• Linda Lara, 72, was pushed out of her apartment of 30 years after a significant rent hike.
• She was able to move to a subsidized apartment in senior housing, which she calls a "miracle."
• But despite working part-time and receiving Social Security, Lara struggles with limited savings.

Linda Lara always wanted to become a homeowner. But being a single mother, taking care of her elderly parents, and helping raise her three granddaughters made it impossible to ever cobble together enough for a downpayment.

Nearly six years ago, Lara was lucky enough to get off the waitlist at a subsidized senior housing development in San Mateo, California, the city 30 minutes south of San Francisco that she's called home for decades. Despite her below-market-rate rent, Lara still has to work 20 hours a week to supplement her Social Security checks and pay her bills. Like many older Americans BI has spoken with, Lara doesn't think she'll ever be able to retire.

When Lara's daughter was 12 years old, they moved into a one-bedroom apartment in San Mateo that Lara ended up calling home for almost 30 years. They loved the neighborhood, the old apartment's "charming" features, and, most importantly, the affordable rent. Lara never wanted to leave.

"It had hardwood floors, arches, it had an old Wedgewood stove. It had French doors that went out to a patio," Lara told BI. "It was a really sweet little apartment."

But in 2019, the apartment building was sold. The new owners informed Lara they were more than doubling her rent, which she couldn't afford.

Luckily, Lara had entered herself into several lotteries for low-income senior apartments a few years earlier. Just as she faced being forced out of her home, she was informed she'd been selected for a 380-square-foot studio apartment in a subsidized building catering to older residents just a couple blocks away from her long-time home. She seized the opportunity and quickly moved in, relieved to pay less than $800 a month in rent.

"It was like a miracle, a gift from heaven that presented itself right when I needed it," Lara said.

But the rent rises every year. It's now about $1,000 a month. Lara works part-time as an office administrator for the county parks department, which pays her about $2,170 a month, and she collects $1,547 in monthly Social Security. Her Social Security payments are less than they otherwise would be because she took the benefit early, at 62, when she stopped working full-time to help take care of her granddaughters.

Lara worries that if she loses her job or is no longer able to work, she won't be able to afford even her subsidized home. With very little in savings, retirement is out of the question.

"I'll be working probably until I die," she said. "Unless I move somewhere far away that's much less expensive."

Are you struggling to afford your housing costs, or unable to find suitable housing to age in? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com.

Scarce retirement housing

Lara is far from alone. One in five Americans 50 or older say they have no retirement savings, and more than half are concerned they don't have enough saved to last them through the end of their life, an AARP survey found last year.

Housing is a big part of the problem. Many baby boomers are struggling to find affordable and accessible homes to age in. Even those who own their home and have seen their home equity soar in recent years are having trouble finding smaller homes to downsize to.

A record number of homeowners 65 and older — about one-third of older households —are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities, a 2023 Harvard report found. This is particularly difficult for those on fixed incomes. As a result, older people are increasingly facing homelessness. Single adults 50 or older are now estimated to account for about half of the US homeless population, up from about 10% three decades ago.

Lara doesn't want to move far away. She has deep roots in her community, and her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters live nearby. She said she didn't fear being pushed out of San Mateo or the Bay Area when she was raising her daughter. But these days, she said, it feels like nothing is affordable.

"Apartment prices are out of control," she said. "I have to stay in this apartment until I probably can't afford this anymore, and then I don't know what I'll do."

• An Australian town is offering up to $428,000 a year and rent-free accommodation to be its doctor.
• Julia Creek, Queensland, is 19 hours drive away from the nearest major city.
• Australia is facing a doctor shortage, prompting rural areas to offer competitive packages.

A remote town in the Australian outback is looking for a doctor. To sweeten the deal, the town is offering a generous salary, rent-free accommodation, and a car allowance.

The catch? You'd be the only doctor in an isolated town that is a 19-hour drive from the nearest major city — Brisbane.

The North West Hospital and Health Service is advertising for a senior medical officer in Julia Creek, Queensland, an outback town of about 550 people.

The job listing shows that the role would offer an annual salary of up to $680,277 in Australian currency, or about $428,000. That's almost seven times the average Australian salary.

The position also includes rent-free accommodation, a motor vehicle allowance, and 3.6 weeks of annual professional development leave.

"Your primary role will be as the sole doctor providing clinical care for the community," the listing said. This would include seeing patients in primary care clinics, on the ward, and in retirement homes.

It listed one of the perks as "no traffic jams or long commute here."

While there may be no long commutes, the town is far from urban life and its conveniences. It's so isolated that most high-school students there need to go to boarding schools.

The nearest small cities are Mount Isa, about a three-hour drive away, and Townsville City, which takes more than eight hours to drive to.

Brisbane, the third-most populous city in Australia, is over 1,000 miles away, or a 19-hour drive.

Back in 2022, Julia Creek put out a hiring call to fill the role. The listing went viral and attracted applicants from all over the world, with a doctor from Brisbane eventually chosen to fill the role.

He's now leaving.

Australia is facing a growing shortage of general practitioners, with the government estimating a shortfall of thousands by 2048.

The situation is particularly bad in rural and remote areas, the country's Department of Health and Aged Care said in an August 2024 report.

As a result, some isolated towns are offering highly competitive packages to entice doctors to leave major cities.

In 2023, the Shire of Quairading, about two hours east of Perth, which is considered one of the world's most isolated major cities, offered a salary equivalent to $189,000 along with a four-bedroom home.

The General Practice Registrars Australia said that rural areas typically offer much higher salaries, along with incentives like housing and relocation payments, to address difficulties in attracting medical professionals.

• US apartment prices are near all-time highs before the busy moving season begins.
• Consumers are bracing for higher inflation this year, and they may be right.
• A real-estate veteran shared why rent may reach record highs in the coming months.

Renters who are thinking about moving this year may want to strike before they're priced out.

Although apartment prices have drifted downward in recent months, there's reason to suspect that they'll accelerate to record highs during the bustling spring and summer seasons.

A one-bedroom unit in the 100 largest US cities went for $1,524 in March, according to a recent report from real-estate site Zumper. That's almost identical to February when it was $1,525, and the median cost of a two-bedroom setup was unchanged at $1,905.

However, each of those rent figures is up considerably from this time last year. One-bedroom places are 2.5% more expensive, while two-bedroom fixtures are up 3.1% versus last March.

Rent is rising alongside inflation expectations. Consumers surveyed in March were anxious and said they thought prices would increase 6.2% in the next 12 months, up from 5.8% last month, according to The Conference Board's new consumer confidence report.

As rental demand picks up in the warmer weather, real-estate analysts say rent could surge.

"It feels like the calm before the storm," Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in the report.

Record rent may kick-start inflation

In many parts of the US, the metaphorical tempest is already in full force.

Apartments got more expensive in 59 of the 100 cities tracked by Zumper, including 17 markets where prices rose at a double-digit rate. Units in major metropolitan areas are right around record highs, even during a seasonally quiet stretch.

San Francisco apartments soared 10.3% to $3,200 — its highest mark in nearly five years. And New York City units rose 6.4% from last March to within $30 of their all-time high, Zumper noted.

Jonathan Miller, the cofounder of New York-based real-estate firm Miller Samuel, recently said his research shows that median rents in the Big Apple have never been higher. Apartment costs steadily rose from October through February — long after the peak season of July and August.

Unless there's a recession, which some economists say is increasingly a risk, this may continue.

