Housing prices and homelessness

Witnessing a conversation on NextDoor, the original poster asked if a $165/month increase in rent was normal. She said normally the rent on her year lease increases $20–40, and this increase was jarring.

The conversation has 135 comments on it.

Several people commented that they were happy their rent only went up $100/month. “Only” because of things they’ve heard.

Others chimed in. $165. $180. $200, $300, $350, $400. One had a $500/month increase in their rent when they renewed their lease. These are not month-to-month contracts (which would still make it shocking, but it seems more common in those types of leases).

$500 a month? That’s an extra $6,000 per year to rent an apartment. Who has an extra $6,000 to donate to their landlord?

Because it was NextDoor, an argument had to accompany the post. In this case: greed versus smart economics. Not in any meaningful or thoughtful way, not in a way anyone could learn anything. Just yelling.

Whichever side of the equation you’re on, I think we can agree that the overwhelming majority of people are not getting big raises. I can’t remember ever getting a gross $6,000/year raise, much less net.

People on fixed incomes and/or people who don’t have large cushions built in to their budgets will be pushed out of their homes. People with a little bit of wiggle room just ran out, or are one car breakdown closer to not being able to pay the bills.

On NextDoor, I see a lot of people complaining about the homeless population.

I wonder if they’re the same people touting the skyrocketing housing prices as smart economics.