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Can't speak for the rest of the country, but we've had a whole bunch of houses for rent in my SoCal area. They are all over 45 days, sitting empty, with huge monthly price tags attached to them ($1,000 more per month than I was seeing a year ago).
I see that rent went up, but I'm not seeing that people are rushing to pay these prices. It's like they raised the prices because of news reports that say rents are rising... But until people actually agree to pay these rents, did rents, in fact, rise?
I know that people don't put a lot of stock in the "rent Zestimates," but according to the rent Zestimate, these houses should be going for $1,000 to $1,500 less than they are asking. Seems like a big difference. Makes me wonder where any of these people get their numbers from.
In Florida, we had a rise in rental prices in 2013, but they have now retracted, at least in my area. The main issue is as the rental market started to get hot, they immediately started building new rental units. So they essentially diluted themselves into lower prices.
But until people actually agree to pay these rents, did rents, in fact, rise?
I do find the list prices on rentals quite dubious as a measure of actual renting price. A lot of rentals in my area go by word of mouth, so they never actually make it on the market. If they do, even that goes by word of mouth so they only last a few days. The ones that DO last on market (and therefore what people judge to be the current rental rate) are overpriced, like you say. I see homes listed $500 over and even up to $1k over, also. Completely meaningless unless some sucker signed a lease.
Fueled by a growing interest in urban living and a shortage of rental housing, rents have risen sharply in cities like Milwaukee and San Francisco and in states like Maine, Georgia and Kentucky.
http://nyti.ms/1tQ6zDB
#housing