On the program today we will do some housing, we'll do a little bit of bank lending, and then pickleball.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Rizdal. It is Tuesday, today the 11th day of April good as always to have you along.

Everybody, let's talk real estate, shall we? Housing.

Prices are still going up more slowly than they have been, but still up.

Mortgage rates same, there have been some swings, but a 30 year fixed is bumping up against 7% again.

And given that, you might say to yourself, forget buying, let's just rent.

Oh, were it only that simple? Marketplace's suburbina sure is on it.

You know what a lot of people do when mortgage rates are too high to buy?

They'll stay in the rental market longer.

Andrew Justice is a housing policy analyst at the Niscanon Center.

So if existing renters stay and new renters keep coming, the only thing that can change is price.

The rent goes up.

And it makes it harder for everyone to afford their rent from month to month.

Some analysts question this theory because it doesn't change the overall supply of homes and unbought homes can be converted to rentals.

But Logan Mota-Shamie, lead analyst for Housing Wire, says if ever there was a year where people were trapped into renting, it was last year.

We had the biggest mortgage rate spike in recent modern day history.

So definitely there were some first time home buyers that were renters that, you know, just say, listen, I can't even afford to buy a house at 7% mortgage rates.

But despite all those trapped renters, we see rent inflation coming down.

One reason is that supply has come to the rescue a little bit.

New construction of rental housing, particularly multifamily housing, has really been booming over the last six months.

Lisa Sturdivant is chief economist with Bright MLS, a real estate data company in the mid-Atlantic.

...