Fed Ending Supports, Moratoriums Over, Rising Rents, Rising Inflation. 2022 Will Be Interesting.

"According to the latest data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, evictions have been rising in most of the 31 cities and six states where it collects data. Evictions in September increased 10.4% from August. October numbers were 38% above August levels and 25% higher than in September. Filings fell around 7% from October to November and now remain nearly 48% below pre-pandemic levels." I suspect that this number will grow. No one wants to foreclose or evict during the Christmas season. It's bad optics. Don’t get me wrong. I do feel some sympathy for these people. Being evicted and losing one’s home is a traumatic event for people and some never recover from the experience. On the other hand, what is conveniently omitted from these types of stories of rising evictions is the fact that many of these same people collected thousands of dollars during the “pandemic” as a result of the expanded unemployment benefits that were given them – let’s not forget that many of these people collected more money being unemployed than they made while working at their jobs. They also enjoyed a backside benefit in the way of eviction moratoriums whereby landlords were left holding the bag while tenants were allowed to live rent free in their apartments, houses, etc. The government completely screwed the pooch by giving the renters the upper hand in being able to “squat”.

Evictions take time to work their way through the courts. Foreclosures take even longer. In the long run, the only real winners in this fiasco will be the lawyers and court staff. "There was a batch of initial commentary coming out when the moratorium ended and the tone ... was, well, there wasn’t a tsunami so we don’t have an eviction crisis on our hands,” said Ben Martin, senior researcher at Texas Housers, a nonprofit focused on housing issues. “That initial narrative was somewhat misleading. What we are seeing is a reflection of reality, which is that evictions take time to work their way into and through the court system.” “We have so much more work to do,” U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, said, citing data showing that evictions during the pandemic “have taken lives.” There are some states and local governments that “feel, ‘We don’t want this money. We don’t want this federal aid," she said. "And, we have some landlords who say that they don’t want the money as well. So that makes it harder for the money to be dispersed.” What Cori Bush does not understand is that landlords do not want to continue to house a tenant who would gladly accept public funding and protection from eviction for nearly two years while thumbing their nose at their landlord when rent was due. Under no set of circumstances do they want to continue to deal with their current tenants. I wouldn’t. And, in the current environment where I could finally get rid of my deadbeat, fix up my apartment or house or condo and raise the rent 40% for a new and properly vetted tenant, I would do so in a heartbeat.