For some Americans, affording rent means giving up traveling home for the holidays
It took A' Quinton Ocasio 10 years to be able to rent his own apartment in the Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City.
The hairstylist from Georgia signed a one-year lease last month for a studio for $2,100 − higher than the national median rent of $1,978.
“It’s a shoebox-size apartment that has no laundry in the building. And the area has nothing to offer other than the train nearby,” he says. “It’s upsetting because for people who have fallen into hard times, there's programs that are set up to help them pay rent, but what about the people who are working hard every day? What about programs to help pay that rent?”
Though the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests inflation is cooling down, with consumer prices slowing to 3.2% from a year earlier in October and lower than 3.7% in September, it also saw shelter price rise 0.3% month-over-month and 6.7% year-over-year.
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Shelter has accounted for 70% of the increase in core prices (excluding food and gas prices) over the past year. The year-over-year shelter price index in October ran twice as high as the overall inflation rate.
In addition to working three jobs, what this means for Ocasio is choosing which holiday to spend with his mother, who lives in Georgia.
“I can't travel for both holidays, and that's sad, because I want to make it home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, you know?” he says. “But I have to choose one or the other.”
This time, he chose Thanksgiving because the family is gathering in Virginia.“Honestly, I just have to work harder,” says Ocasio, who had been saving what he could by renting rooms with friends and acquaintances for a decade, avoiding credit checks and broker fees. “That's honestly the sad truth.”
There are some signs that rents might be stabilizing.
Shelter inflation has been coming down slowly since the summer as new residential construction activity ramped up in 2023, says Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.
Although not fully reflected in the consumer price index, rent prices continued to slide in October, dropping more than 1.5% from September. The monthly decline marks the second month in a row that price levels dropped after six months of steady increases that began last February, according to a report by Rent.com
October's rent level marks the first time in five months the median price has been below $2,000 and the lowest price since April of this year. Price growth continues to be held down by below-normal demand, increased inventory, and a return to seasonal price trends that typically begin dropping in the fall, according to the report.