Global News

[ad_1] If you're looking for a place to rent, prepare to duke it out with eight other people, and as many as 23 in the most competitive U.S. housing markets, a new  report  found. As daunting as that figure may seem, it's actually fallen from the  pandemic years , when the typical apartment saw between 11 and 13 applicants, according to RentCafe. The firm analyzed apartment applications from parent company Yardi, which offers property-management software, to come up with these metrics, including how long it takes to rent a vacant flat and how likely renters were to renew their lease. The country's hottest rental market, according to RentCafe, is Miami, which sees an average of 24 applicants per apartment, and where vacancies are filled within 33 days — 10 days faster than the national average. Central and southern Florida, which is seeing new residents move in at a faster rate than it can add housing, figures prominently on the hottest-markets list. Broward Co

[ad_1] San Jose, California — Matthew Richmond makes a good living running a successful pest control company in Northern California's Silicon Valley. "I'm living the American dream," the 32-year-old told CBS News. Richmond can afford to pursue his passion for adventure. If he wants to buy a motorcycle or dirt bike, "I can go write the check and buy it," he said.  However, what he has not purchased is a home, even though he says he could afford one. "Somehow, we've been led to believe that you have to own a home in order to be living the American dream," said Ramit Sethi, host of the Netflix series "How to Get Rich." "And that's just not true. For a lot of people, renting can actually be a better financial decision." A study released  last month from Realtor.com found that U.S. median rental prices dropped in May for the first time since the start of the COVID-19