buying)
Can’t make the numbers work in your local market? No worries—long-distance real estate investing is the natural next step. We’ve done it before, many times, and made the beginner mistakes, so you don’t have to. Now, we’re gearing up to do it again. Dave and Henry are heading out ... Show More
41m 2s
Jul 7
Replacing His Income with Rentals (in 3 Years!) by “Recycling” Money
In just three years, this investor scaled up to making over $100,000 per year thanks to real estate. He did it all starting in 2022 when interest rates were beginning to rise, the market was turning, and many investors decided to sit on their hands. Thanks to a strategy that allo ... Show More
40m 2s
Jul 4
How to Buy Real Estate Without Banks (Private Money Lending)
Can’t (or don’t want to) get a bank loan? We have another option for funding your real estate investments: private money lending! If your DTI (debt-to-income) is too high, you’ve maxed out how many mortgages you can get, or you need quick cash to finance a renovation, house flip, ... Show More
40m 14s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2022
15: Renting vs. Buying a House: Which Makes More Sense in 2022? w/Ken Johnson
Renting vs buying a house. It’s an easy decision. If you have the option to buy, you should buy. Shouldn’t you? That line of thinking, according to Ken Johnson, real estate economics expert, can cost you a lot of money. His team at Florida Atlantic University, along with other da ... Show More
1h 12m
Jun 2022
11: Migration, Inflation, and Why Big Cities Are Losing Their "Desirable" Status w/Redfin’s Taylor Marr
Over the past two years, home prices have looked as if they’re never going to drop. With record-low interest rates, a newly formed remote work culture, and millennials at peak homebuying age, who would have thought that lower home prices would come so soon. Although traditionally ... Show More
58m 9s
Jan 2024
1197 - Rents Show Biggest Decline in 3 Years—Should Landlords Panic? By Anna Cottrell
Redfin’s November rent report is out, showing that median rent prices declined by 2.1% year over year. This is the biggest decline since 2020, and renters nationwide will breathe a sigh of relief. Landlords and investors? Perhaps not so much, although there are regional variation ... Show More
10m 40s
Jul 2023
993 - WSJ Says a Housing Bust is Coming For Small Time Investors—Here's Why They Might Be Right by Sandy Yong
Several days ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article about real estate syndicator Applesway Investment Group (owned by real estate entrepreneur Jay Gajavelli), which lost more than 3,000 apartments across four rental complexes that went into foreclosure. What led to one ... Show More
7m 12s
Aug 2023
1023 - Rents Exceed Housing Payments In Just Four Cities: Are The Days Of Cash Flow Over? by Lindsay Frankel
Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Houston. Those are the only four remaining cities where it costs less to buy a typical home than to rent, according to a new report from Redfin. The analysis compared March home values and rental estimates assuming a 5% downpayment and a 6.5% ... Show More
10m 31s
Jun 2023
113: ‘08 Crash Predictor Ivy Zelman on The Biggest Danger Facing Real Estate Today
The housing market is stuck. Stubborn homeowners with low rates refuse to move, even as demand starts to pick back up. Homebuilders are driving ahead with more new construction homes, but is it too late to deliver the supply we so desperately needed only a year or two ago? Where ... Show More
52m 54s
May 2023
103: Q2 2023 Housing Market Update: Homebuying Could Get MUCH Harder
Homebuyers are gearing up for a hot summer housing market as demand starts to surge. At the beginning of 2023, nobody thought it possible that we’d be in the position we’re in today. Days on market have shrunk in some areas as listing attendance explodes and buyers' home-owning d ... Show More
53m 28s
Apr 2022
2: What the Average Homebuyer Can Learn from House-Hungry Investors
The housing market relies on many things: market sentiment, Federal Reserve policy, supply, demand, interest rates, inflation—the list goes on and on. For most homebuyers, it may seem almost impossible to crack the code of when (or if) it makes sense to buy a home or rental prope ... Show More
1h 1m
Jan 2023
The "Big Shift" That's Finally Causing Rents to Fall
Rent inflation went wild in 2021 and 2022, turning it into one of the most substantial drivers of overall inflation. But good news: it seems pretty clear that rents are now finally falling. Private sector measures, from companies like Apartment List and Zillow are starting to sho ... Show More
41m 34s
Jun 2022
14: The Crash Predictors Are Wrong, Here’s Why w/Logan Mohtashami
The housing market is confusing, to say the least. In 2020, at the start of lockdowns, nearly everyone you spoke to had the opinion that the housing market was headed straight for a crash. Not only was this wrong, but it was the opposite of what the data was saying. While mainstr ... Show More
1 h