Biden to target 'rent gouging' landlords, as high housing costs factor into 2024 race

• President Biden will target landlords he claims are keeping rents artificially high, during a speech Tuesday in the battleground state of Nevada.
• Biden's attack on 'rent gouging' seeks to shift the blame for stubbornly high housing costs partly onto corporate landlords, part of his broader campaign against outsized corporate pricing powers.
• Housing costs are a top issue for voters heading into Biden's November rematch against Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden will visit the battleground state of Nevada Tuesday to take aim at corporate landlords, who the White House claims are keeping rents artificially high even as overall inflation has eased.

Biden's attack on what he calls 'rent gouging' is part of his broader, election year effort to shift the blame for stubbornly high costs of living away from the president and his economic policies, and onto corporations with outsized pricing powers.

As public sentiment about the economy turns more upbeat, housing remains a major pain point. The most recent consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, found that energy and shelter costs were the primary drivers of February's 0.4% climb in consumer prices.

The cost of housing was the second-most important economic issue for respondents in a recent Financial Times/Michigan Ross survey of 1010 registered voters, behind only inflation at large.

As a result, housing is emerging as a primary front in Biden's war against corporate pricing power, one in which he has also gone after high drug and food prices.

Speaking in Nevada, Biden will double down on the housing provisions in his 2025 budget proposal, take aim at "rent gouging by corporate landlords," and call on Congress to pass legislation to lower housing costs, according to a