Socioeconomic Influences on Rentals for U.S. Urban Housing: Assumptions of Open Access to a Perfectly Competitive 'Free Market' Are Confronted With the Facts.

Human ecology and neo-classical economics assume that the rental housing market is competitive with little collusion or concentration of ownership. The neo-classical explanation of rising rentals as the sole result of supply and demand in a "free" market fails to recognize landlords as conscious actors in the urban scene. Evidence shows that under the assumptions, supply and demand factors do not explain all the reasons why rentals rise because markets are imperfect. Both socioeconomic and political influences are significant factors affecting rental levels that scholars have not adequately taken into account. These largely unexplained forces, although they cannot be parceled out in terms of their exact effect, add to our understanding of how urban rental housing markets operate in reality. This research attempts to view the phenomena of housing from a socioeconomic and political perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]