From Wolf Street, March 15:
And it has nothing to do with supply chains. Dear Fed, go have a look at the fruits of your labor.
Market rents for single-family houses and apartments are going haywire, one of the salient features of the current inflationary environment. It has nothing to do with supply-chain snags and factories in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the price of commodities. This is an inflationary phenomenon that has taken on a life of its own. Landlords – some of them giant companies – believe they can jack up rents, and the giant companies among them tout their ability to do so in their earnings calls. And tenants are paying those higher rents. This is another glaring sign that the inflationary mindset has taken over on both sides. And rental inflation is now in full blowout mode.
Rents of single-family houses across the US jumped by 12.6% in January, according to S&P CoreLogic today, based on the repeat-rent method, which tracks rents of the same rental properties over time.
That 12.6% spike was the fastest meanest year-over-year spike in the data going back to 2004, and the 10th month in a row of record rent increases. Rent increases varied by market and maxed out in Miami with a ridiculous 39% spike year-over-year:
Apartment rents are in full blowout inflation as well. The Zumper National Rent Report, which tracks apartments in multi-family buildings, and does not include single-family houses, found that asking rents across the US for one-bedroom apartments spiked by 12.3% in February, compared to a year earlier, and that the median asking rent for two-bedroom apartments spiked by nearly 14%....
....MUCH MORE
