‘Puts me on the street’: Americans forced out of homes as rents skyrocket

Amid rising inflation and higher property taxes and mortgage rates, Americans are witnessing rent increases. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich met with some of those struggling through the housing affordability crisis. #CNN #News

78 comments

  1. This is why a lot of americans on the border with mexico are chossing to live in mexico side of the border and cross every day to work and school. Its not the best solution but it is what they can do right now.

    1. @Deborah Freedman in 2008 people were talked into loan programs such as adjustable rates and balloon loans. George W bush pushed forward an initiative to help Americans buy homes but the prices didn’t change they just created loan types that to allow people with less money/worse credit into homes. Even in the early 2000s people were desperate to buy because renting is more expensive (you pay the monthly mortgage payment plus the landlords profit). So when mortgage companies offered a way to get in, be it a loan that could become more expensive if the market has a downturn they took it. Not to mention that loan officers encouraged them, insured them they could refinance before the loan explodes. But things went bad sooner than anyone thought but the loan officers didn’t care they get their commission even if the loan defaults.

    2. @Trapped in America some of that falls on the people. A few years ago I went to buy a house. They approved me for almost 200,000 when I was making 15 an hour. I bought a house for under half that because I knew I couldn’t afford it. Duh!

    3. When there are no regulations against it, you allow ugly things like this to happen. But, hey, keep voting against your own interests.

      Corporations succeeded in convincing people that the problem rests with “big government,” so there are no universal regulations against these sort of predatory tactics. So, who wins? Who loses?

      It’s only when it’s in their front yard do people want big government to swoop in and rescue them.

  2. I rent out a small guest house . I wouldn’t THINK of raising rent any more than 5-7% in a year, if at all. These 100% increases SHOULD be illegal.

    1. @Fred Folson There is more to the problem too. The eviction moratorium was devastating to small landlords and drove many owners of affordable housing out of the market. That took many rentals out of circulation. There are a large number of people who are not paying rent and they are occupying rentals and taking those out of circulation. Also the recently evicted probably left a wrecked rental unit so it will take some time to rehab that rental to a habitable state so they are out of circulation. This is contributing to the shortage. The economy is actually doing fairly good, and there is more money flooding the market enabling demand. There is a shortage of maintenance people and maintenance costs are increasing costs. Its not one thing that is causing the rise in rents, but the bite is the same.

    2. @Diego Haro Did you know, similar to driving, you can kinda drive with a permit with your parents, but to be able to drive freely you need a LISCENSE. Similar to this, a permit allows you to look at a piece of land for oil but not to be able to extract it. So the 9000 permits dont guarantee there will be anything there, just the right to look. And if you find anything you have to apply for a license to drill. Biden has limited the amount of actual licenses and placed many new monetary and time roadblocks.

    3. @Diego motta Yes, capitol gains taxes, income taxes, inflation is a tax, taxing social security is a tax.

      Have you heard of the tax foundation?

  3. In 2017 house was bought for 176k. Now it’s worth 435k. 5 years later. It’s absolutely insane. Half a million for a home. For people making less than 90k a year this is not possible.

    1. Most people make 50k that’s it. Wages are terrible compared to avgerage home prices. In big cities the avgerage home is 500k on the low end. That’s my point.

  4. This should never happen to people working, paying taxes and doing what is right. No one should ever be homeless in this country. Granted there will always be those who don’t work and don’t try.

    1. @Timothy Casanova Listen to the video again because it was stated the 1st mother was a disabled vet. Your mouth must have been moving right? What makes you believe the 2nd mother wasn’t working?

  5. This has nothing to do with inflation. It’s corporate greed. Corporations are buying up houses as rental properties. The reason for the shortage in houses for purchase and the increase in rent.

    1. Perhaps you are correct, it has nothing to do with inflation; just increased taxes, water fees, increased inspection fees, increased utilities costs, increase maintenance costs (Have you tried to find a good plumber lately?), increase fees to get an employment verification, etc.

    2. There is something that I am experiencing lately is the number of people who want to buy my property, all cash and fast closing. Who are these people?

  6. I have a rental and haven’t raised my rent in 4 years. A single mother of two who lives there hasn’t been late with her rent once.

    1. @1pink1blue As a renter, you give me hope that if I must move again, perhaps I’ll be lucky and get a good landlord like you.

    1. @Dan Wohlslagel???

      Seriously? You can’t make the connection? Sounds like you’ll never get it. Maybe ask a young adult.

    2. @A Libra’s Way wasn’t this bad a few years ago just saying. And the last president even predicted the things we are seeing . Don’t have to like him but he was right

    1. @Elmer Reed Nice deflection. Since you didn’t like what the guy had to say, he must be “foreign.” Sadly, we can’t trade you for a immigrant.

