For some Americans, affording rent means giving up traveling home for the holidays

It took A' Quinton Ocasio 10 years to be able to rent his own apartment in the Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City. The hairstylist from Georgia signed a one-year lease last month for a studio for $2,100 − higher than the national median rent of $1,978. “It’s a shoebox-size apartment that has no laundry in the building. And the area has nothing to offer other than the train nearby,” he says. “It’s upsetting because for people who have fallen into hard times, there's programs that are set up to help them pay rent, but what about the people who are working hard every day? What about programs to help pay that rent?” A’Quinton Ocasio, a hair stylist in NYC talks about high rent prices Though the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests inflation is cooling down, with consumer prices slowing to 3.2% from a year earlier in October and lower than 3.7% in September, it also saw shelter price rise 0.3% month-over-month and 6.7% year-over-year.