"If a record was set in February before the market really gets going — barring any change in the state of the economy — we could very well see new records being set quite a few more times this year," Miller told Business Insider.

Although that observation is primarily about the New York market, Miller said it could apply to the rest of the US as well, with the possible exception of the supply-dense Sun Belt region.

Apartment inventory soared to a 50-year high last summer, especially in warmer areas that became popular during the pandemic. But these supply increases may have gone too far, Miller said, as rents are now tumbling in places like North Carolina and Texas.

"Within the Sun Belt, it seems very unlikely because of overbuilding and oversupply," Miller said of rent records. "Outside of the Sun Belt, there's definitely potential for record or near-record prices, but it's really a local phenomenon."

The rental market is prone to the boom-bust cycle that commodities experience, so if apartment supply rises too much and brings down prices in the Sun Belt, builders will pull back. Indeed, Zumper noted that construction permits for new multi-family units are plunging right now.

In the meantime, renters may have plenty of options in the Sun Belt, but apartment availability elsewhere may be more limited. Limited supply combined with lofty mortgage rates, which take home purchases off the table for many, mean that people may contend with higher rent prices.

"We're looking at weaker economic conditions in 2025 generally, but not a recession," Miller said. "And I just think that, even with a weak economy, there's still a potential for higher prices."

More expensive apartments could fuel inflation, and vice versa. Zumper researchers noted that the shelter component of the consumer price index lags their firm's monthly rental data, which could mean that the consumers expecting inflation to reaccelerate may be right.

"The continued rise in annual rent growth across the national rent index signals potential inflationary challenges for the Federal Reserve as it considers future rate cuts," the note read.

• Rent fell across the US for the 19th month in a row in February.
• But apartment prices in Washington, DC, rose 3.3% — even as DOGE cuts hit federal workers.
• A slowdown in new apartment construction may cause rents to surge in DC and elsewhere.

While some in Washington, DC may feel like the sky is falling, new data suggests rents there aren't.

Median rents for studios to two-bedroom apartments in the nation's capital rose 3.3% last month from the year before to $2,283, a March 19 report from Realtor.com found. That's a contrast to the 50 largest US cities, where rents slid on an annual basis for the 19th straight month to $1,691.

Eagle-eyed real-estate observers may be surprised to see higher rents in the DC metro area, which includes Virginia cities like Arlington and Alexandria as well as the Maryland suburbs.

That's because median home prices in Washington, DC, fell 3.3% year-over-year in February, according to Realtor.com — the exact inverse of what its rental data in the same span showed. The drop came as homeowners in the capital suddenly listed their homes, with inventory up between 48% and 56.2% in late February to early March versus last year, per the research firm.

DC's housing market seemed to be softening at the same time that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made major cuts to the federal workforce. Those whose jobs were eliminated may need to relocate, which could lead to a mass exodus.

However, February rental data contradicts this narrative about lower housing costs in cities with lots of federal workers, suggesting that it may be more rumor than reality — at least for now.

One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that return-to-office mandates are counteracting the DC emigration following the DOGE cuts, Realtor.com's economists remarked. Another is that this potentially seismic shift simply hasn't shown up yet.

"I don't think our data is totally reflecting the reality yet," Joel Berner, an economic researcher who co-authored Realtor.com's rent report, recently told Business Insider. "I think it's just a little bit behind."

Why prices could surge in DC, and beyond

Instead of rents plunging as ex-government workers look for greener pastures, there's reason to think apartment prices will surge in DC and several other major US cities in the coming years.

New rental inventory spiked to the highest level in five decades last summer, real-estate firm Zumper found, which is a compelling explanation for why apartment prices have been sagging.

But the pendulum may swing back, making new apartments harder to find in the late 2020s.

Less than 294,000 multi-family units in major cities got the green light for construction last year, Realtor.com found. That's the lowest level of approvals since 2017, even including a chaotic 2020, and is down from a peak of 461,000 in 2022.

Thirty of the 50 biggest US markets saw double-digit declines in multi-family permit approvals — including 23 down by 20% or more. That includes the DC area, where approvals plunged 35%.

"The current trend of declining rents over the past 19 months and a still-sizable number of multi-family units under construction have impacted builders' enthusiasm for new projects," Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist, said in a statement.

This apparent apartment-construction bust could worsen the US housing shortage, which Realtor.com estimates is already at 3.8 million units. In turn, rents could reverse higher, especially in major markets like New York, where apartments rose by a nation-leading 6.8%.

"The current trend of falling rents may not be sustained," Hale and Berner wrote. "We expect rents to start to grow again in the coming years as the pace of new units hitting the market slows."

• The first time I was laid off, my son was 11 months old.
• We had a 9% mortgage and diapers for him, but the loss of my job hit me hard emotionally.
• The experience taught me to let go of shame and that job losses are a blip in our life.

On January 27, 2009, The Daily Show covered the continuing onslaught of jobs in what would later be called "The Great Recession." Jon Stewart announced that Pfizer, GE, and other large companies laid off thousands of employees that day. I was one of them, receiving my call from my Fortune 100 company that morning.

Our only son was a freshman at a pricey private university in an expensive East Coast city. He had merit scholarships, but we were on the hook for four years of housing and travel. Still, that was not my career's worst day, far from it.

I walked away with a year's Cadillac-plan health insurance, a lump sum, and bonuses I had saved. Our son was deep into his studies and social life and mostly oblivious to what happened at home. My husband was tenured and a full professor.

I survived because of what I learned after another layoff.

I was first laid off when he was a baby

When our son was 11 months old, my position in marketing management was eliminated. My boss and the human resources director invited me to the executive conference room. I learned that five service lines and employees were cut. I could not return to my cubicle, someone fetched my purse, and later, I received my possessions in a cardboard box via the mail.

Mortgage rates were high, and a month before our son was born, we had purchased our first home at an interest above 9%. My husband was still working on tenure; our son needed diapers, day care, and all the costly accouterments of toddlerhood.

Before my layoff, I had been struggling with post-partum depression. I had a miscarriage, my third early pregnancy loss, when our son was 5 months old. When I got home from my layoff meeting, I lay on the couch and barely got up for three months. Losing the job added to my despair, and I felt shame and embarrassment.

Therapy helped me get out

Depressed, I stopped eating and watched 13-inch black-and-white TV all day, enduring Kathie Lee Gifford's insufferable daily motherhood segment on "Regis and Kathie Lee."

I didn't hold the baby for weeks. My husband took him to and from the sitter. In addition to working full-time, he cooked and cleaned. He went through hell, holding all three of us together. He was a rock star.

When my doctor told me, "You are a nervous mother," and prescribed Valium, my husband suggested a new doctor. My new female doctor sent me to therapy. With help, I pulled myself by my fingernails out of the dark well into the light.

I felt better and took my son to the mall in his stroller. Two former co-workers waved me over to their food court table.

"Is life terrible?" one asked. I felt their pity and contempt as if I wore a huge scarlet A.

I wasn't dead — I was walking with my beautiful child. Seeing these two men who hadn't been fired changed something inside me. And what I saw behind their sorrow for me was their fear they could lose their jobs.

I wasn't afraid to lose a job anymore

I learned that I could control how I felt about myself.

I also lost the fear of losing my job, having learned I could survive. The latter is a huge asset.

As life returned to normal, I enjoyed time with my family. I've learned to treasure ordinary days without chaos, illness, and maybe a blue sky and sunshine. Nine months after losing my job, I started a better one.

