Time for a Comeback?

A preliminary vote last night by New York City officials proposed a rent hike of up to 6% across the city’s rent-stabilized housing units. The hike, if approved during a final vote in June, would impact more than 2 million New Yorkers.

🚘 Driving the move… For at least the past 20 years, the result of the preliminary vote has closely matched the official outcome, which has often followed patterns of inflation, the New York Times reports.

• Landlords and their advocates currently say they need increases to cope with rising inflation and swelling expenses for fuel, labor and building maintenance. The board has voted for rent freezes in four of the last eight years.
• On the flip side, tens of thousands of New Yorkers fell behind on rent during the pandemic and many still owe thousands of dollars. Most earn less than the citywide median household income of ~$67,000.

📸 The big picture: Rents are going up everywhere for a bunch of reasons, all tied to changes in demand relative to the limited housing supply, per Axios. Average US rent prices rose 14% last year to $1,877 a month, with cities like Austin, NYC and Miami notching increases of as much as 40%, according to real estate firm Redfin.

• The national median rent across the 50 largest metro areas set a new record in February ($1,792/month).