Read this morning: Foreign buyers purchased $59 billion worth of U.S. residential property in the year ending in March. Chinese Investors accounted for $6.1 billion dollars in home purchases, totaling over 10% of the market. Those investors can buy houses and charge any kind of rent they want to. Our governments are sleeping at the switch, allowing this to happen.
Source: National Association of Realtors (NAR)
Domestic corporations and investors are also buying residential properties for rentals. Because they are charging so much for rent the entire rental market is being driven up drastically. Where are people going to live?
When I lived in Europe, where I lived there was practically universal rent control. That was "good" in the sense that property was SO expensive, and most residential houses had been in a family for generations, and practically nothing was for sale. At the time I was young and idealistic, and I used to rail against their "over-regulation."