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RISING RENTS, DEMOLITION FELT BY RENTERS |
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Contributed by Team Leader
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Friday, 10 March 2006 |
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NEW YORK (Reuters News Service) – Rental housing that does not cost an arm and a leg is disappearing in the United States, according to a report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Apartments are being demolished as they age and deteriorate and at the same time rents are rising. The report showed growing disparities between low-income and higher income renters ability to find apartments they could afford to rent.
While median rent rose to $974 in 2004 from $734 a decade ago, monthly renter income rose only slightly from $2,272 to $2,348 in the same period. The study concludes that those with higher incomes sometimes rent for a variety of reasons, but those in the lowest income brackets have no choice. Much of the new rental units built between 1994 and 2003 were in the upper end of market. Seventy percent of the seven million lowest-income renters pay more than half of their income for housing. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 10 March 2006 )
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