If you don't own it, somebody can take it

From Ace of Spades HQ 

“A person I know in Texas (‘Pat’) is unable to renew the lease on his rental house because his landlord has decided to sell the house, a decision likely driven by skyrocketing home prices in that market. Pat now has to move out, but he’s in a tough spot, because with so many people flooding into his Texas city, there is almost nothing available to rent. If a comparable house becomes available, it is now much more expensive and it still gets snatched up immediately at the inflated pricing. Pat has reluctantly looked at apartments, but the same shortage exists there, with prices that have soared in the past year, and which are well in excess of the rent he paid in recent years on a single-family house. He’s in a tough spot and he can’t figure out where to go. Had he bought a home a few years ago he wouldn’t be in this crisis.” -- Non-Ownership Culture Crashes Into An Era of Scarcity In Cars And Housing.

 (Texas had a similar, yet smaller, problem in the mid-1970s, when Northern Rust Belt immigrants descended and paid big dollars for housing. Prices went up. Today's immigrants are from all over, but have at least one thing in common with the earlier kind: Lots of money from over-priced houses and a predilection to spend more than locals have.)