Madison Reporter

Since President Joe Biden entered office in early 2021, the American people have faced pressure from increasing levels of inflation, with the cost of rent among the most concerning. 

Across the nation, there’s been a rent increase of nearly 25% for one-bedroom rentals and a nearly 22% increase for two-bedroom rentals on average with some states seeing even more drastic price hikes.

A mid-March report from Rent.com shows that nationwide rent prices have increased significantly year-over-year. The site reports that the average price for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,684, up 24.4% from last year. The average price for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,997, up 21.8% from a year ago.

The Wisconsin rental market has seen a significant increase in prices in the last year, yet not as much as some states. Rent.com reports an estimated 8.85% rise in the state's rent prices. However, some states such as Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma have seen nearly 50% year-over-year increases.

According to a Fox Business report from early March, rent prices are expected to rise even more this year. 

"In a lot of places, it costs more money even to rent than it is to own a mortgage," Zillow economist Nicole Bachaud told the news outlet. For some Americans, the rising cost of living has forced them to move out, simply because they can't afford it.

CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider says that U.S. single-family rent prices started 2022 strong, increasing 12.6% year over year in January compared to 3.9% in January 2021. Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic, said in a recent press release that “single-family rent growth extended its record-breaking price growth streak to 10 consecutive months in January.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that lawmakers in large cities across the U.S. are looking to enact rent-control measures that would generally allow landlords to boost monthly rents by no more than 2% to 10%. 

“Rents are exploding at a pace far faster than income,” said Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, an economist and professor at Columbia Business School.

One of Biden’s proposals for making housing more affordable is to issue Section 8 vouchers to anyone who spends more than 30% of their income on rent. The policy's intention is to free up funds that renters can save and eventually use as a down payment on a home. According to Fee Stories businessman Daniel Kowalski, "one likely unintended result of this policy is that landlords will raise rents without the renter feeling the pain of the increase because the faceless taxpayer will pick up the difference."