When the Gallup poll recently asked Americans to name their top personal finance

concerns this election year, the cost of housing was second behind only inflation.

More people cited it that at any time since Gallup started asking the question in 2005.

And little wonder, rents are well above what they were before the pandemic.

Earlier I spoke with Diane Yantel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and

asked what's keeping rents high?

Well, so in some places rents have cooled from those historic highs. They've leveled off or are even declining a bit in some communities, but the rents still remain well above those pre-pandemic levels.

Over half of all renters pay more than a third of their income towards rent.

So rental costs are still quite out of reach

for the average renter and especially for people

with low or extremely low incomes.

You say that in some places rents are cooling off or dipping a little bit.

Where is that and what's going on in those areas?

It's primarily because either demand is down or supply is up or in some cases both.

So in some places there are some of the higher income renters who have been able to move into the home ownership market so there's a little bit less pressure and demand on the rental market in that community.

In other places they're building more and those new multifamily units are starting to come online.

We are still well behind where we need to be in terms of building enough apartments to meet the demand in communities

across the country.

And that's why rents overall are stubbornly high.

And it's important to note, even in those places

where we are building more, the rents are coming down a little bit from those historic highs,

but remain well out of reach for people with the lowest incomes,

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