I still feel guilty about how I ignored my child and left everything to my husband after my first layoff. Our family has experienced difficulties in 40 years and shared memorable times. I no longer feel shame, and those two job losses seem like a blip on a large radar screen. My first firing shaped a healthier attitude about life for me and strengthened our family despite the bad times. That we recover from our struggles is the best lesson we could give our son.

• I became a mother at 18, despite never planning to have children.
• But I still prioritized my children, teaching them about culture and allowing them to be curious.
• My parenting must have worked because they're becoming successful adults.

When I was younger, I never wanted children. Being responsible for another person felt overwhelming and exhausting. Honestly, becoming a parent was not for me, especially because I wasn't motherly.

But there I was, at 18, pregnant with my first child. Impatient and easily annoyed, I was about to become a mother. With a growing belly, I attended my senior prom and high school graduation, watching my classmates embrace their newfound freedom while I faced a completely different reality.

The moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew one thing for sure: If I was going to do this, I had to do it right. There was no room for half-assing motherhood. I had seen too many examples of what happened when people weren't intentional about raising kids, and I refused to let my child become a product of neglect or lack of guidance. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end.

I decided to embrace motherhood with determination

Parenting is a delicate balance. I had to not repeat the same mistakes my parents made while unintentionally making an entirely new set of mistakes. Still, my husband and I were determined to create a home prioritizing love, discipline, and honesty.

We approached parenting with a clear goal: We would lead by example.

I was young, but I wasn't clueless. If I wanted my (now two) children to take school seriously, they had to see me taking life seriously. So, I set the standard. I worked hard, remained curious, and showed them what perseverance looked like.

I tried expanding their minds beyond the classroom

Beyond academics, I wanted them to have a well-rounded perspective on life. I gave them an appreciation for older music and different genres. Most kids their age know nothing about "Hotel California" or The Rolling Stones, but my kids do. I taught them to listen to the actual words of a song — not just the beat. Music is storytelling, and I wanted them to appreciate the artistry behind it.

I also taught them how to think for themselves, to question everything, and to not blindly follow what everyone else was doing. We had deep conversations about the world, about decision-making, and about the importance of logic.

They saw all the movies I loved growing up, including my favorites, "Forrest Gump" and "Clueless."

I exposed them to all types of food so they could learn about different cultures and ways of cooking. I hoped they'd become curious about the world beyond their immediate environment.

My husband and I balanced each other out

To be honest, I was never a "fun mom." My neurodivergence made me avoid crowds, and when I did try to be fun, it usually didn't turn out well. I wasn't the mom signing up for every school event or planning extravagant parties. That wasn't and still isn't my thing.

My husband, on the other hand, was the field trip dad. He chaperoned school outings, ensuring the kids had fun experiences while I recharged at home. He was also the homework helper when I just needed time to breathe. We balanced each other out.

Raising kids has never been about perfection. We realized it's about being present, accountable, and honest. I never sugarcoated life for my children. I told them the truth, showed them the consequences of their actions, and reminded them that while they were loved unconditionally, expectations still had to be met. There were rules, but there was also space for laughter, real conversations, and the understanding that we were all growing together.

My kids are now excelling

I must have done something right. My 21-year-old daughter is currently in her junior year at one of Maryland's top universities, excelling in her studies as a pre-med public health major.

My younger daughter, now in 11th grade, scored an impressive score on her PSAT and even received a letter from Stanford University inviting her to a summer program.

Looking back, I realize that the version of me at 18 — the one who never wanted kids, who feared she wasn't "motherly" enough — had no idea what she was truly capable of.

Parenthood wasn't something that came naturally to me, but I showed up every day, committed to doing my best. And, if my kids' success is any measure of how I did, I'd say I didn't do too bad after all.

• William Harrington became a stay-at-home dad to support his wife, Heather's, career growth.
• Heather's career in digital management outpaced childcare costs, which prompted the decision.
• When they married in 2022, William took her last name. He now helps her with her company.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with William Harrington, a stay-at-home dad from Lewisville, Texas. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I met my wife, Heather, through mutual friends in 2010. I was 19 and homeless, and she, at 21, was raising two small children on her own. When she offered me a place to stay, what started as kindness blossomed quickly into love after just two weeks.

Heather's children immediately became a cherished part of my life. I went from not having much in the world to being a young stepparent. As a stepkid myself, I wanted to provide the permanency and stability I lacked while growing up. Heather was waitressing at the time while she taught herself to code.

She now supports our entire family of five, and I stay home to care for the kids and run the household.

By the time we had our third child, one of us needed to stay home

In 2012, after two years together, I got a job as an opening manager at Sonic, working 55 to 60 hours weekly.

Shortly before that, my wife landed her first big job as a digital experience manager at an advertising agency.

Around this time, she got pregnant with our youngest. We weighed the childcare options versus my pay and my wife's, as Heather earned more, and childcare was more expensive than what I made. As Heather's career was quickly ascending, we decided it would be best if I quit my job and stayed home.

Running a house is constant work

At home, I ensure the kids get to school and all their needs are met, and I take care of all house chores and cooking.

Many people in my life imagine I've got all this free time and am doing nothing. Family can be particularly judgmental. Once, a relative asked me, "When will you be a man?" Navigating societal expectations and stereotypes about gender roles can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.

It's hard to be your own cheerleader sometimes with that criticism. Social isolation can also be challenging, as my daily environment doesn't provide the adult interactions I once had in a traditional work setting. When I reflect, I remember my fantastic relationship with my kids, which is stronger than anything I had with my parents.

In March 2017, we bought our first house

Over the next few years, Heather quickly moved from manager to director to vice president and eventually chief digital officer of two companies.

Buying our first house was a significant milestone because I was the first grandchild in our family to own a home. It was such a gift to our children to move from a two-bedroom apartment into a four-bedroom house.

My wife has made six figures for the past seven years, and it covers all our expenses and then some. Having all your bills paid is a unique feeling, but I'm also starting to build a new career path.

In 2019, I started massage school part-time and got my degree. I've always been interested in how the human body works and felt connected to healing.

We married in September 2022

I admire her so much that I even took her last name.

In 2023, Heather started her company, Level Up Digital, a marketing and technology development agency.

In addition to my massage work, I've been helping by learning to build websites, write blog content, and manage digital property. I've never been great at managing money, so I give any funds to my wife so she can handle it wisely.

Working together has been smoother than I expected. It doesn't mean it's always easy, but we check in, take breaks, and make time for our family. I've gained new titles and credibility in the eyes of those who judged me for being a stay-at-home dad.

Home life now is fantastic

Since Heather works from home, we can balance cooking and parenting. As the kids get older, I want to open my own business and brand for massage therapy. I'm most excited about joining in and helping Heather with her business.

We're so happy to be able to give our kids every opportunity they deserve, and I'm excited about the future of Heather's growing agency.

• I'm nearly 10 years older than my younger siblings, and have always helped take care of them.
• I've given them baths, fed them, advocated for them at school, and hosted them in my apartment.
• Having this kind of relationship has made me more confident I can be a good parent.

When I was little, I begged my mom for a younger sibling, but she swore she was done having kids. I dreamt of feeling her belly kick, going on stroller walks, and helping hush the sound of loud cries.

Roughly five years later, my dream came true — not just once, but twice. My younger sister arrived first, followed by my younger brother just 13 months later. I was so excited that my fourth-grade teacher let me count down the days until my mom's first round of labor on the classroom whiteboard.

