<story><title>Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/22/rents-rich-are-plummeting-rents-poor-are-rising-why/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>outside1234</author><text>It is a huge risk right now to take on someone that is poor as a renter because of the moratorium.  It is completely unsurprising to me that landlords have priced this risk factor in.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gnicholas</author><text>Interestingly, if landlords were allowed to use larger security deposits, some would choose to do this instead of raising the monthly rent. My friend is looking to rent out an ADU, and the first idea was to have a sizable security deposit in order to filter applicants who fully intended on paying rent from those who would be more likely to use the eviction moratorium.&lt;p&gt;But apparently California tightened the rules around security deposits in 2020, which actually exacerbates this problem. Landlords used to be able to ask for up to two month’s rent as a security deposit, but now they can only ask for one month&amp;#x27;s rent.&lt;p&gt;This leads to upward pressure on rents, as landlords adjust the only lever they have left. I wonder if applicants can&amp;#x2F;do offer to prepay several month&amp;#x27;s rent, to signal that they are serious long-term tenants who have the ability and interest in paying rent (even if they legally could avoid payment).</text></comment>
<story><title>Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/22/rents-rich-are-plummeting-rents-poor-are-rising-why/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>outside1234</author><text>It is a huge risk right now to take on someone that is poor as a renter because of the moratorium.  It is completely unsurprising to me that landlords have priced this risk factor in.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baron816</author><text>There was an article a saw a few weeks ago about some guys based out of Oakland (maybe someone else can find it) who has accumulated 5 figures worth of rental debt. It talks about how he had just moved into an expensive place at the beginning of the pandemic, got laid off, then couldn’t pay for the whole year.&lt;p&gt;IIRC, he eventually moved, but still couldn’t pay rent and started accumulating even more rent debt there. I can’t imagine who would rent an apartment to that guy.</text></comment>