You might want to read Ed Yardeni’s post on increasing rents as a possible driver of inflation. The TL;DR version is that people are moving but restrictions being placed on builders especially those related to COVID-19 has cut the inventory of homes on the market which predisposes people to rent which in turn pushes up rents. Or, said another way, it’s our old friends supply and demand.
Meanwhile in their normal counter-productive way politicians are calling for rent and mortgage jubilees while state and local governments are raising property taxes. Here in Illinois a lot of that is to pay the pensions of retired public workers and keep paying present public workers not work. It’s a short life but a merry one.
As I have stated in previous comments, inflation is always a monetary phenomenon, and while it can affect consumer prices, it mostly manifests in asset prices.
So, housing prices increasing because of lumber increases caused by shutting down the economy is not inflation, but housing prices increasing because repealing Glass-Steagall provided a massive increase in the credit supply is inflation.
The sudden lifting of lease and mortgage forbearance is going to have catastrophic consequences for many people. Forbearance is not abatement, and since landlords and mortgage companies were not the cause of the problem, they should not be responsible to fix it.
The culprit should be responsible, but the government is the culprit. In my opinion, the best solution would not be a jubilee but an interest-free government loan. They should be dischargeable in a bankruptcy, but unfortunately, there would quickly be a cry to forgive these loans.
It’s a short life but a merry one.
At some point, the music stops, and some body(s) is left without a chair. My advice is to get out while you can. Otherwise, you will end up with a neighbor’s dog eating your car’s bumper. (Shout-out to @Icepick)