#rent-hikes

#rent-hikes

One resident of Princeton's Western Section told the room, 'Those of us who own historic homes are subsidizing the community' - and was met with applause.

"We bought it for $650,000," LaMonica says of the house. "Of course, we could never afford to buy it now."

Bilt allows users to earn points on both rent and mortgage payments, which can be redeemed for travel, dining, and local business benefits, making housing costs more manageable.

Natalie O'Neill saved around £70,000 while working full-time to buy her first home without financial help from family, demonstrating financial independence and discipline.

Perhaps the best that can be said for the plight of California renters is that it could be worse. My trusty spreadsheet reviewed monthly rents and hourly wage data collected by United Way, comparing 2024 with 2019 for 96 U.S. metropolitan areas, including nine in California. Those statistics show that paychecks are not keeping up with monthly rent payments, both in California and nationwide.

The cost rose a lot following the pandemic. And some of that was supply chain issues that really increased the costs, and then they didn't quite come back down. And now tariffs are also impacting some products. These costs are part of the reason the amount of new rental housing stock is shrinking.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rents have jumped nearly 28% in past five years. Companies such as Flex, Livble and, more recently, Affirm, say breaking rent into multiple payments can help renters manage cash flow. But consumer advocates warn the products typically function like short-term loans, layering fees onto already strained budgets and, in some cases, carrying triple-digit effective interest rates - raising questions about whether they ease financial pressure or deepen it.

My friends and I are early 30s professionals living in one of America's most expensive cities and making middle-class incomes. None of us can afford to buy or save for a home here. We all rent, but we're not broke. We save for kids and retirement and illness, but a home isn't in the cards. But recently, we think we might have found an unconventional loophole.