Rent, yearly increases, and how much can I actually afford?

[zillah975]

So, I may not be thinking 100% clearly about this, due to some RL stuff (two deaths in my immediate family, craziness at work, etc), but let me lay this out for y'all and then ask a couple of questions.

( Rent woes )

And so, the questions:

Does it make sense to y'all that rents would typically rise 10-12% for current tenants each year? Have other people here experienced this same kind of rent hike? How is a resident supposed to manage that if their salary isn't increasing at the same rate? (And if your salary is increasing at that rate, where do you work and are you hiring?)

And assuming that rents don't rise more than 5% on a current resident, does anyone know what percent of their net income a person should expect to pay in rent?

Alternately, if you have found that lease renewals typically offer such a high increase, how do you plan for and manage that?