I'm willing to put my money on credit, after the subprime mortgage bubble burst in '08 lenders are a lot tighter on who qualifies for a mortgage, even for FHA loans. Since there's a rather large number of people who have no choice but to rent right now due to credit it's very much a sellers market, especially in Boise where I live as it's been a hot target for people moving from more expensive areas to 'invest' in the rental market.

You used to be able to find a nice 3-bedroom house for around $800-900/mo here, now that's jumped to $1000-1300 unless you want to live in some really seedy areas of town. And a lot of this is because these 'investors' want to make a profit ASAP, rental housing used to be a long-term investment, which paid minimal returns until the property was paid off - now we have a bunch of people wanting to make their $600/mo right off the bat.