DeSantis flipped school boards last night

Perhaps lost in all the other elections. 21 out of 30 candidates for local school boards in Florida supported by DeSantis won their races with four others headed to run offs.

Local elections matter, even though national races get all the media oxygen.

I think a lot of this is Covid policy backlash. Parents were not nearly as keen on distance schooling as the teachers were. It's been like that even here in the Bay Area. Districts that supported longer stay at home policies faced much more backlash in their elections.

A lot of the battles people spend a lot of time on social media discussing on a national level get played out concretely in their backyards. Maybe time to focus more on that, or there will be more DeSantis and more changes like this.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/23/desantis-school-board-candidates-wins-00053440

US rents hit a record high for the 17th month in a row

I'm so glad I have a mortgage locked in at 1.99%.

Rents hit a record high in July for the 17th month in a row, putting ever more pressure on renters.

The national median rent hit a new record high of $1,879 a month in July, up 12.3% from a year ago, according to Realtor.com. While rents have been hitting new records for nearly a year and a half, there are some early signs that the market may be starting to cool off: July marked the sixth-straight month of moderating growth, retreating from a 17% year-over-year rent increase in January.

Still, rents rose by double-digit percentages in all size categories in July compared to a year ago, with monthly rents for studios up 14.3% to $1,555; one-bedrooms, up 12.2% to $1,745; and two-bedrooms, up 11.7% to $2,103.

The South and Northeast have seen the largest rent increases. Miami, where rents were up 26.2% from a year ago, saw the biggest increase among the 50 largest US cities for the 10th-straight month. Miami was followed by New York, Boston, Chicago, and Orlando.