The vast majority of Americans today cannot cope with the renting a home. Prices are getting higher and higher and a good part of this problem has to do especially with the game of supply and demand. Millions of citizens lost their homes during the mortgage crisis, for which they were forced to enter fully into the rental market. In 2004, 31% of Americans were renting. Today the figure is 35%.
Obviously the more people have entered the rental market, the more prices have risen, since the number of homes has not grown to meet that huge demand. Together with the mortgage crisis, the financial collapse and the recession brought with them an increase in unemployment and, therefore, a fall in income. A good part of those millions of Americans saw them and wished them to be able to face a rent.
As if all of this weren't enough, Republicans have further cut spending for federal programs, including help to access a home. Almost all government aid programs have seen funding cuts in recent years, especially those for the poorest. In 2013 some 125.000 families lost some rental assistance, when in previous years it had not been the case.
You do not have to be very knowledgeable in the matter to know that when you combine the shortage of rental housing with low incomes and the lack of government aid, we are left with a situation that has been classified in the United States as the biggest home rental crisis in history from the country. The proportion of households that spend more than a third of their income on rent has grown by 12% since 2000.
Today, half of the Americans who live in rent pay more than 30% of their monthly income in the house, while there is a 28% who pay more than half of their monthly salary. Prices range from $ 1.956 in San Francisco to $ 700 in Lincoln, one of the cheapest cities in the United States. In Washington, for example, they pay an average of $ 1.469 in rent, 1.454 in Boston, 1.440 in New Nork or 1.398 in Los Angeles.
El Obama administration is focusing a good part of its efforts on alleviating this serious problem. So far all the initiatives have not been enough to stop this crisis. To this day, millions of Americans are still unable to even afford to rent a house.