The homeowner default rate has doubled in California while the average apartment now rents for $1413 a month.
Workers get squeezed as owners get richer. Homes prices now are flat or falling, so a homeowner can’t bail out by selling the home, as it might take too long or the house isn’t worth enough. Most defaults and foreclosures are due to people losing their job or having health problems, compounded by mortgages with baby payments in the beginning that soon balloon into something way higher.
People should be able to live in affordable housing near where they work, but quite the opposite is happening now.