renters are now the "victim" of housing crisis

[robbase]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43315486

[midjd]

I lived in Brooklyn from 2006-2009... the rent started at $1,050 and ended up around $1,200. A friend moved into the building last fall and it's at $1,300 now. Nothing new...though you do have to wonder when it will end. Wages certainly aren't keeping pace with that kind of increase.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I lived in Brooklyn from 2006-2009... the rent started at $1,050 and ended up around $1,200. A friend moved into the building last fall and it's at $1,300 now. Nothing new...though you do have to wonder when it will end. Wages certainly aren't keeping pace with that kind of increase.

If I recall, there were big property tax increases in NYC.

[resolution]

And even with the current rent hikes, rental rates in most markets haven’t even returned to prior highs set in 2007 and 2008, according to Willett.

The article itself says that rents dropped when the housing bubble popped and they aren't even back up to the level that they were in 2007. I don't understand the complaints when they dropped so much and they are slowly working back up to where they were.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 14, 2011 9:11:16 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Stephan Metelica, a 24-year old charter pilot, shares a two-bedroom apartment with a friend in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The duo split the $1,525 monthly rent, but they were surprised this month when their landlord lease came up for renewal and their landlord asked for a 5 percent increase, to $1,600.

“I was pretty upset about it,” Metelica says of what would amount to nearly $40 more per month per person. “I thought a 5 percent increase was ridiculous.”

Whiners... This is normal. I've always had increases in this range.

Rents go up. Especially when gasoline for my property manager's truck goes up. Don't like it- next time vote for the dollars, not the change.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 14, 2011 9:46:04 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

I lived in Brooklyn from 2006-2009... the rent started at $1,050 and ended up around $1,200. A friend moved into the building last fall and it's at $1,300 now. Nothing new...though you do have to wonder when it will end. Wages certainly aren't keeping pace with that kind of increase.

If I recall, there were big property tax increases in NYC.

There were massive, catastrophic property tax increases in NYC. You think WE pay the taxes as landlords? Nope. The tenants pay.

I remember having a really difficult time communicating the simple math of this over on YM.

Here's how it works:

Rent = Expenses + Walking Around Money for ME.

When this formula doesn't work- I don't own. When people like me opt not to own you get blight and housing shortages-- and then rent REALLY spikes...

Unbelievable people can't figure this out. My favorite is when all of my renters run out on election day to vote themselves a rent increase and then complain and cry about it. BTW- I itemize expenses once a year for my tenants to see what everything costs. So, yes I'll come out and fix this or that that you abused or neglected, and I'll make sure I get the increased property tax bill in on time so the house you're living in doesn't go to the tax auction-- but you're getting the bill for these things one way or the other.

[8 Bit WWBG]

I rented in a HCOL area, and increases of at least $50/year were par for the course. Although one year, it did go down.

...:::"I itemize expenses once a year for my tenants to see what everything costs. So, yes I'll come out and fix this or that that you abused or neglected":::...

I'm surprised you share this information with them. Are they ever shocked at what things really cost? Do they "learn their lesson" or do they just take the typical "well you keep jacking up my rent, so you can afford to fix this stuff" attitude?

[zibazinski]

I don't tell my tenants anything. It's none of their business and if they don't like it or the rent increase, they can move and I'll get another tenant in there glad to have such a nice place at such a low rent. My one tenant who was my builder takes advantage of the fact that he knows I have no payment to be late and constantly "jack me." The others know they can be replaced with better and more rent paying tenant so are grateful for the small increases that I do do. Like this time it's 5 bucks more. Did my taxes and insurance go up 60 bucks a year? Not quite but my COLA did and then some.

[Gardening Grandma]

When the cost of gas and food is rising, why would anyone be surprised at rising rents? Landlords have expenses too. The insurance for our rental is up, the property tax has stayed the same, and there have been some maintenance expenses.

Landlords pass on increased expenses in the form of raised rents.

We haven't raised the rent since 2009, but I'm thinking we need to raise it by 3% to 4% next year......

[zibazinski]

I raise it just enough that it is less than the cost of moving!!!

[Cookies Galore]

Somehow, I have never had a rent increase. I know they exist and are par for the course, but I have weird luck. I anticipate some sort of increase this year.
The woman in the story is only 24, maybe this is her first post-college apartment?

[Gardening Grandma]

Jun 14, 2011 10:46:37 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Somehow, I have never had a rent increase. I know they exist and are par for the course, but I have weird luck. I anticipate some sort of increase this year.
The woman in the story is only 24, maybe this is her first post-college apartment?

meghan,
It's our policy to avoid raising the rent on a good tenant. What we've done in the past was absorb increased costs until the tenant moved, then after getting the place ready to rent to a new tenant, raising the rent at that point.
Your landlord may well see you as a desirable tenant and that may be a reason you've not had an increase...

