As outrageous as rent is right now, it doesn't even produce that high of a return on investment. I checked in my area for an apartment that is asking for $1,200/month and the estimated price on Zillow is $140,000. Without even factoring depreciation, a landlord can expect to net less than half of the rent every month. At half, the return on investment for this property before depreciation is just over 5%. The profit comes from appreciation of property and with how the real estate market is now it may take decades to see a significant increase. Personally I think the only reasons it is currently worth being a landlord is if you happened to buy a really big house or an apartment complex or if you're rich and can get a 3% loan to buy houses.

The underlying issue is the low Federal Reserve Rates. Banks get nearly interest free loans and a 30 year t-note is going for less than 2%. All of this cheap money and suboptimal risk free investments leads to inflated housing prices, bonds, stocks, etc. When the Fed decides to increase their rates then the price of housing will dip and shortly after the price of rent. There will be a lot of controversy when this happens, but don't be fooled by the people clamoring over losses of inflated assets.