New survey out about rising rents and its economic burden

Rents have increased rapidly across U.S. housing markets as the share of renting households has risen faster than the number of new units. Now, in a survey published Thursday by an apartment-listing service, nearly one in five respondents reports struggling to make the monthly payments. While big landlords seem to be succeeding at finding tenants who […]

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working class blog: Cleaning Up the Lease Option Mess in Working-Class Housing

Home ownership may be the most iconic emblem of economic stability for American families, but the pursuit of that goal has drawn too many working-class families into the deceptive agreements knows as “lease option purchase contracts.” To understand the impact of these contracts, visit Youngstown’s South Side, as organizers with the ACORN Home Savers Campaign […]

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States Acting to Protect Buyers of Seller-Financed Homes

by Matthew Goldstein, NYT   Legislators in three Midwestern states are taking steps to protect consumers who buy cheap and often rundown homes from investors through seller-financed deals or rent-to-own leases. The legislative initiatives in Ohio, Illinois and Michigan come as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to investigate the activities of some of the larger firms in the […]

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