Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen tells Varney & Co. that under the leadership of Biden and Harris, Americans went from having the highest personal savings rate in history to having the highest level of debt.
As apartment rentals have declined across the country, landlords have resorted to “inducements” to attract more tenants to their properties.
A CNN report last week detailed how landlords in some of the country’s largest metropolitan areas are offering additional perks to attract potential renters, such as free parking or rent discounts.
“They throw a lot of special offers and discounts into the package to make the offer even more attractive,” Orphe Divounguy, chief economist at Zillow.com, told CNN.
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In a weaker market, landlords lure in their offers with discounts or “additional offers” to attract tenants. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)
As the news agency reported, the number of landlords offering additional perks or discounts has increased as “apartments are staying on the market longer. Vacancy rates are rising. And rent growth is slowing.”
Real estate provider Zillow has found that the share of rental listings with these additional offers has increased by almost 10% in the past year – from 25.4% last July to 33.2% today.
These offers are most common in several major U.S. cities, such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Nashville, and Austin. At least 50% or more of rental offers in each of these cities come with discounts.
CNN spoke to several young renters who said they were inundated with special offers and bargains while searching for their next apartment. Natalie Garcia, a 23-year-old graduate student who lives in Arizona, told the network, “Honestly, there were special offers on all the apartments I looked at.”
She added that she and her boyfriend opted for a one-bedroom apartment in Scottsdale and got the first month’s rent cut in half. “The concession was a bonus,” she said.
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Traditional tenement houses are now expensive rental apartments on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City, New York. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Another young couple in the state reported receiving a month’s rent on a one-bedroom apartment for free after offering to fix a broken fence on the property when they moved in. “We got really lucky,” Rylee Dunham, 23, told CNN, adding, “I think we would have gotten the month’s rent for free anyway.”
While these rent relief measures help prospective renters, housing costs are still high and continue to rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 5.1% increase from last year, although this is a much smaller increase than the 22.3% increase that occurred during the pandemic.
CNN noted that the rate of price increases has slowed due to a “housing construction boom” that has led to a “shift in the balance of power in favor of renters.”
It is becoming increasingly difficult for landlords to fill vacant apartments, which explains the explosive increase in offers and additional discounts.
“By being proactive, informed and aware of their leverage, tenants can make the most of the perks offered by landlords,” Divounguy told the outlet.
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