Inflation Alert: Soaring Apartment Rents

Trulia reported this week that apartment rents nationwide are up nearly 6% in the last year.

Buried in the last paragraph of a Bloomberg story about the cooling housing market are details about inflation in the rental market.  Three large California cities have seen ten percent hikes in housing costs in the last twelve months with San Francisco leading the way.

According to Trulia the median two-bedroom in San Francisco costs $3,550 per month.  Rental costs city wide rose over 15% since last year.

 

Charitable Giving in the Digital Age

Megan McArdle wrote an interesting article up at Bloomberg.com titled "Digital Cash Will Starve the Homeless".  She theorizes that pedestrians will no longer give cash to panhandlers since they may not be carrying any.  I tend to agree that this is an issue which requires a workaround.

Cashless giving is one solution.  Charity organizations should begin marketing efforts to people who tend to give cash to the homeless and encourage them to donate electronically to their favorite charity.  Food banks could provide even more food thanks to organized giving.  Donors could sign up with the Salvation Army giving program where 1% of all their purchases via credit card are sent the way of the needy.

As McArdle suggests technology should be used to help the needy not to prevent the connection of donor and recipient.