American rents finally stopped rising, and a record 22.7 million renter households, roughly half of everyone who rents, are still stretched past what they can afford.
The two facts only look like a contradiction. "Asking rent" is the price on a new lease, a flow. Cost burden is the stock of tenants already inside, many on leases reset at the pandemic peak. Flattening the one does nothing to the other. Since 2001 rents rose 30 percent in real terms while renter incomes rose 9, roughly three to one. The median renter earning under $30,000 has $210 left each month once rent and utilities are paid, down 60 percent over the same span. The relief you are reading about is on the new lease. The strain is on the old one, and on the household that can no longer find a cheaper one to move to.
