Renters are next victims of the housing market

``With apartment and rental housing construction halved in recent years and a wave of former homeowners competing for apartment space with "echo boomers" and other renters, conditions have suddenly ripened for landlords to raise the rent... Last year the rental market quietly shifted from a tenants' market to what is now decidedly a landlord's market, said Chris Herbert, research director at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The supply of properties is tightening and vacancy rates are dropping, so landlords have been emboldened to raise the rent.''