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.

 

Inflation Rears It's Nasty Head

Speaking of a housing bubble.  Prices of homes in England increased nearly 4% last month.

But don't worry the "fears of a housing bubble are misplaced" says Christopher Hope of The Telegraph:

A breakdown suggested fears of a nation-wide housing bubble are misplaced, with London leading the way with a 16.3 per cent year-on-year increase, compared with a more modest 4.9 per cent in the rest of the country.

So according to the story a 5% annual increase in rent is modest.  Is the average wage earner garnering 5% annual salary increases to keep up with inflation?  Not likely.    

Full story from The Telegraph.

Suppress Technology and Watch Prices Rise

Charles Hugh Smith explains why technology brings prices down for consumers:

Sorry to bring the bad news, Fed inflationistas, but technology is irrevocably deflationary. The exceptions are: regulations that require additional technology to benefit life safety, and entrenched interests that erect barriers to competition and new technology, for example, Big Pharma and the sickcare industry. 

When state-protected cartels rule the roost, costs go up no matter how much new technology is introduced. 

Source: OfTwoMinds.com