It’s clear why President Joe Biden desperately wants to bring down housing prices and rent. With mortgage interest rates double what they were when former President Donald Trump took office, mortgage payments have roughly doubled since 2020, and rents are up in many cities by more than 30%.

So much for the dream of homeownership. And just finding an affordable rental unit larger than a dorm room is getting harder all the time.

Biden blames “greed-flation” for the high rental costs. He’s now proposed a two-pronged plan to combat rising rents. First, he wants to reinstate rent controls in major metro areas and impose financial punishments on landlords if they raise rents by more than 5% a year. And second, he wants to make it illegal for landlords to use computer algorithms for setting prices.

Updated: Tue Jul 30, 2024