patrick.net

I do not think so. One only needs to shop rents in remotely desirable areas to see they have gone up alot in the past few years.

I do agree though that people , even here, completely ignore rudimentary logic whenever it flies in the face of their agenda.

I live in the bay area, we are still in a massive bubble that has a long long way to hit its bottom. Anyone buying a family house in the RBA without getting a sweetheart family deal now is MORON and WILL take a hit in equity. However that doesn't change the fact that with many many people getting kicked out over the last four years at a rate not seen since the depression; rents are up up UP!.

Still thinking about it, outside of the Real Bay Area it is easily twisted into NAR propaganda. In an area like LA you have to go out of your way to find an area with massive rent hikes, where as here you have to go out of your way to find a ghetto or commuter hell without said hikes.

That is true rents in Mountain View, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are sky high for a one bedroom apartment like almost 2k! Getting as bad as NYC and if I did not make 200k would leave the RBA

I made $3.563 million last year.
2k rent for a studio still seems crazy to me.

Rents have shot up, and I am not really getting the feeling that they will come crashing back down around here. There are far more people than affordable houses or condos, which leaves rentals. A surge in hiring last year, mainly at Google & Apple, brought a lot of people in, and landlords have figured out that they can crank up rents quite a bit and still have people frenzying over units.

I guess that having my rent lowered in 2010, at a large nice complex to boot, was a real fluke. Looking back, I think that all the house buyer tax credit nonsense had people out in droves looking to buy, which hampered the rental market a bit. The 3BR/2BA, 2nd story end unit apartment I was paying $2312 (split among 4 people) for was rented out for $3400 after we left. That's quite a jump in one year, and it filled right away. My mind was BLOWN. I wanted to go put a note under the door informing the occupants that they were suckers, but that seemed silly.

Now, I do see apartment complexes being built in this area. There is a huge one over behind the Castro CalTrain station, and another medium sized one over on San Antonio & Cuesta. I have seen a few others here & there, but can't recall the area, and we all know that investors are snatching up a lot of houses to rent them out. In a year or so, I think that the supply of rentals will have increased enough to at least stave-off further increases. Then again, if Google chooses to hire 5000 more people again this year, all bets are off. There are good paying jobs here, and a lot of people working them. Landlords know this and will milk every penny of it that they can since most people will just groan & put up with it.

bmwman91 says

I guess that having my rent lowered in 2010, at a large nice complex to boot, was a real fluke. Looking back, I think that all the house buyer tax credit nonsense had people out in droves looking to buy, which hampered the rental market a bit. The 3BR/2BA, 2nd story end unit apartment I was paying $2312 (split among 4 people) for was rented out for $3400 after we left.

Aren't they only suckers if there was an equivalent rental next door that they could rent at the price that you paid? If not, what are the options you suggest?

well unfortunately I checked nearby rentals in the area and they all want 2-3k for 1-2 bedroom apartment units. Still, rather than paying 900k for a crappy rundown townhome in the area, 2k is cheaper than a 5k mortgage even with the deduction.

SJ says

well unfortunately I checked nearby rentals in the area and they all want 2-3k for 1-2 bedroom apartment units. Still, rather than paying 900k for a crappy rundown townhome in the area, 2k is cheaper than a 5k mortgage even with the deduction.

$1500/month (or $1400/month if you're itemizing deductions on your federal taxes) for a 1990s construction 3/2 mobile home with no common walls and central air including slot rent, chattel loan, insurance with flood and earthquake coverage, and property tax in Mountain View or Sunnyvale beats both.

Some more data on the rents

Citra sunnyvale 1BR went from 1500 to 2000 in a year
archstone santa clara 2BR went frpm 1700 to 2500 in a year

The average starting salaries for new grads at my company is also up by 15K from when I joined around 2008. This has been done to compete with offers from goog, aapl etc. So the new renters entering the market can afford 2K rents for 1BR and there are not that many "nice" places to rent from. As a result the avalons, archstones, north parks are making hay while the sun shines.

I just don't see any rent increase at all over the last year in LA:

http://patrick.net/?p=1212083

It has been my first hand experience that rental rates for better apartments have gone up. Supply is limited because they haven't been built much the last 10 years and indeed many have been converted to condos. Demand is up because people with good incomes no longer automatically "invest" in a house. Btw REITs for professionally managed apartment complexes have done extremely well the past few years. My best guess going forward would be no significant rent movements one way or the other.

Maybe I should buy a mobile home and save on rent? I've been at the job for over a year but not wanting to spend 800k on some overpriced crap home in the RBA.

I just don't see any rent increase at all over the last year in LA:

http://patrick.net/?p=1212083

Exactly what my personal research shows as well.

All one needs to do in Los Angeles is to run a craigslist search on a given area to find a plethora of rentals available at reasonable prices for the area.

This is actually true all over LA, even the Westside.

BTW, @SJ...LOL that one would need a $200K annual gross income to afford $2k in rent.

Well I cannot see buying a home yet right now because jobs are not secure or stable these days especially with H1b, outsourcing and offshore of STEM jobs in the bay area. I did a quick search and found 2 bedroom condos for 2k so will find new place even though I hate moving again after only 1 year.