News
58 articles
Augusta's zoning rewrite would ban short-term rentals in most neighborhoods, Masters week included
Augusta is rewriting its zoning code for the first time since 1963, and the draft would ban short-term rentals in regula…
Most UK first-time buyers now pay more on the mortgage than they did in rent. In the US, the jump is far bigger
Buying a first home used to lower the monthly bill for many UK renters. Now 56% pay more than they did in rent. In the U…
More Americans earning $1 million a year are choosing to rent
Households earning at least $1 million a year that rent grew 229% to about 18,400, RentCafe found. In Seattle, San Jose,…
A New Haven nonprofit is giving child care teachers free housing, worth about $23,000 a year
Friends Center for Children opened what it calls the nation's first free teacher housing village. In New Haven, a typica…
When a rent-controlled tenant dies in San Francisco, the widow can face a market-rate rent
A San Francisco widow paying $2,450 a month could see her rent reset to market after her husband, the leaseholder, died.…
California rent would take 17 years to catch up to a mortgage payment. At this year's pace, Los Angeles would take 54
Rent in six big California metros would need about 17 years of normal growth to match what a homebuyer pays now. At last…
Rent is rising in most Southern California cities after falling earlier this year
Rents are rising again across Southern California, led by Orange County and the Inland Empire. Two rent trackers agree o…
Houston now leads the US in 'accidental landlords,' and renters have more houses to pick from
Unsold homes turned rentals make up 4.3% of Houston's single-family rental listings, the highest share in the US. Rental…
Three in 4 people are cutting back to pay for housing
Habitat for Humanity surveyed 30,758 people in 22 countries and found 3 in 4 cut back to afford housing. In the US, typi…
Florida property manager gets probation and no jail time after admitting she took tenants' $89,000 rent payments
A former property manager who pleaded guilty to diverting tenants' rent at two Riviera Beach complexes got probation, af…
A federal judge blocked New York's ban on rent-setting software, calling it a "close call"
New York's first-of-its-kind ban on rent-setting software is on hold after a federal judge sided with RealPage on free s…
Michigan landlords must now offer a fee-free way to pay rent
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bills requiring a fee-free rent payment option and allowing electronic deposit refunds. In …
One in five middle-income renters fell behind on rent last year
Missed rent used to be a low-income problem. New Urban Institute data shows it spreading to middle-income families, and …
Rats, no heat, and a water bill: why tenants in five Jersey City buildings stopped paying rent
Five west-side buildings are on rent strike over conditions their tenants say include rats and missing heat. In New Jers…
Nearly half of Ohio food bank households chose between rent and food
Ohio has some of the lowest rents in the country, and a new hunger study shows why that number is misleading. When incom…
Police say rent checks were intercepted at a Georgia apartment complex, leaving tenants facing eviction
A Georgia case shows the rare scam a renter can't see coming: your rent gets paid, someone pockets it, and the eviction …
Judge orders New York City to turn over emails in lawsuit challenging historic rent freeze
The rent freeze that covers a million New York apartments is now a court fight, and a judge just handed the landlords ch…
Two DC landlords will pay $9.3 million over alleged rent-fixing
A $9.3 million settlement over algorithmic rent-fixing sounds large until you see how much of DC's rental market ran on …
85% of San Francisco landlords fear application fraud as AI made faking paystubs easy
Rental scams usually mean a renter losing a deposit to a fake listing. This is the other direction, where AI-generated p…
The AI boom is driving San Francisco rents up. City Hall is answering with tenant protections
San Francisco's mayor is declaring a rent emergency and backing tenant protections. The number that frames the whole fig…
Out-of-town renters are piling into Buffalo, Chicago and Houston
Zillow's out-of-town search data is being read as an affordability story. Run the destination cities against local rente…
How does a Bay Area couple earning $300,000 get to stay in $1,800-a-month affordable housing?
At one East San Jose complex, roughly a quarter of households now earn above the income caps. The subsidy attaches to th…
Serial squatter sentenced to 20 years after decades of evictions across Texas and Colorado
The woman Texas prosecutors called a serial squatter got 20 years. She also passed the same tenant screening that reject…
Portland, Maine capped rent increases at 2.6%. Market rent still rose 10.9% this year.
Portland, Maine just set its 2027 rent control cap. The cap works on sitting tenants and almost nothing else, which is w…
Colorado now makes landlords advertise the real price. Eighteen other states are trying.
The fight over rental junk fees has moved from cities to statehouses. Colorado's new all-in pricing rule is the most agg…
Gwinnett County approves $8.9 million plan with rental and down payment assistance
Gwinnett commissioners approved a HUD-funded plan covering rent help, down payments and new housing. Here is what is in …
Manhattan’s luxury rents are exploding, with $100,000 a month becoming almost normal
Manhattan's top 10% of rentals rose 35% in a year while $100,000-a-month apartments went from rare to routine. Here is w…
US rents are rising faster again as the apartment building boom fades
Rent growth is picking up again as the apartment building boom fades. Our city data confirms the split: the markets that…
A Kentucky landlord must sell his rentals over sex-for-rent claims
A landlord accused of offering rent forgiveness in exchange for sex has agreed to sell his properties and leave the busi…
Nantucket will pay landlords $18,000 to keep renting to locals and freeze the rent
Nantucket is trying something unusual: paying landlords who already rent year-round to keep doing it, with a rent cap at…
You may be owed money from the $360 million RealPage rent settlement. Here is how to check.