[Deleted]

I plan to increase the rent for my place come September if my tenant does not move. I plan a 3-4% increase as well.
ETA: We will increasing 10% for the next tenants if our current tenants move.

[thyme4change]

The woman in the story is only 24, maybe this is her first post-college apartment?

I think Stephan is a man. LOL.

I also think we need to stop giving so many people such a broad megaphone for their whining.

[zibazinski]

I don't raise and I put up with a lot of crap from the ONE tenant because he and his wife, non-smokers, no pets, no kids, take IMMACULATE care of my place. When they move, I'll have to clean the carpets-maybe. That is worth no rent increase and late rent to me. The others I wish would move so I can REALLY jack the rent up. One is at least 15 a month too low and the other is at probably a hundred too low. No home buyers have made it a landlords market for renters!!

[Cookies Galore]

Jun 14, 2011 11:29:06 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The woman in the story is only 24, maybe this is her first post-college apartment?

I think Stephan is a man. LOL.

I also think we need to stop giving so many people such a broad megaphone for their whining.

LOL, I added an "ie" to the end of his name. Maybe because he's whining like a woman.

[thyme4change]

Maybe because he's whining like a woman.

ROFL - I agree!

[ontrack]

Jun 14, 2011 11:50:53 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Jun 14, 2011 11:29:06 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I think Stephan is a man. LOL.

I also think we need to stop giving so many people such a broad megaphone for their whining.

LOL, I added an "ie" to the end of his name. Maybe because he's whining like a woman.

Personally, I find men whine more than women.

[thyme4change]

Personally, I find men whine more than women.

You haven't met me yet!

[brdsl]

I contractually raise the rent. I put in the contract that the rent will raise at least 3% per year, with a cap at X%.

[strider]

Ours gets raised every year but if you stay you pay less and less as a percent as time goes on.

[bimetalaupt]

Jun 14, 2011 15:15:59 GMT -5 strider said:

Ours gets raised every year but if you stay you pay less and less as a percent as time goes on.

After the War (WWII) We had to move from Florida as Rent double overnight when price control when out. They had empty home but no one could pay the rent..

Then there was a boom in housing as soon as the price control was off wood.. We moved to Long Island then Odessa,TX with the boom in oil..Some times rent is cheaper because you do not get killed in the down cycle.

Just a thought,
Bi Metal Au Pt

[Phoenix84]

I don't think it's surprising that rents increase. Landlords have expenses too, and like any business they pass on their increasing costs (including taxes) on to their customers.

Personally I've never rented anywhere long enough to get a rent increase.

[zibazinski]

I can't imagine renting for myself or having tenants in a place that isn't sanitary or safe. The places are rented with working bathrooms, clean carpets, and working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I don't rent anything I wouldn't live in myself.

[973beachbum]

Jun 15, 2011 9:34:45 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

I can't imagine renting for myself or having tenants in a place that isn't sanitary or safe. The places are rented with working bathrooms, clean carpets, and working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I don't rent anything I wouldn't live in myself.

But to me that is the difference between a landlord and a slumlord.

[8 Bit WWBG]

People who really want to live in NYC, but cannot afford anything better will overlook those flaws. When you want something badly enough, you'll accept pretty much any conditions to get it.

[Miss Tequila]

Jun 15, 2011 4:34:25 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

Rents in NYC never dropped at all except for certain very high-end properties, by which I mean things slated for Wall Street Traders. Since rents in NYC already average close to 50% of what the average renter makes, expect more midnight moves in the future.

So far as the people complaining about "whiners" for that amount you pay in NYC, you get a hovel that would be totally unrentable elsewhere. Landlords routinely raise rents on violation-plagued buildings that are fire-traps, unsanitary and dangerous.

I wouldn't live in NYC as the cost of housing is outrageous.

[skweet]

Several posts indicate that rents are increasing because owners costs are increasing. That really is not the case in a competitve environment. Rents are rising, because demand is higher than supply. In a depressed economy there may be a price where expenses of renting are the floor for rents, but never bump the ceiling. The bottom line is that the US population keeps growing, and not many living units are being built. If there is anything, that I see, that could really kickstart inflation, it is when there is one more living unit needed, then total living units available.

[zibazinski]

My taxes and insurance are going up on my rentals even though their value is going down. I'm sure not "eating it." Now that people have lost their homes or no longer can buy homes, that makes the pool of renters bigger and the pool of landlords smaller-in SOME areas. In Florida there are more places for rent than renters so it's a renters market. Where my rentals are is a landlord's market-so far. That could very well change. All I know is that I only take someone with VERY stable jobs, BOTH have to have them and they have to be able to pay the rent on only one income if necessary. Credit and references must be good. No glitches of any real issue. My Mom took a medical bankruptcy with the attitude that it could happen to anyone. I told her to wait for another tenant. That tenant is always late with her rent and always complaining as well. With a stay at home husband who doesn't seem to be able to do any cleaning, just sitting on butt smoking even though smoking isn't allowed.