The U.S. has largely recovered from the pandemic, but its housing crisis endures.

Americans are getting evicted from their homes at record rates. Landlords have filed more than 1 million evictions in the 10 states tracked by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. In some cities, evictions jumped nearly 80% between 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, the average U.S. rent has increased 18% over the past five years, according to Pew. Millions of Americans worried they’d never be in a financial position to buy a home; now, they’re faced with the startling reality that they may not be able to rent one either.

This crisis has created a new class of Americans: the “rent-burdened.” As homes get more and more expensive, a greater share of the population is renting, especially middle-class people in their 30s and 40s who hoped they would be able to purchase homes by now. In 2023, the rent-to-income ratio crossed 30% for the first time in more than 20 years, according to Moody’s, meaning that the typical American renter now spends more than 30% of their income on rent and can be classified as rent-burdened. “The cliche that ‘the rent is too damn high’ is really true,” says Peter Dreier, professor of public policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “There’s a renters revolt going on all over the country.”

To continue reading the rest of the article, please click on the source link below:

https://time.com/6325516/kc-tenants-union-time-documentary/