A $359.9 million settlement covers renters whose buildings used RealPage pricing software over a seven-year window. Chec…
Zillow settles FTC case over deal that pushed Redfin out of rental listings
The FTC settled with Zillow over a $100 million deal that ended competition in apartment listings. Here's what it actual…
San Francisco banned rent algorithms two years ago but it isn't helping as rents keep on rising
San Francisco's rent algorithm ban has produced zero lawsuits in two years while rent hit records. Our month-by-month da…
Renting beats buying a home by $2,049 a month in L.A., the widest gap of any big metro
The gap between buying and renting a small home in Los Angeles is $2,049 a month, the biggest in the country. Flat LA re…
Getting a loan to pay rent: preference or desperation?
Pay-later lenders now finance rent, and the industry says it's meeting demand. Half of borrowers say they couldn't make …
For 10 years, this Washington DC house rented rooms for $700. Now it’s gone
For a decade, nuns in Northeast D.C. rented rooms to young women for $500 a month. The house closed last month, and the …
Airbnb sends Salt Lake City cease and desist over alleged fake booking accounts
Airbnb accused Salt Lake City of using fake guest accounts to catch short-term rental hosts breaking a new ordinance. Th…
Manhattan rent hit a record $5,000 as apartments vanish from the market
Manhattan's median rent set a record at $5,000 in July, with Brooklyn at $4,500. The sharper story is the vanishing supp…
Seattle bans pet rent and other rental junk fees, but not until 2027
Seattle's council banned pet rent, package fees and other add-on charges in an 8-0 vote. The rules don't take effect unt…
California's rent caps now run 8.1% to 8.8%, while Santa Monica caps increases at 2.6%
California's new rent caps took effect August 1, ranging from 8.1% to 8.8% by region. Local rules go much further, with …
Co-living is growing in Charlotte as renters look for cheaper housing
Co-living rooms in Charlotte start around $189 a week, or $819 a month with utilities included. A typical Charlotte stud…
San Diego’s rent cap fell to 8.2%, but landlords can still raise rent by $249 a month
San Diego County's cap on rent increases fell from 8.8% to 8.2% on August 1. On a typical San Diego rent, 8.2% works out…
San Francisco Landlords are Paying Tenants $50,000 to Leave
San Francisco rent buyouts are back to pre-pandemic levels, with a median payout near $50,000. Against a citywide median…
LA's Rent Cap Is Rising to 8.7%
California's statewide rent cap climbs to 8.7% in Los Angeles and Orange counties on August 1. Our data shows rents acro…
San Francisco Rent Is Up 50% From Its Pandemic Floor, Three Years After the Doom Loop Talk
San Francisco rent has risen 50.2% from its pandemic floor and sits 25.1% above January 2020. Our trend model puts the c…
Philadelphia Renter Sues Landlord For Using Banned Rent Price-Setting Algorithm
Yiyao Liu filed a class-action suit against Willow Bridge Property Co. and RealPage, claiming his landlord used rent-set…
A New York Studio Now Takes a $125,000 Salary, Putting a Burden on New College Grads
New York City asking rents reached a seven-year high this spring. At a median studio rent of $3,116, affording one alone…
San Antonio Landlord Offers Teachers a Year of Free Rent for 3 Hours of Tutoring a Week
American Landmark is offering San Antonio educators a year of free rent, valued near $12,000, in exchange for three hour…
Scammers Are Cloning Real Rental Listings on TikTok and Charging Fake Application Fees
Scammers are copying legitimate rental listings, photos and all, and reposting them on TikTok at deep discounts to colle…
A California Rental Wants $200 More a Month If You Work From Home
A furnished ADU in Walnut Creek, California lists for $3,250 a month, plus $200 more if you work from home. A landlord g…
Nearly 1 in 5 Residents Would Consider Leaving Texas Over Housing Costs
A Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers survey found nearly one in five Texans would consider leaving the st…
New Jersey Bans Landlords From Using RealPage-Style Rent-Setting Software
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill banning landlords from using RealPage-style algorithms to set rents, callin…
Virginia Renters Now Get 14 Days to Pay Late Rent Before Eviction, Up From 5
Virginia's House Bill 15 extends the window renters have to pay overdue rent before a landlord can start eviction from 5…
San Francisco's AI Boom Pushed 2-Bedroom Rents to a Record $4,257, Pricing Out Longtime Locals
An AI hiring surge and tight housing stock have pushed San Francisco's average 2-bedroom rent to $4,257, the highest in …
Washington Landlords Can Raise Rent Up to 10% in 2027 Under the State's Rent Cap
Washington's Department of Commerce set the 2027 cap on annual rent increases at 10%, the maximum the state's new rent l…
New York Landlords Will Have to Disclose AI-Altered Rental Listings Under Mamdani's "Rental Ripoff" Plan
Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a 23-action Rental Ripoff Report shaped by testimony from 2,400 New Yorkers, requiring lan…
It Takes 5 Minimum Wage Workers to Afford a One-Bedroom in Atlanta
A new Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate study finds Atlanta has the widest rent-to-wage gap in the country,…
As Bronx Rent Prices Keep Climbing, Priced-Out Residents Look to Connecticut and New Jersey
Bronx rents are up nearly 4% over the year and some longtime residents are weighing a move, according to News 12. The re…