By then, my parents had been divorced for a few years. My older brother and I lived with our dad, and we didn't have much contact with our mom. But when she told us she was having a baby, everything changed.

I felt destined to be a big sister

I had always known I was meant to be a big sister. Every chance I got, I was at my mom's house, giving baths, feeding bottles, and waiting impatiently for the babies to wake from their naps so we could play outside. My mom never asked me to help; these were things I insisted on doing.

As I got older, I understood just how vital my role as a big sister was. My siblings' father was either incarcerated or absent in their early years, and my mom had little help. It wasn't until they were five and six years old that he started seeing them consistently. By then, my older brother and I had stepped into the roles their father hadn't, becoming more like parents than siblings.

When I left for college, my responsibilities didn't fade. My siblings spent weekends in my dorm room and, later, in my tiny apartments. I took them to the beach, museums, theater productions, and the zoo. Once, I even organized a monthlong trip for them to give my mom a break when my mom was overwhelmed by being a single parent over the summer.

A few years earlier, she had moved away from where most of our family lived for a fresh start and to be closer to her parents. Since I was still near most of our extended family, I saw a way to help. I reached out to family members who I knew would be delighted to host my siblings and put together a calendar, including a week staying with me, full of activities. That summer was one I don't think they'll ever forget, one filled with swimming pools, time with their cousins, and endless love.

All I asked of my mom was that she drive five hours to drop them off at my apartment at the start of the trip. From there, I handled the rest and returned them home safely after their summer adventure was over.

Taking care of my siblings was normal for me

I never questioned whether this kind of sibling-parenting was normal because, for me, it just was. It was second nature to always pack snacks, keep sunscreen handy, and hold hands while crossing the street.

I protected my siblings like they were my own children because, on some days, it felt like they were.

Now, my younger siblings are in high school, but my role in their lives hasn't changed. They know they can call me if they need a ride, advice, or someone to vent to. I'm the person they reach out to when they have big news to share, need photos before a school dance, or want me in the crowd at their extracurricular activities.

When I briefly worked as a substitute teacher after moving to the same city as them, I even taught in their classes. Instead of being embarrassed, they seemed proud to have me there.

Being a big sister has meant celebrating their wins, showing up when it counts, and stepping in when they need me most. Last year, my sister was harassed and cyberbullied by a group of girls. When the cruel behavior wouldn't stop, I marched into her school and demanded action from the principal.

When I get nervous about becoming a parent, I realize I already have experience

I will never stop advocating for my younger siblings — not because they need me to, but because I want to.

I'm almost 30 now, standing on the edge of motherhood. And some days, the thought of being a mom scares me. That is, until I remember: I've already been a parent figure to two of the most incredible people I know.

I've never doubted my mom's strength, but I'm grateful I could step in and share the load of caregiving with her.

• It was always my dream, but raising two kids as a stay-at-home mom was harder than I thought.
• I lost my identity during my kids' infant and toddler years, and getting it back took work.
• My kids are teens now, and I love to see new moms holding onto their own identities and interests.

I was 27 when I had my first baby, and like most people in their late 20s, I thought I had everything figured out. I'd been raised in a conservative church environment where women were taught their main purpose was to become a wife and then a mother. My husband and I had been married for a few years when we decided to start our family. Bringing a baby into our home felt, at the time, like I was finally fulfilling my purpose.

When my son was 2, I gave birth to our daughter. Our family was complete, and I felt proud I'd locked down a husband and had two babies before 30. All that was left to do was enjoy motherhood — or so I thought.

I love being a mom, but early on, I lost myself

Being a mom has always come easy to me, but in those tear-filled, sleepless infant and toddler years, motherhood had a cost. Now in my 40s with two teenagers, I see how I lost my own identity somewhere between hand-sewing Halloween costumes and scheduling park playdates. Rediscovering who I was at my core was tough once I realized I was lost in mom life, but I'm proof it's possible.

Before I had kids, I acted in community theater, went to a monthly book club, traveled, and maintained things like nail and hair appointments. I also had a career. In an office. Where I interacted with other adult humans daily. When my babies arrived, there was no time for reading, acting, or leaving my neighborhood. I traded salon mani-pedis and pricey blonde hair for drugstore polish and some pretty bad home-hair-dye mishaps.

I don't regret being a stay-at-home mom, though it took a toll

My dad, who was my best friend, died unexpectedly when my first child was an infant, and in one of our last conversations, he admonished me to quit my job. "Babies are only small for a little while, Terri," he told me, "this is time you'll never get back." Two weeks later, my dad was gone, and a mixture of grief and thinking his advice was sound led me to quit a job I adored — an executive director position at a non-profit organization — and become a stay-at-home mom. I don't regret it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't incredibly difficult.

There are so many perks to losing yourself in being a mommy to two small humans. The memories, love, and closeness I still share with my kids to this day make those difficult years of wiping butts, handling toddler tantrums at the grocery store, and navigating the surprisingly icky world of making mom "friends" worth it.

Today, my kids are approaching 17 and 15, and I'd give up almost anything to rock my thumb-sucking baby girl to sleep or hear my toddler son mispronounce "yogurt" one more time. But I'm also glad to have myself back — to know that I'm a mom and a billion other things, from a frequent world traveler to a secret lover of smutty romance novels.

Remembering who I was pre-motherhood was tough, but worth it

A lot of things broke in my life before I rediscovered myself. My marriage suffered in my kids' elementary school years. I started therapy, made tough decisions to distance myself from my family for mental health reasons, took control of my health and lost 100 pounds, and, most recently, stopped drinking alcohol completely. But it wasn't just big changes that helped me rediscover myself. I chipped and chiseled away at my exterior of being "Bennet and Kennedy's mom" to find someone who loves long walks outside, thrifting, keeping a small circle of trusted friends, and cooking. I'm still their mom, but it's not the most interesting thing about me, and that makes me a better mom to them both.

These days, I'm blown away by young moms who refuse to let go of their identity. I hear them on podcasts, see them in my community, and watch them on social media as they parent and write books, go to movie theaters, travel kid-free with their spouse, and schedule a mid-day massage while someone else looks after their kids.

I wish I'd had moms like that in my life when I was younger, but since I didn't, I'm always the first to tell new moms it's OK to take time for themselves in whatever form is meaningful for them. The young moms I cheer the hardest for are the ones I see holding onto themselves while parenting, because it's the key to it all.

• Few large companies appear to have the appetite to make big acquisitions in healthcare this year.
• Startups desperate to sell may find better luck with other digital health companies flush with cash.
• Here are seven healthcare startups that look poised to make more deals in 2025.

Many healthcare startups and investors are hoping for a fresh wave of M&A in 2025 after a slow few years for company combinations — and the right buyers might just be their startup peers.

At the end of 2024, many healthcare startups were quietly raising down rounds and looking around for buyers to extend their lifespans, Business Insider reported in November.

While some startups are desperate for deals, nearly a dozen investors and bankers told BI in February that few large companies had the appetite to make big acquisitions in healthcare this year.

"In digital health, it's not necessarily that it doesn't make sense to consolidate — it's there's a lack of consolidators out there," said Aaron DeGagne, a senior healthcare analyst at PitchBook.

But those startups could find a new home with other digital health startups that are flush with cash. Several healthcare startups have been vocal about their M&A ambitions this year as they await dropping interest rates and are eager to jump on opportunities for inorganic growth.

