patrick.net

yes too much competition from hedge funds. the business of sfh renting was already risky and not a lot of profit, now it's downright stupid. only liars and realtors think its worthwhile

Single family homes for rent are not, not, oh-so-not dropping in the east bay, at least not in the places I'm looking (Alameda, Rockridge, Berkeley, Albany). I'm looking to move my family to a 3 bedroom place now and its just terribly depressing.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

how in the world could SFGate print anything bad about real estate.

Jan 22, 2009, SF Gate: Bay Area rents fall for the first time in years.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-apartment-rents-fall-1st-time-in-years-3175218.php

Would you like more examples?

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Rents in the SF easy bay are falling like crazy. It will only go lower IMHO. I'm stuck in a leave for another 8 months but will definitely put pressure on the landlord when the time comes for a rent reduction. I'm way lower than half the ownership costs already. $3k to rent $8K to own. If I get a 10% reduction in rent then I'll change my handle to RentingforThirdTheCost

Good for you - LOL

See, I actually pay NO rent at all. My landlord is letting me stay for free! - With the current trend I could easily see that soon enough my landlord will pay me to be his tenant....just gotta wait 8 months until this free lease is up...then I will squeeze him like a fresh lemon!!

You are pathetic!!

RentingForHalfTheCost says

2009! Hah, they were just jumping on the bad-wagon. The money they were getting
from the dead housing market was drying up. Writing about the crash was then
selling more papers.

I see.

So what was their motivation for saying rents were declining in 2003?

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-apartment-rents-fall-further-2678281.php

Once again, I must say, if the Section8 welfare renters are removed from the SFH renter pool, then all SFH rents will go down to where they belong. As long as welfare exists, there will be no true market in SFH rentals (or any other service or goods). The way I see it, in the same way that "free money" blew up a house BUYING bubble, the same style of "free money" has now blew up a house RENTING bubble. The RE-Mafia has secured their wealth on the backs of the taxpayers, with the auto-pay, gaurentee-pay system created by Section 8 and welfare. I think.

And the steady flow of digital wealth being applied to "the stock market" has me worried. How is this going to play out?

"Lastly, I feel published rates can always be negotiated with desperate landlords. This is impossible when rents or conditions are reasonable, but competition is rising, and big business who rent can always try to marginalize the small landlord."

Yes, this is missed by attempts to calculate rents if you're using listed rates for comparison. Most papers use apartment rentals by large rental corps to calculate average rental costs, and the conflict of interest is highly apparent. After all, what rental corp is going to say "rents are terrible, vacancies up, we're dying for tenants, make us an offer!" They won't do that ever. So you get the numbers reported that they are comfortable reporting. 2-3% vacancies and ever rising rents.