Rents are going through the roof across much of the U.S.
CBSN
Ryan David didn't expect the modest one-bedroom apartment he owned in Dupont, Pennsylvania, to set off a bidding war. But when David listed the second-floor unit for rent in February, he got 160 applications in only a few days — about five times what he'd normally expect. One would-be tenant offered to pay an entire year's rent upfront. Another who had recently moved to the area, offered to pay $650 a month — $50 more than David was asking.
"That really opened my eyes," David said. "Two years ago people might not have wanted it, but now it was a feeding frenzy." Since last summer, David has watched the rent on apartment listings in northeast Pennsylvania surge to $700 or $800 a month for a one-bedroom — several hundred dollars higher than is typical in this working-class enclave, where the biggest city is formerly industrial Scranton. At the same time, he's observed a growing number of New York license plates in the local streets.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.