These are seven healthcare startups that appear ready to make more acquisitions in 2025.

Caresyntax

Founded: 2013

Last fundraise: $180 million in Series C extension and growth debt expansion funding in August 2024.

The surgical software company Caresyntax is planning on using a fresh fundraise to power acquisitions.

Caresyntax, which combines information from surgical videos, medical records, and other sources to help make surgeries safer and more profitable, grabbed $180 million in August. In a release about the funding round, the company said it was looking to make several acquisitions in 2024 and beyond.

Josh Zeidman, Caresyntax's chief business officer, told BI the company was looking for acquisitions in areas such as surgical AI applications, video analytics, and data capture modules.

He said Caresyntax was primarily considering deals with venture-backed startups or other small private companies rather than with private equity or public companies.

Caresyntax said in its August release that it had acquired multiple surgical data and technology assets in 2023, though it didn't name those acquisitions. Zeidman told BI that Caresyntax's primary get in 2023 was acquiring the team behind health data consulting company CQInsights, including its CEO, Dr. Bruce Ramshaw, who became Caresyntax's chief medical informatics officer.

Commure

Founded: 2017

Last fundraise: $70 million from General Catalyst, as part of Commure's $6 billion merger with Athelas in October 2023

M&A is a core part of the healthcare startup Commure's playbook.

Commure, the health software company cofounded by General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, has made seven acquisitions to date. Former employees told BI in September that Commure's leadership regularly touted the slogan "M&A is in our DNA."

Most recently, the startup bought the care coordination platform Memora Health in December.

Memora Health was another General Catalyst investment, as was Athelas, the revenue cycle management company Commure merged with in 2023.

Commure also announced in July a $139 million all-cash acquisition of the public medical scribing company Augmedix.

Commure didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.

Datavant

Founded: 2017

Last fundraise: Sixth Street and other investors contributed an undisclosed amount of funding in 2021 to support Datavant's $7 billion merger with Ciox Health.

The health data startup Datavant is hunting for more deals after kicking off a fresh M&A push in the fall.

CEO Kyle Armbrester told BI in January that the company, which has made 11 acquisitions since 2017, planned to make at least "one or two" more acquisitions in early 2025.

Datavant manages patient data exchanges between providers, payers, and life sciences organizations. The private equity firm New Mountain Capital is Datavant's controlling shareholder.

Datavant most recently made two deals in September: It bought the data privacy organization Trace Data and two data analytics products from the healthcare AI startup Apixio.

Armbrester said Datavant was looking for companies building technology for healthcare providers and life sciences organizations, especially those with existing market traction.

"We're large and diversified, and I think we're in a really good space to take a smaller smarter and apply their logic or artificial intelligence or analytics across that vast network to see a lot of benefit," Armbrester said.

Flare Capital Partners' Parth Desai told BI in December that he expected private-equity-backed healthcare companies to make tuck-in acquisitions in 2025 as they prepare for potential IPOs in 2026.

Hinge Health

Founded: 2014

Last fundraise: $400 million in Series E funding in October 2021

2025 could be the year that Hinge Health finally goes public. Multiple investors and bankers told BI in February that the physical therapy startup was the best choice for the year's first digital health IPO, with margins more closely resembling a software company than a healthcare services provider.

Hinge Health hired banks including Morgan Stanley last year to prepare for a public market debut, hoping to go public in early 2025, BI reported in September.

Those ambitions shouldn't preclude the startup from making acquisitions. Similar to Datavant, Hinge Health could look to notch some deals before an IPO to further its growth.

CEO Daniel Perez told BI in October 2023 that Hinge Health was actively looking for smaller companies to acquire, a sentiment the startup echoed to Endpoints News at the start of 2024.

The company hasn't announced any acquisitions since then.

Hinge Health declined to comment for this story.

Innovaccer

Founded: 2014

Last fundraise: $275 million in Series F funding in January 2025

Innovaccer is hoping to use a fresh mega-round to fuel acquisitions.

At the start of the year, the company announced its $275 million Series F round, a combination of primary and secondary investments from investors such as B Capital Group and Kaiser Permanente.

Less than two weeks later, Innovaccer announced it had bought the actuarial analytics startup Humbi AI.

Innovaccer also made two acquisitions last year, scooping up the healthcare marketing platform Cured in January 2024 and the pharmacy software company Pharmacy Quality Solutions that March.

The startup told Endpoints News this January that it was looking to buy more health tech companies this year. CEO Abhinav Shashank said Innovaccer was looking at companies working to enhance the patient experience, relieve administrative burdens for providers with automation, and decrease costs.

"Our acquisition strategy is to accelerate our roadmap by partnering with like-minded mission-driven companies that can help customers drive these transformations," Shashank said in a statement to BI.

Fabric

Founded: 2021

Last fundraise: $60 million in Series A funding in February 2024

Fabric, the only early-stage startup on this list, has centered M&A in its approach since its March 2023 launch. The healthcare startup said it planned to accelerate that strategy further this year.

Fabric made four acquisitions in 15 months, most recently buying the physician practice group TeamHealth's virtual care business in September. Before that, Fabric bought the virtual care business MeMD from Walmart, the asynchronous virtual care platform Zipnosis from Bright Health, and the generative AI startup Gyant.

Fabric sells software to help emergency rooms manage patients, including by directing them to telehealth services where appropriate. General Catalyst led its $60 million Series A round in February 2024.

Fabric's founder and CEO, Aniq Rahman, told BI in September that Fabric was starting to look at bigger acquisition targets.

"A lot of the companies that are struggling to go raise capital right now, or some of these larger businesses that are reevaluating their position in the market, are creating opportunities for us as well," he said. "Pretty much every week, there's inbound coming in from investors that are like, we have assets in our portfolio that may be accretive to what you're doing with Fabric."

Rahman told BI in February that Fabric expected to ramp up its M&A strategy even more in 2025.

He said Fabric had "already met with a few dozen companies this year around M&A" and was watching opportunities across venture-backed startups, private-equity-owned companies, and even spinouts of public companies.

Transcarent

Founded: 2020

Last fundraise: $126 million in Series D funding in May 2024

Transcarent, the healthcare benefits navigation startup helmed by Glen Tullman, the former Livongo CEO, kicked off the year with a big acquisition.

The company announced in January that it would buy its fellow care navigation company Accolade from the public markets in a $621 million all-cash deal.

It's one of at least three deals Transcarent has made to date. The startup bought 98point6's virtual care tech and physician group in March 2023 and merged with the surgical care startup BridgeHealth in 2020.

Transcarent's top M&A priority for 2025 is to successfully integrate Accolade into its business, CEO Glen Tullman told BI in a statement.

Still, he said the company remained strategically opportunistic and was consistently evaluating opportunities for growth and innovation.

Transcarent is backed by General Catalyst, which certainly hasn't shied away from M&A for its healthcare bets, as seen through Fabric and Commure's rich histories of acquisitions. Tullman's own investment firm, 7wire Ventures, also an investor in Transcarent, has similarly combined its own portfolio companies, most recently selling the mental health startup Caraway to the pediatric care company Summer Health in February.

General Catalyst and 7wire Ventures co-led Transcarent's $126 million Series D round in May.

• I had my two kids by the time I was 30 and was hoping to be a young grandparent.
• When my ex-husband and I divorced, it took time for me and my kids to heal.
• My daughter has decided she doesn't want kids, and my son isn't sure.

