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Journal Article
New-Tenant Rent Passthrough and the Future of Rent Inflation
New-tenant rent inflation rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequently falling. Concomitantly, consumer price index (CPI) tenant rent, which measures rent increases for both new and continuing renters, rose more gradually and, after falling somewhat, has remained elevated. To illustrate why CPI rent inflation has remained elevated, we combine a measure of new-tenant rents and annual renter mobility rates to create a simulated CPI tenant rent inflation measure. We use this simulation to define a “rent gap” that represents the difference between actual CPI tenant rent inflation ...
Journal Article
Rental Housing Affordability Impacts Educational and Employment Opportunities*
Though safe, stable housing is widely recognized as a basic human need, it is far from assured for many renters in the Third Federal Reserve District. Across Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the lowest-income renters faced severe shortages of affordable and available units (Figure 1) in 2014, leading to widespread housing cost burdens among households with the most limited means. In all three states, the share of lower-income renter households with unaffordable housing costs1 grew significantly from 2005 to 2014, ranging from over two-thirds in Pennsylvania to more than three-quarters ...
Working Paper
Location, Location, Structure Type: Rent Divergence within Neighborhoods
Housing rents are a large share of household budgets and make a large contribution to overall inflation. Rent inflation rates for different types of housing units sometimes diverge, even in the same neighborhoods. We estimate during 2013 to 2016 apartment rents outpaced rents for detached housing in the United States by 0.76 percentage points annually after controlling for location effects. These rent dynamics imply a segmented housing market. They also suggest rent indexes need to be based on data structurally representative of their measurement objective. In particular, indexes based on ...
Report
Gentrification and Changes in the Stock of Low-Cost Rental Housing in Philadelphia, 2000 to 2014
Philadelphia has experienced increased rental housing affordability challenges in recent years, especially in neighborhoods that have undergone gentrification. This report explores one aspect of gentrification?s impact on housing costs by examining its association with changes in Philadelphia?s stock of units that rent for less than $750 per month. Using tract-level U.S. Census Bureau data, this report finds that, between 2000 and 2014, the city lost one out of five units with rents that fell below this cost threshold. These losses were especially acute in gentrifying neighborhoods, as these ...
Journal Article
Can Monetary Policy Tame Rent Inflation?
Rent inflation has surged since early 2021. Because the cost of housing is an important component of total U.S. consumer spending, high rent inflation has contributed to elevated levels of overall inflation. Evidence suggests that, as monetary policy tightening cools housing markets, it can also reduce rent inflation, although this tends to adjust relatively slowly. A policy tightening equivalent to a 1 percentage point increase in the federal funds rate could reduce rent inflation as much as 3.2 percentage points over 2½ years.
Report
Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in the Third Federal Reserve District: 2012
Using the most recent data available, this suite of materials provides information on rental housing affordability conditions and trends in the Third Federal Reserve District from 2005 through 2010. This analysis not only explores the proportion of renters in the Third District with a housing cost burden but also investigates whether there are sufficient numbers of affordable rental units to meet the needs of low-income households. See "Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in the Third Federal Reserve District: 2012" for the Cascade Focus PDF summarizing findings for the Third ...
What Are the Long-run Trade-offs of Rent-Control Policies?
While rent-control policies can mean more affordable housing for some, research shows they can also lead to a decline in the supply and quality of rental housing.
Journal Article
Boosting the Supply of Rural Rental Housing
The housing market has emerged as one of the sectors of the economy where post-pandemic price pressures are most visible. The combination of a long-running slump in new construction following the Great Recession and the huge shocks to supply and demand stemming from the COVID-19 lockdowns have contributed to growing housing affordability challenges across the country. In the span of just two years, from June 2020 to June 2022, the S&P/ Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index increased by nearly 40 percent. The cost of the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has also increased at a fast ...
Journal Article
How Will Affordable Rental Housing Be Preserved?
Affordable rental housing for low- and moderate-income individuals and families is increasingly scarce. Housing finance agencies, nonprofits, and policymakers agree that existing affordable rental housing must be preserved despite formidable complex obstacles in achieving this goal. This article focuses on challenges in rental housing preservation and discusses the programs and perspectives of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), and the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA).
Journal Article
Research on Affordable Rental Housing and Subsidy Expiration
There is an abundance of evidence that rental markets across the country are unaffordable. Studies show that, from 2000 to 2010, there was a rapid decline in rental affordability, with rent increases occurring in the face of stagnant or declining incomes in nearly every metropolitan area and across almost every quintile of the income distribution during that period.