From The WaPo
The share of renters who spend more than half their income on housing is at its highest level in half a century and it’s no longer just low-income tenants who are feeling the pain, according to a Harvard University study scheduled for release Tuesday.
About 26 percent of renters — or 10.1 million people — spent more than half their pre-tax household income on rent and utilities in 2009. That’s because incomes slipped dramatically from their peak at the start of the decade even as rents kept rising.
Normally, this would be good news for sales as high rents should induce people to buy. Interest rates and home prices are low and there is no significant building of new rental housing. But the government and its cronies have devastated the housing market to such an extent that we still don't where the bottom of the sales market is or when it will reach that point. Millions of homes are still waiting to be put on the market as the system slogs through an unprecedented quagmire of foreclosures. Uncertainty kills markets.
And the recent implementation of the ironically named Dodd - Frank financial bill that is now increasing the cost and reducing the incentive to lend, will only prolong the agony.
It also doesn't help that the economy is still bouncing along the bottom on a path to stagflation.
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