For much of the past year, sky-rocketing home prices and the cutthroat real estate market have grabbed countless headlines.

But beneath that inflation-driven bubble is another concerning trend affecting millions of Americans—the cost of renting an apartment or home is surging.

As reported by National Public Radio (NPR), rent costs in Orlando rose nearly 30 percent just last year alone, according to a survey by the real estate firm Redfin. Moreover, certain cities in Florida, New York, and New Jersey have witnessed particularly sharp jumps in rent.

And in Austin, Texas, rents came in at a whopping 40 percent higher year-over-year.

“That doesn’t literally mean that every person in Austin is going to see their rent go up 40 percent. But it means that if you are on the market right now looking for an apartment or home to rent, the prices will be 40 percent higher than they were the year before,” Redfin’s chief economist Daryl Fairweather told NPR.

“The root cause of the problem is a lack of supply. We have not built enough homes to meet demand,” she continued.

Fairweather also pointed out that more millennials are actively making the move toward home ownership, which is exacerbating the supply shortage.

“Millennials are the biggest generation,” she said. “We’re forming households, and we want a place of our own and that is causing an increase in demand.”

PPI Reaches New Highs

As rental and home prices continue their unrelenting march higher, another key inflation measure revealed that prices are rising more than expected last month.

The producer price index (PPI)—which tracks average price changes the country’s producers get paid for their goods and services over time—surged 9.7 percent in January year-over-year, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For January alone, prices climbed 1 percent, adjusted for seasonal swings. Forecasts had only predicted a 0.5 percent increase.

“PPI offers a window to the price pressures that businesses are facing, and which will likely be passed on to consumers in the way of consumer price inflation in the months to come,” PNC economist Kurt Rankin told CNN.

Credibility on the Line

In response, a top Fed official said earlier this week that such high-inflationary pressures being witnessed across all sectors may force the Federal Reserve to step up its campaign to get rising prices back under control.

“This inflation we’re seeing is very bad for low and moderate-income households. Real wages are declining. People are unhappy. Consumer confidence is declining. This is not a good situation,” St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard told CNBC.

“We have been surprised (by) the upside on inflation. … Our credibility is on the line here. We have to react to data. … We have to reassure people we are going to defend our inflation target and we are going to get inflation back to 2 percent,” he added.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters.