#rent-affordability

#rent-affordability

For more than two decades, Chattanooga has used payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements to reshape its downtown. But the tax-break tool that once helped fill the Tennessee River city with market-rate apartments has been retooled for a different purpose: mixing affordable and market-rate units. City officials say seven of every 10 renters are either rent-burdened or severely rent-burdened.

Cincinnati posted a 3.1% year-over-year decline in median asking rent for 0- to 2-bedroom units in November, with the average asking rent coming in at $1,319. Lower rents are translating into some improvement for lower-wage households. Two minimum-wage earners in the Cincinnati area would each need to work about 49 hours per week to afford the median rental while keeping housing costs at 30% of income. That figure is down from prior years, highlighting how falling rents can quickly improve affordability at the margins.

Despite average earnings rising by 5% compared with last year, the cost of renting was swallowing up 44% of the average wage up from 40% five years ago. Rightmove also said conditions for landlords were challenging. It indicated that last autumn's rise in stamp duty , as well as speculation about more tax changes in next month's budget and the impact of the government's renters' rights bill, may be prompting some buy-to-let landlords to bail out and may be putting off others from investing in the sector.