RENT RATES COOLING - New data from the Dallas Federal Reserve shows that across the country, rent increases are starting to slow down. Now the price of rent across the United States is not falling however Tyler Atkinson, an economist with the Dallas Federal Reserve says increases are slowing.
“The cooling in the housing market and overall economy has caused market rents to essentially stagnate,” Atkinson said.
According to Atkinson’s research: rents have gone up nationally about 8% over the past year – and according to a model he helped put together, that could change.
“The forecast would imply further slowing to about five and a half percent over the next year,” Atkinson said.
To Atkinson, this slowdown in rent increases is just one example of a cooling economy, the main goal of the Federal Reserve over the past year and a half. But what about rent affordability now? The National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s annual Reach report finds the costs of even modest rental housing far outstrip the wages of many full-time workers. And rent increases during the pandemic made this affordability problem worse . Andrew Aurand is Senior Vice President of Research for the coalition.
“Wages have risen significantly over the last couple of years, especially for low-wage workers. But those increases, even though they've been significant, they have not kept up with the increases that we saw in rent,” Aurand said.
In Texas, on average, full-time workers need to make about $21 an hour to afford rent for a one-bedroom –even higher in most big cities. In Louisiana, full-time workers need to earn $16 an hour. Arkansas workers need to earn over $13 an hour for a one-bedroom home rent.
