We all know rent is getting more expensive throughout the country.

That's Abba Bhattarai, economics correspondent for the post.

But Martin, let me just read to you a list of some of the cities where we're seeing this most dramatically.

Austin, Texas rose 40% last year, New York City, 35%. Newark, New Jersey, 35%.

Abba says that the rising cost of rent is expected to drive up the high inflation that we're seeing this year.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 34%. Miami, 34%. West Palm Beach, 34%.

Abba, I have a lot of family in South Florida and I'm just like in physical pain for them when I see how expensive things have gotten there.

It is nuts and when I talk to people from Florida, like everybody is like, we have so many New Yorkers moving here.

We have so many people from San Francisco moving here. Everybody just wants to live here and work from home.

So I really feel for Floridians.

According to Abba, all of this comes down to the fact that demand is exceeding supply.

And so with rent going up and up, more and more people are facing hard decisions about whether they can make ends meet or if they should move out.

From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Martine Powers. It's Thursday, February 10th.

So Abba, I know that we have talked about this with all of our friends and family anecdotally, but you have really crunched the numbers.

And it is very true that rent is getting more expensive all around the country. Why is that?

Well, you know, during the pandemic, we've heard a lot about rising house prices.

Early on, we started to see housing prices just totally skyrocket. But we've heard less about rents. And there's been a bit of a delayed reaction there.

And part of that is just because of the way the pandemic has played out.

And so early on, a bunch of people hunkered down together. Young adults in particular moved in with their parents at levels we hadn't seen since the Great Depression.

And then last year, as things sort of started to go back to normal, all of those young adults started to branch out.

They started to look for their own places. People who had been living with roommates decided, hey, you know, maybe I want a place with my own.

It kind of became more of a necessity because of COVID and also because more people are working from home. And it's harder to maybe, you know, be on Zoom all day when all of your roommates are doing the same thing.

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