[caption id="attachment_20911" align="alignnone" width="640"] Justin Sullivan/Getty Images[/caption]

By Olivia Rondeau. Media: Breitbart

The nationwide rent average has shot up by 23 percent under the Biden-Harris administration, new Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows. After President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021, the CPI across all urban renters rose slightly by February. By August 2024, the index gained 79 points — a 23 percent increase from 342 to 421. BLS research shows that the surge impacted midwestern cities slightly worse, finding a nearly 24 percent increase from January 2021 to August 2024. Hawaii, Washington, DC, and California have the highest average rental costs according to the American Community Survey, at $1,651, $1,607, and $1,586 per month, respectively. The red states of South Dakota, Arkansas, and West Virginia are the bottom three, with $761, $760, $732 monthly rental costs, respectively. In New York City — one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S. and the world — officials are giving $5,000 in grants and gift cards to illegal migrants to help rent their own apartments, Breitbart News recently reported.