what's a good way to reconcile this with the common narrative that there's a big housing shortage?
Considering the precipitous fall in border crossings since Trump took office, I wonder how the fall in immigration is tied to the fall in rent. Illegal immigrants still have to live somewhere, they increase the demand for rental housing, boosting rent prices.
As ever, YMMV. Like most renters here, we're paying 2x what we were 5y ago. During that time, our region transitioned from the most affordable category to the least affordable.
The article shows our rents are up 4 percent; nothing shows any indication of slowing.
The folks most likely to be priced out of housing by escalating costs - they are the same folks who don't have the stack of cash needed to move to a different market.