My mom had her three kids early, and we were out of the house by the time she was in her mid-40s. Her freedom inspired me, and I believed the best way to enjoy midlife was to have the children I always wanted earlier rather than later.

I met my now ex-husband in college, and we dated all four years of undergrad. My daughter was born in December 1981, when I was 22 — the same year we finished school. Our son was born in 1988, at the same time my husband graduated and was slated to start a surgery residency. I was 28. Our kids' births coincided with education milestones that were associated with moving to the next stage of life.

The first part of what I wanted was set. By 30, I had two kids, and they were more than four years apart, so we wouldn't have to pay double college tuition in the future. After having them, I still had plenty of time to focus on my own dreams later on. I figured that when I was ready to focus on myself, my kids would be fairly independent. Then, I'd still be young enough to enjoy grandkids when my own kids started that chapter of their lives.

My freedom precipitated the end of my marriage

After working at a long-term job that provided well for my family but was not my ideal — while my husband spent 10 years fulfilling his dream of becoming a surgeon — I turned my efforts toward my own goals. I wanted to lose 50 pounds and recover from long years of putting in long hours. My kids were teens and I also decided I wanted to quit my job to spend more time with them.

After I left my job, I took up belly dancing and started building a freelance writing business. I assumed I would have several years of fun parenting before the kids left for college, but then I got the first hint that our family would not have the future I imagined.

While I was focusing more on my own life, my husband started to resent me for pouring more energy into myself and earning less than he did. His attitude surprised and confused me. Five years later, we separated and eventually divorced.

Taking the necessary time to heal interrupted the family timeline

Both children were surprised by the divorce, but it hit my daughter the hardest. She was away in her first year of college and didn't know I had been barely holding things together to see her through high school. Her father had been engaged in an affair before we separated, and I just wanted to get her safely off to school before telling him to leave.

My kids never imagined there was anything their mom couldn't handle, but the shift completely upended our whole household. Healing was slow as we grieved the dreams and security that evaporated with the end of our family as we knew it. My son's college application process fell through the cracks after he had pulled himself together and done well in high school. I had to apologize to him for this and other disappointments.

My daughter told me recently that all the turmoil had a negative effect on her belief that she could find a good partner who would also be a good co-parent. The delay in getting her career underway also put her at a financial disadvantage for having children. Her best friend used IVF to have a child, which she is raising alone, and my daughter toyed briefly with the idea but ultimately decided against it.

For complicated reasons, the three of us have no extended family to rely on. She knows she cannot do it alone, so the burden of helping her raise a child would weigh heavily on me. We are both wistful about her decision because it means that my daughter is the last one in my direct matrilineal line.

My son resents being behind the eight ball, career-wise, but has also shared with me that he feels the weight of rescuing our family from what he called "genetic oblivion." He is a warm and compassionate man, and I have told him explicitly that I am confident he would make a great dad. He recognizes that his family will need to look after his sister after I die because she won't have a daughter to keep her company the way my kids do for me. He may have children, but it isn't guaranteed.

• Rent growth has been accelerating in recent months, though prices are still in check.
• Apartment affordability could get stretched during a seasonally busy spring.
• Here are a dozen large US cities where rent is becoming more affordable.

Tenants should be on guard, as a brief winter slowdown in the rental market may end soon.

Rent growth rose on a year-over-year basis at the fastest pace in over 12 months in February, according to fresh rental data from listings site Zumper. One-bedroom fixtures were 2.9% more expensive than last year at $1,525, and two-bedroom units surged 3.7% to $1,905. Last month, rent increased by 2.5% and 3.2%, respectively, compared to the start of 2024.

That swifter growth "is a nod to how much demand there is across the country, even at a time of record-high supply," said Zumper's Crystal Chen, who authored the report, in a message to Business Insider. Her firm said last summer that new apartment supply had hit a 50-year high.

Curiously, apartments were actually slightly cheaper this month than in January, when the median rate for one-bedroom setups was $1,534. The same was true last year, as going rates for one-bedroom apartments fell from $1,496 last January to $1,482 in February 2024.

But renters shouldn't count on more affordable apartments — in fact, the opposite may be true.

Back-to-back years of rent sliding from January to February could simply mean that more leases end in the first month of the year. A smaller pool of tenants deciding to move or re-up could translate to softer rental demand, which would temporarily cause apartment prices to pull back.

However, that relief likely won't last long, as price growth resumed in March before taking off in the late spring and early summer. Either way, the difference in median rents at the national level was just a few dollars in either direction, which is unlikely to be a major tipping point.

"Rents staying pretty flat on a monthly basis is pretty on trend with this time of year," Chen told BI. "Winter months see lower rental demand, so even as some leases end, limited competition keeps prices relatively stable until the busier spring and summer seasons."

12 top cities for deal-minded renters

Apartment prices in the 100 largest US cities that Zumper tracks each month foreshadow what's ahead for shelter inflation, which rose at the slowest rate in three years in January. But Zumper researchers are wary of leaning on lagging indicators more than their proprietary price data.

"Although shelter inflation has eased in recent months, its lagging nature — due to the way it's calculated — means the full impact has yet to be realized," said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades in a statement for the report. He added: "The annual rent increases seen in our most recent data are likely to be reflected in CPI metrics over the coming months."

More than two-thirds of the biggest US rental markets experienced rent increases in February, up from just under that mark in January. Price hikes were most prevalent in regions with fewer available apartments, like the Northeast and Midwest, Chen remarked.

Conversely, higher-inventory cities in the once-trendy Sun Belt region saw some of the largest drops, though those declines were tempered relative to early 2024.

Business Insider analyzed Zumper's latest rental data and found a dozen cities where rent for one-bedroom apartments is both below the national median of $1,525 and down more than 1% from February 2024. Below are those 12 cities, along with their median rent, year-over-year and month-over-month rent changes, and the cost savings for renters versus the national median.

1. Durham, North Carolina

One-bedroom median rent: $1,340

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -7.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 3.9%

Cost savings vs national median: $194

2. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

One-bedroom median rent: $1,000

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.8%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $534

3. Charlotte, North Carolina

One-bedroom median rent: $1,420

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.7%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -1.4%

Cost savings vs national median: $114

4. Baltimore, Maryland

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -4.4%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

5. Orlando, Florida

One-bedroom median rent: $1,490

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.9%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0.7%

Cost savings vs national median: $44

6. Boise, Idaho

One-bedroom median rent: $1,300

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.7%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0%

Cost savings vs national median: $234

7. Austin, Texas

One-bedroom median rent: $1,450

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -3.3%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -1.4%

Cost savings vs national median: $84

8. Las Vegas, Nevada

One-bedroom median rent: $1,210

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -2.4%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 0.8%

Cost savings vs national median: $324

9. Knoxville, Tennessee

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -2.3%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -3%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

10. Irving, Texas

One-bedroom median rent: $1,270

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 1.6%

Cost savings vs national median: $264

11. Glendale, Arizona

One-bedroom median rent: $1,200

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.6%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: 5.3%

Cost savings vs national median: $334

12. Minneapolis, Minnesota

One-bedroom median rent: $1,290

One-bedroom year-over-year rent change: -1.5%

One-bedroom month-over-month rent change: -2.3%

Cost savings vs national median: $244

Just a few weeks after chipmaker Tenstorrent raised nearly $700 million in funding, developers can now try out Tenstorrent’s AI accelerators on Koyeb. Tenstorrent sells AI processors built around the RISC-V instruction set architecture, and has developed its own open-source neural network library, TT-NN, and open-source low-level programming model, TT-Metalium. Tenstorrent is part of a […]

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• Homebuyers and renters have had plenty of frustrations in the last few years.
• However, affordability improved by one key measure in 2024.
• Here are 11 major US cities where buyers and renters can save more money.

