Missouri state Rep. Phil Amato (R) has introduced a bill that would require the state to maintain a database to track pregnant women who are at "risk" of having an abortion.

rawstory.com/missouri-pregnancy-database

lmao, tf does this even mean

AirTag IUD's

Assuming they’d track them through doctors visits/medical records?

I don’t know by who though, seems like a logistical nightmare. Also, how would miscarriages be construed?

My friends so deep in the rabbit hole they think this is a good idea

1 report out of a thousand saves a child it's worth it when the other 999 could be gravely wrong???

wsj.com/real-estate/rent-price-increase-landlord-friendly-market-8ec25de5

Wsj forecasting rent increase by eoy

Lock in your rents now while you can. I signed a 2 year so it would be unchanged.

Full article:
The era of falling apartment rents looks to be nearly over.

A surge in rents during the early years of the pandemic sparked a historic apartment construction boom in 2023 and 2024. That crush of new inventory, especially in hot Sunbelt markets like Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, led to oversupply and caused rents to fall in much of the country.

But more people are renting longer as mortgage rates stay high and the costs of homeownership remain unaffordable for many Americans. Landlords say the new construction pipeline should be mostly drained by year-end, setting the stage for rents to rise nationwide later this year.

"The relationship is going to very quickly flip from a renter-friendly environment to a landlord-friendly environment," said Lee Everett, the head of research and strategy at multifamily giant Cortland.

Rising rents would complicate the inflation picture and likely give the Federal Reserve another reason to pause on future rate cuts. Shelter costs account for roughly a third of the consumer-price index, which means a significant portion of the overall inflation measure is attributed to housing costs.

"It will be very hard for the headline inflation number to reach the Fed's 2% goal without a slowdown in housing costs," said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.

Shelter costs rose 4.4% in January from last year. That was the smallest annual uptick since January 2022, and well below the peak period of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now, the looming prospect of higher rents could reverse that progress. Rents have already been on a steady climb in certain parts of the country where new supply has been more muted, such as the Midwest, Northeast and parts of the West Coast.

By the end of this year, every major metropolitan market is expected to see positive rent growth, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily a***ytics at CoStar.

President Trump's policy mix, meanwhile, might slow the pace of new construction even further. Migrant deportations and threats to hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs would likely boost the cost of construction labor and materials as well as delay building timelines.

The U.S. depends on Canada and Mexico for roughly 25% of its building material imports, according to the National Association of Home Builders. And undocumented workers make up about 13% of the construction workforce.

In a January letter, the NAHB asked Trump to "consider the effects of tariffs on Americans struggling to afford housing" and to "exempt critical construction materials from such actions."

New apartment construction is already starting to taper off. The number of multifamily building permits issued in the South over the past year is 4 percentage points below its prepandemic 2019 average, according to Bank of America's a***ysis of Census Bureau data.

And demand for rentals is rising steadily. The multifamily vacancy rate is now below its long-term average for the first time in about two years.

More tenants are in heated battles for vacant space. Last year, an average of nine prospective renters were competing for every open apartment unit on the market, according to RentCafe.

Amber Melhouse, a longtime Brooklyn renter, looked for a New York apartment last March after her landlord raised the rent on her two-bedroom unit to $5,600 from $4,250.
The 50-year-old small-business owner submitted roughly 60 inquiries to open apartment listings. Often, she found herself waiting behind a dozen other prospective renters. The longer she searched, the higher rent prices rose.

In December, she settled for renting out a spare room, done with the endless search for her own apartment. "It's just a sport I don't have an appetite for anymore," she said.

Multifamily asking rents are still trending relatively flat nationally, but they are headed upward. On average, apartments were three dollars more expensive nationwide in January, the first increase in six months, according to property data firm Yardi Matrix.

Apartment absorption, a metric of rental demand that measures the change in how many units are leased, was higher last quarter than any other fourth quarter since at least 1985, according to real-estate firm CBRE.

Apartment investors are placing bets on the Sunbelt's 2025 rebound. Equity Residential, a publicly traded multifamily landlord, paid more than $274 million in the fourth quarter for three properties in Atlanta and Denver.

While both cities experienced negative annual rent growth in the fourth quarter, Equity Residential said it intends to invest even more in those regions. CBRE projects that both cities will be back to positive rent growth this year.

Some investors that previously exited the Sunbelt market are returning. After selling all of its Sunbelt properties three years ago, Gaia Real Estate, a national real-estate investment and management firm, told The Wall Street Journal that it launched a new Sunbelt-specific acquisition arm with Raymond James as its investment bank. The new REIT has already bought three Sunbelt properties.

"We assume that the second half of 2025 into 2026 will be back to rent growth," said Gaia CEO Danny Fishman. "We are playing the wave."

Closing this week

Sped up the process a lot after the election

washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/18/trump-signs-executive-order-allowing-attorney-gene

President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order declaring that only the attorney general or the president, instead of federal regulators or bureaucrats, can speak for the U.S. when interpreting the meaning of laws carried out by the executive branch.

"Caused rents to fall all over the country"

They really trying to peddle this s***?

Rents went up and stayed up. Don't try to downplay it like it was some temporary thing

Rent did go down for a bit

It just wasn't noticable to most people, or anyone who didn't move specifically within a small window

And it only went down a tiny bit. Not like it went down to pre Covid levels or even close.

1400/month places may have gone down to 1300/month or whatever. That's basically it

I paid attention to my area and around a ton, and did move around, and watched places I lived at go down in prices but a jokingly small amount

The only good thing that could come from this.

Well that and the irs getting a bit f***ed and the SEC getting worked over.

It would be nice if they didn't just dismantle institutions set up to help people

What would we even get? Like 20 bucks?

I think it amounts to around 15,000 equally. But we'll obviously get a fraction of that. Something around the covid checks i believe. Theyre definitely gonna pocket the rest

Oh good another influx of cash to consumers but this time at the expense of a s*** ton of government programs and not even for economic or financial reasons like the COVID checks were. This will surely curb inflation!

Austerity, but somehow Keynesian this time?

A touch of Legoland as well

It’s not even austerity if they’re still spending the cash by giving it to us. Also can’t wait to see DOGE’s “fee” for saving us money I bet consultants like Deloitte and McKinsey will give a standing ovation for it

Was trying to be funny but you right

i f***ing hate Elon Musk

Nah i got it lol I'm just angry as a fed worker at this DOGE s***

All over the country im sure is merely a generalization w caveats
But im sure the author would argue if rents in your area went up or stayed the same (which would mean going down adjusting for inflation) it will go up even more