Consider Renting?
Filed Under General Real Estate · Tagged:
Recently I had a client come to town. They had made ‘reservations’ for a 3 bedroom apartment to rent, while they looked for a house. When they arrived in town, the rental was no longer available. Panic stricken, furniture arriving a just a few days, they gave me a call. I got online checked out the MLS, and other websites with rentals as well. I let my fingers do the walking. Call after call, no one was interested in a short term rental. I talked with one property manager for a while and found out that rentals are staying on the market (if priced right) for about 2 weeks before they are rented. Rental rates are going up slightly, not huge amounts. With the people who have lost their homes to foreclosure and short sales they can’t purchase another home due to their credit and lack of down payment. So they are out there renting.
There is a change in the market, the investors are purchasing up the houses, and renting them back to the previous owners.
By my estimation, rental rates have risen by approximately 10% since the first of the year, across the broader market. Over-saturated areas are still under pricing pressure, but where inventory is limited, rates are up. The rental market had sustained primarily flat rates for the last 4 years, so that’s a significant rise, and a trend that probably isn’t likely to end soon.