Affordability remains a major problem in the US real-estate market, but buyers and renters are getting a bit more breathing room in several major cities.

Millions of Americans were less than thrilled with their living situations in 2024 — a year marked by limited property transactions due to stubbornly high mortgage rates and inflated home prices.

Those looking to buy houses largely held off, which frustrated the homeowners looking to move. Younger renters were especially unlikely to purchase property, and although they've benefited as rent has steadily fallen from its post-pandemic peaks, it's still much more costly than in 2019.

However, recently released rental data from Realtor.com shows a few silver linings for both homebuyers and renters. The research firm found that median rent in the US declined on a year-over-year basis for the 18th straight month, even though the drop was modest at -0.2%.

But the biggest takeaway is that affordability improved in a majority of the 50 largest US cities tracked by Realtor.com, as measured by the change in the share of money spent on housing.

Rent was a smaller percentage of budgets compared to 2023 in over 90% of major markets, Realtor.com found. And homebuyers put less of their income toward mortgage payments than they would have the year before in nearly two-thirds of the biggest metropolitan areas.

While massive cities like San Francisco and Miami aren't known for affordability, Realtor.com's findings indicate that buyers and renters there are able to save more money staying there than they would have a year prior, since the share of income going to landlords or lenders is smaller.

11 cities where affordability is improving

There are 11 cities where buyers and renters put a substantially smaller chunk of their money toward mortgages or rent on a percentage-of-income basis in 2024 versus the year before, according to Realtor.com. In each, the change in the share of income spent on buying or renting fell by at least 1.5 percentage points.

It's commonly accepted that people should spend 30% or less of their salary on housing costs. Buyers and renters are far exceeding that mark in some of the more expensive cities on this list, though everyone's financial situation is different.

Below are those markets — sorted by lowest rent to highest — along with each's median rent, the year-over-year change in rent, the share of income spent on rent and home purchases, and how that share has changed compared to the prior year.

1. Dallas

Median rent: $1,445

Year-over-year rent change: -3.5%

Share of income spent on rent: 19.5%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -2.1 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 29.3%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -1.7 percentage points

2. Austin

Median rent: $1,467

Year-over-year rent change: -4.8%

Share of income spent on rent: 17.2%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -2.4 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 30.3%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -4.2 percentage points

3. Richmond, Virginia

Median rent: $1,481

Year-over-year rent change: -0.3%

Share of income spent on rent: 20.3%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -1.5 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 30.2%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2.2 percentage points

4. Phoenix

Median rent: $1,488

Year-over-year rent change: -3.5%

Share of income spent on rent: 20.4%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -2.1 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 36.6%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2.2 percentage points

5. Jacksonville, Florida

Median rent: $1,510

Year-over-year rent change: -1%

Share of income spent on rent: 22.1%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -2.5 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 29.4%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -3.1 percentage points

6. Nashville

Median rent: $1,539

Year-over-year rent change: -2.5%

Share of income spent on rent: 21.7%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -1.7 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 38.6%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2.8 percentage points

7. Tampa, Florida

Median rent: $1,710

Year-over-year rent change: -1.6%

Share of income spent on rent: 28.1%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -1.9 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 34%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2 percentage points

8. Denver

Median rent: $1,796

Year-over-year rent change: -5.6%

Share of income spent on rent: 20.2%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -3 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 33.4%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -3 percentage points

9. Miami

Median rent: $2,328

Year-over-year rent change: -1.9%

Share of income spent on rent: 37.6%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -2.9 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 43.9%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -4.1 percentage points

10. San Diego

Median rent: $2,695

Year-over-year rent change: -4.8%

Share of income spent on rent: 31.4%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -3.4 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 57.7%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2 percentage points

11. San Francisco

Median rent: $2,708

Year-over-year rent change: -3.3%

Share of income spent on rent: 24.3%

Change in share of income spent on rent: -1.9 percentage points

Share of income spent on buying: 41.4%

Change in share of income spent on buying: -2.7 percentage points

Renters have quietly enjoyed a nice run over the past two years. A historic wave of apartment construction has tamped down rents from their pandemic-era peak — last year developers finished the most units nationwide since 1974. With so many shiny high-rises hitting the market, landlords are fighting to fill their spaces, offering major discounts and perks to lure tenants. One housing economist even declared 2025 "the year of the resident."

But as the cost of building has increased, the number of cranes on the horizon has dwindled. Formerly eager developers are cutting back on fresh construction plans, laying the groundwork for another apartment squeeze. In other words, the good times for renters are running out.

Time's not up just yet. Developers are projected to deliver another half a million new apartments this year, down slightly from 2024, which should force property managers to focus on keeping their buildings full instead of jacking up rents. The outlook for renters, though, turns gloomier once you look at 2026 and beyond. Apartment supply boomed over the past few years, but demand kept pace — there's no glut of empty units. And the construction pipeline has slimmed down significantly since the glory days of cheap money, when it was easier for developers to secure loans for new projects. While plenty of rentals opened their doors in 2024, apartment builders broke ground on the fewest units in more than a decade.

"The available inventory of rental housing units may quickly tighten," says a recent report from RealPage, a software company that helps landlords set their rents. The real estate analytics firm Yardi Matrix has characterized 2025 as a "year fraught with change."

Translation: Snag those apartment deals while you can. They probably won't last much longer.

The past few years have been chaotic for apartment dwellers. Demand for apartments soared in 2021 as renters upgraded to bigger places, moved out of their parents' houses, or said goodbye to roommates in favor of solo living. This surge in "household formation" pushed up rents even as people decamped from crowded cities to single-family homes in the suburbs. Zillow found apartment rents rose by more than 20% nationally from 2020 through 2022. At the same time, though, developers were setting the stage for a reversal. At one point in 2022, more than a million new apartment units were under construction across the country. The rush of new builds came to fruition over the past two years: According to RealPage, developers opened a total of 440,000 units in 2023 and a record 588,900 last year, with another 500,000 expected to become available in 2025.

All those new buildings have kept prices in check; as the rental-housing economist Jay Parsons puts it, they "did what supply is supposed to do." With lots of new units on the market, renters have more choices and are less likely to tolerate steep rent hikes. Yardi Matrix's data indicates year-over-year rent growth has stayed under 1% over the past 16 months, well below the double-digit jumps of 2022. Landlord concessions — the months of free rent, free parking, and gift cards used to attract and retain tenants — are back in fashion. At the end of 2024, almost 13% of units nationwide were offering concessions, pretty close to the all-time highs from the early months of the pandemic, when hardly anyone wanted to move.

All kinds of renters — not just the high earners who can afford the latest and greatest in apartment construction — have benefited from this development boom. Landlords typically roll out concessions when they're trying to lease up new buildings, most of which are classified as "luxury" these days. But even long-standing buildings with cheaper apartments have been offering freebies to keep tenants from fleeing for greener pastures.

"It's just a simple supply-and-demand game," Carl Whitaker, the chief economist at RealPage, tells me. "As more supply delivers, you have to draw more traffic to your property, and that comes with these incentives."