    2. @TheU2001 MIA You don’t bother reading the chain and decide to make a judgement huh? Typical trumpian approach. You’ve learned well young Jedi.

  7. This is an American problem, they’ve been doing this to us in Hawaii for years, and I just pray for all the people out there who have nowhere to live 💔 It’s so inexcusable that we are supposedly the wealthiest nation on the planet and people are forced to live in the streets in the US of A

    1. ​@Jennis Not all property owners are treating their rentals as commodities. Some are, others are just adjusting to the new expenses. There does need to be a solution, but it is over most heads of landlords. There needs to be a solution that is affordable to both the landlords and renters. Sadly things are a bit out of balance today.

    2. It’s happening in Canada too! It’s price gouging and false inflation. Oh and if you haven’t noticed it didn’t start happening until the covid-19 rent eviction freeze was lifted. The landlords are retaliating because some people were not able to pay rent.

  8. 🇬🇧Can relate from the north of England…landlords sending letters, absolutely nothing tenants can do but tighten out worn out belts

  9. The real estate market has big money to spend on politicians who block legislation that would allow rent control. The homeless aren’t always drug addicts, mentally ill or lazy, sometimes they are people working people, or people who’ve worked their whole lives who are just priced out.

    1. Also hedge funds are buying millions of units, houses and multi family buildings, betting on real estate prices rising. The kicker is:. Real estate investers are allowed to depreciate the units value for tax purposes, even as its value increases. We would not have this insanity if Congress would close that loophole. But MONEY has bought them.

    2. There is no “real estate market” as an entity. It much more fragmented than that, but there are groups of people with pooled cash who are buying property (cash-fast closing), holding on to it as it appreciates, and then sell after it appreciates for their target percentage. There are those who treat real estate like stocks, (but that is very risky). There is also a serious owner occupied demand for housing, more money available from a good economy, also more buyers taking advantage of government programs to get them in a house, and banks are lending again. There are a lot of factors why these prices are rising.
      Don’t forget that there are a lot of government assistance programs paying rents and that is taking more apartments out of circulation. Perhaps a solution would be to work with a state agency to see if one is eligible for such assistance.

  10. Here in California, they passed a law a few years ago where landlords/property management companies can’t increase rent by no more than 3%. It’s already frickn insane the amount of rent here in Southern Orange County, but it’s much better than in years past for the increases each year.

    For reference, we have a 2 bedroom 2 bath 1,000 sq ft apartment in Aliso Viejo and pay 2,505. If we were to walk in off the street and try to rent the exact same apartment today, the rent would be 4,100!!! Wtf?

    1. @Jessgrma I don’t know about rent control but look into what’s going on with aggressive take over, eviction and redevelopment of mobile home parks. It’s catching a lot of people by surprise.

    2. That is so weird! It’s almost like Florida and California are controlled by two different parties.

      Oh well! Florida is getting what they voted for, so I wouldn’t worry about them.

    3. You must be in a rent controlled area because online it says rent in CA can be raised by 10% per year, and that’s what just happened to me.

    4. AB 1482 limit rent increases to 5% + inflation annually. However, mom & pop landlords are exempt. Some cities have more strict rent-control.

  11. We live in Miami. We rent a small 1 bed 1 bath apartment, built in the 50s. Old carpet, wall unit AC, no dishwasher, no w/d.. it’s sparse on luxury to say the least. We’ve been paying 1400. Our rent just increased to 2000. Nothing changed, no maintenance, the home wasn’t sold, just a 40% increase overnight. We’re moving out of state because as students we truly can’t afford to live here anymore.

    I should add, we’ve been perfect tenants. Haven’t asked for maintenance once, we’ve helped with maintenance ourselves and recaulked the bathroom, replaced doorknobs, small stuff like that, and paid our rent exactly on time without fuss every month.

  12. My Rent jumped 300 this year and we’re in a housing program, the price we’re are paying Is less Then average for the size, we been here in the same place over 12 yrs but the landlord hasn’t gone up this time it’s the program as we get Raises on the job The more we pay, we really don’t get ahead Regardless of what bring home here in Florida And they’re building houses left and right That no one can afford..

  13. When governments let vulnerable people at the hand of predators called businessmen.All means are good to make money without any morality.

  14. – 0:30 “pricing them out of their homes and into this extremely competitive housing market” I assume by “competitive housing market”, you mean “the streets”. 😕
    – 1:00 Why are landlords so selfish and greedy and allowed to squeeze people? … 1:08 Why are banks so selfish and greedy and allowed to squeeze people? Maybe if banks weren’t allowed to act like they’re special and exempt from the hit the economy took since 2020, then landlords wouldn’t have to increase rent. As usual, banks harming everyone. 😠

  15. We also have a record number of homes being owned by overseas corporations…and big banks …

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