[grapeskin]

I know people living in those famously cheap Midwest areas people online always propose as the obvious solution to avoid high rents. Rents even in nowhere areas have blown up recently.

And remote work really won’t change rents much for normal people. People want to live where their family and friends are, where some good restaurants are, where some good weekend activities are, where some nice nature is an hour or two away, where a good hospital isn’t too far, and where grocery stores stock good food. Any one of these and landlords decide it’s okay to raise prices 30% a year.

People theoretically have a choice, but every landlord everywhere is doing this. People leave one town with rapidly increasing rents and go to the next, and those landlords do the same while the people in the already expensive town never lower prices. There is no escape or alternative.

[kevin_thibedeau]

> Rents even in nowhere areas have blown up recently.

Home owners are snapping up rentals to prepare to sell their property at market peak.

[sokoloff]

In a rising rates environment, house sale prices tend to fall (or rise much more slowly at best).

[id02009]

Really? Can you share more about this mechanism?

I actually noticed someone opposite (are maybe it's the same mechanism) in the area I live in:

House sale prices are rising like everywhere else, but rents stay mostly flat.

I'd love to learn more about it.

[bombcar]

House prices are roughly dependent on income which means dependent on monthly payments.

Rents are even MORE dependent on income and it’s easier for renters to move, so rents often end up below the mortgage cost for a similar purchase.

[xdeepak81]

Rent stayed flat because of the moratorium, not because of the demand. You will start seeing the rent increase as the leases are coming up for renewal, many places are already up for 20% rent increase.

[ivanche]

sokoloff was talking about rising rates, not rising rents. And I agree completely, when interest rates rise money is more expensive, thus credit/mortgage has more interest, thus people can’t afford that much of a property price for the same monthly installment, thus property prices are going down.

[Ekaros]

Take a fixed monthly payment, with lower rates the principal can go up. Thus house prices can go up. On other hand renters have the same pretty much fixed monthly payment.

Rent's are not tied directly to value of property, but need to service the debt linked to property. Or equivalent one.

[rfrey]

Let's see if they can pick it.