The trouble for renters is that property managers may soon find those efforts unnecessary. Developers rely heavily on debt to finance new projects, and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes have made those loans much more expensive, prompting a downturn in construction plans. Builders have been further deterred by the wave of new supply coming to market and the prospect of weaker rent growth at their properties. By doing so, they've laid the groundwork for another apartment shortage — and for rents to start climbing again.

"The pendulum is swinging dramatically," Parsons tells me. "Unfortunately, apartment construction has a tendency to be way too cyclical, and I don't think that's a great thing for renters or investors."

Predicting the economy's twists and turns may be hard, but forecasting new-apartment supply is pretty straightforward. If you know how many units are under construction today, you can reasonably estimate the new supply in a few years. These numbers point to a seismic shift in the rental landscape. Apartment construction starts dropped last year to the lowest level since 2013, per RealPage. This slowdown will soon start showing up in the number of new apartments coming to the market. Yardi Matrix expects 524,000 deliveries in 2025, but then only 414,000 in 2026 and 341,000 the year after. RealPage anticipates an even steeper drop-off, from 470,000 new units this year to 265,000 in 2026, with another decline the following year. Christopher Bruen, an economist at the National Multifamily Housing Council, wrote last year that this retreat was "likely to exacerbate our nation's housing shortage over the longer term."

US cities won't feel the effects of this pullback equally. Most of the apartments built during this construction renaissance are in the lower half of the country — Austin, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Houston, among others. Some metros in the mountain region, such as Denver and Salt Lake City, have also welcomed a lot of new apartments. Rents in these markets may be slower to rise again, but housing demand in these areas has also been higher than in other places around the country, so the relative relief may be short-lived. As for major coastal markets like New York, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco, where land availability and permitting hurdles already make it harder to build apartments, it could be even tougher for renters. In a recent earnings call with investors, an executive at Equity Residential, one of the nation's largest apartment owners, described the reduction in supply as "even more dramatic" in these markets, where starts were down by 30% in 2023 and by nearly 60% in 2024.

"With 2025 starts projected to be down again, we anticipate one of the best supply-demand balances in our coastal markets that we have seen in a very long time," Alexander Brackenridge, the company's chief investment officer, said.

One complicating factor is construction delays. Doug Ressler, the manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, says completions projected for 2025 may bleed into 2026 and even 2027 because of supply-chain snags or labor shortages, easing the pain for renters. The company expects rents to rise by a modest 1.5% this year, by 1.1% in 2026, and then by 3.3% in 2027. Parsons anticipates even bigger year-over-year growth, in the "mid-single digits," starting in 2026. That kind of increase is a far cry from the pandemic-era rent hikes, but it would still mean the end of this concession-laden era for renters.

If demand for apartments really picks up — if, say, people feel better about their economic prospects or decide that renting will get them more bang for their buck than buying — rent growth could climb even higher. Whitaker tells me it's still too early in the year to tell how many renters will seek out new units during the peak summer months, but there are already signs that this year could be hotter than last. In both November and December, leasing traffic — the number of prospective renters checking out new apartments — increased from a year prior. That may sound ho-hum, but it was the first time since early 2022 that leasing traffic notched two straight months of year-over-year growth.

"My interpretation is that we are going to see quite a bit of demand this summer," Whitaker tells me.

Are we doomed to repeat these cycles, waiting for any bit of housing relief to be revealed as a mirage? Parsons doesn't think so. He points to a national construction fund — which could provide cheaper debt for developers so they're less likely to pull back when interest rates rise — as a bipartisan solution that could smooth out this rental roller coaster. Absent that, though, renters are staring down yet another bumpy ride.

"It took a perfect storm of factors to drive this massive construction boom," Parsons tells me. "And now a lot of those factors have just gone away."

James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.

• It took me a while to accept that I wouldn't have my own kids.
• I finally realized I liked having my own time; I could dote on my friends' kids and then come home.
• Now, as my friends have grandchildren, I'm accepting I won't be a grandmother.

A few weeks ago, I attended a baby shower my friend held for her daughter. After we ate, someone passed cards around, asking the guests to share parenting advice. I stared at the card blankly. What advice did I have to give? I'd never had children. I had thoughts but no real experience. I jotted down a few one-word responses.

Later, after we answered trivia questions on the various milestones in babies' first year, I listened as newly minted mothers and grandmothers shouted out answers. I didn't know a single answer. Twenty-five years earlier, I might have left that party in tears, saddened by the fact that I'd never been a mom and would now never be a grandmother.

Eventually, I realized I could be happy without becoming a parent

I clearly remember the day I came to terms with not realizing my long-held dream of having children. I was 44 and had just returned from a day in Central Park with one of my best friends and her 2-year-old son. The little boy had tired me out, and I truly felt happy to come home, lie on the couch, snuggle with my dog, and have the rest of the day to myself.

I already had loving relationships with my other best friend's two kids, so knowing that I would have the privilege of watching the three kids grow up and being part of their lives was enough for me. I could love them and attend their recitals, concerts, and graduations, yet still have the time and freedom to travel the world and thrive in a career that involved late nights and weekly business trips.

A few months after one of those kids got married, she handed me a picture of a sonogram and told me her baby girl was due in six months. Of course, I cried with joy. But, in the ensuing weeks, I started to wonder what role I would get to play in that little girl's life. I knew I was important to her mother. I had, after all, just been given an honorary role at her wedding. But the baby already had two grandmothers, and I knew my best friend would be an especially devoted one. Would I be described as her aunt in air quotes when she tried to explain me to her friends?

No, I won't be a grandmother, but that's OK

I knew this was just the start of a new era in my life. I worried I would feel the stabs of pain and regret every time someone announced their daughter, daughter-in-law, or stepdaughter was pregnant — the same pangs I felt when my friends shared their own news of impending motherhood. Would it hurt each time my phone dinged with a newly texted photo or addition to a shared album, the way it did when my friends encouraged me to flip through the pages of their "brag books"?

I needn't have worried. I easily found a place in the little girl's life. Her mother, just like her grandmother, believed the more people that loved this child, the better. If I wanted to shower her baby with love, she was willing to let me do so. Not having the same work and travel obligations I had when my friends were raising their kids, I could spend even more time with this baby.

I made sure to visit weekly to get my baby fix and let this child know I would always be a part of her life. Soon we were having dance parties in the park, brunch and dinner dates around Manhattan, and messy bake-offs in her grandmother's kitchen. If you ask her who I am to her, I am just her Ilene. I'm fine with that.

It's a win-win for everyone. I get the joy of spending time with her and now her 1-year-old brother; they both have one more person to love them. My friend gets a break from grandparent duties, and my friend's daughter has one more person in the village to help raise her kids.

Newly unsealed emails allegedly provide the "most damning evidence" yet against Meta in a copyright case raised by book authors alleging that Meta illegally trained its AI models on pirated books.

Last month, Meta admitted to torrenting a controversial large dataset known as LibGen, which includes tens of millions of pirated books. But details around the torrenting were murky until yesterday, when Meta's unredacted emails were made public for the first time. The new evidence showed that Meta torrented "at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna’s Archive, including at least 35.7 terabytes of data from Z-Library and LibGen," the authors' court filing said. And "Meta also previously torrented 80.6 terabytes of data from LibGen."

"The magnitude of Meta’s unlawful torrenting scheme is astonishing," the authors' filing alleged, insisting that "vastly smaller acts of data piracy—just .008 percent of the amount of copyrighted works Meta pirated—have resulted in Judges referring the conduct to the US Attorneys’ office for criminal investigation."

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