Phoenix, here. If I wanted to move from my grandfathered rental in 85377(VN part of town) to 85020(crack central), I would pay more for the same sqft. My landlord mentioned raising rent back in December, I told him to list it & give me 2 weeks notice. He never received a single call in 30 days. But, yeah, it's "demand" pushing rates up.

From 2013, 25% of acquisitions made by funds:

http://archive.azcentral.com/business/realestate/articles/20...

edit: no shortage of For Sale & empty homes up here, too. Multi-million dollar homes are stagnating on the market for years, and subsequently, plenty are for rent, too.

> This sounds like an unusual situation, considering the places I've lived.

That number is slightly higher than average, but the situation isn't uncommon. In fact, it's common enough that the Federal Government itself is doing it too, in a dozen or so major markets (Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, etc)

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/governments-fannie-mae-will-b...

> I'm curious as to what town this is,

These are the stats from my small hometown specifically :

http://michiganradio.org/post/winners-and-losers-grand-rapid...