In the 2015 report on rental housing of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, it was found that renters paid more than 30 percent of their income for housing last year. It is also reported that 49 percent of renters struggle to pay other bills because of the high cost of rents.
The lack of new rental construction and low rental vacancies are the reasons why the rents are high.
To solve the housing crisis, the country needs more new construction, but it will only result toward higher-rate units as already seen in recent years. According to the same report on rental housing "only 10% of newly constructed units had asking rents under $850, a level about half of all renters could afford."
The high-cost of construction of new units requires high rents because of exclusionary zoning, local regulations, and complex processes.
Housing crisis is mostly felt in urban areas where majority of the renters are living and where most of the new jobs are created.
It is estimated that the median renting household spend 30 percent or more on monthly rent. That makes the renters to limit spending on essentials such as food and medicines. Renters cannot also save for a rainy day, make them more vulnerable to financial crisis.
According to Realtor, 85 percent of markets have burdensome rents today and it makes even easier to buy than rent a home. So why they still don't choose to buy a home? It's because of some obstacles such as down-payment requirements and credit-score which make it difficult for would-be buyers to fulfill their dream.
According to a survey of housing attitudes released today, majority of Americans believes the country is still not past the housing crisis that began seven years ago, as reported by Mac Found.
Although the housing crisis is slowly receding, many of the Americans believe the crisis will continue. About 61 percent of Americans believe they are either "still in the middle" of the housing crisis or "the worst is yet to come (20 percent)."
