A coalition of tenant, community and legal organizations called on the Biden administration on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency on housing and find ways to regulate rents.

Some 5.4 million households, or 40% of households that are not current on their rent or mortgage payments, said they were likely to be evicted or foreclosed on in the next two months, according to a Census Bureau survey for June 29 to July 11. That is the highest share since the Census started asking the question in August 2020. 

More renters than usual are staying put in their homes, sending apartment occupancy rates near the highest level in more than two decades, according to data from the property management software company RealPage. That cuts down on the number of apartments available for those looking to move.

But the imbalances are starting to improve. Close to 1 million rental units are expected to be added to the US market over the next year or so, which could ease some of the pressure, said Taylor Marr, deputy chief economist for real estate brokerage Redfin Corp.

Rent increases could drop to a range of 5% to 8% one year from now, he said. Still, it’s not clear when the market may return to the low single-digit increases more typical before the pandemic, putting continued strain on renters, he said. “We don’t expect dramatic shifts,” Marr said. 

New Arrivals
An influx of new residents is driving up housing costs in Atlanta, where rents have increased 14.8% from a year ago as of May. The current median rent is $1,730 per month, according to CoreLogic. Major expansions in the area from tech giants such as Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc., are luring more high-paid tech workers. The city has also been a draw for people from higher-priced cities seeking less expensive options.

This January was the first time Karla Kelley was unable to renew the lease on her two-bedroom apartment in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Georgia, where she has lived since 2009. Her landlord decided to renovate, but gave her the option to move to a unit in another building, boosting her rent by almost $600 a month to $2,045. Kelley, 70, said she has noticed an influx of new residents from other cities.

“We’re getting a lot of people from the Northeast or from the West Coast,” said Kelley. “To them, these rents are not huge.”

Despite the higher price tag, she said the new apartment feels like a downgrade, with old carpeting and rusted light fixtures. “The night I got the keys, there were cockroaches running all around the apartment,” said Kelley. The air conditioning and faucets weren’t working. 

Miami was also a big draw for remote workers during the pandemic, increasing competition for housing and pushing rents up by 40% over the last year, the steepest increase out of the 20 large metro areas studied by CoreLogic. The median asking rent in the city is now $2,488 per month. 

Miami native Gabriela Noa Betancourt didn’t see her current apartment in person until the day she moved in. She and her partner began searching in June after the rent on their previous apartment increased by $650 to $2,400 a month. As they browsed listings, they noticed a pattern: Many of the units were being snapped up before they could visit. And the tours they did make it to were crowded, with dozens of other applicants.

“Things were just flying off the shelf,” she said.

It took a few tries to secure an apartment. Betancourt, 28, signed two leases for apartments in Miramar, Florida, but the landlord opted not to execute them, deciding instead to go with other prospective tenants who may have been willing to move in two weeks earlier. Their third lease finally stuck: a two-bedroom apartment in Southwest Miami-Dade County for $2,000. They lost about $100 in application fees.

Tough Choices
Las Vegas rents rose by 16.7% in May from the year prior to a median of $2,110 per month, the third largest increase out of 20 metro areas studied by CoreLogic data. After experiencing an oversupply of housing prior to the Great Recession, development in Las Vegas slowed before the pandemic, said Carl Whitaker, a director of research and analysis for RealPage. That created a mismatch when the city saw an inflow of residents from California and other parts of the West Coast, driving rents up, he said. 

When Dennie Keener’s apartment rent in Las Vegas rose for the first time in over four years on March 1, his plan was to work extra shifts at his bartending job at the Dolby Live Theater. Seven days later, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and had to stop working. Now, he’s two months late on his rent and at risk of eviction. The monthly rent on his one-bedroom, 720-square-foot apartment rose to $1,000 from $750.