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View Full Version : Housing 'bubble' causing rental market to skyrocket


Regis Philbin
Oct 26th, 2006, 07:25 PM
If the greedy homeowners aren't raking it in, the greedy landlords are. What's a liberal to do?

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/26/D8L0FA5G0.html

Apartment Rent, Demand Is Soaring

Oct 26 1:48 PM US/Eastern

By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES

Kristin Zimmerman went looking for a new apartment recently after someone broke into her unit in a converted Victorian house in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.
She found a roomy, two-bedroom, two-bath dwelling on the edge of upscale Russian Hill, where the previous tenant had been paying $2,600 a month _ more than the $1,959 a month she and her roommate were spending but still within their limit.

The landlord, however, wanted $3,000 a month and wouldn't budge.

"The woman was just unrelenting," said Zimmerman, 26, a cancer researcher.

Apartment rents and demand are soaring nationwide as the economy produces good jobs and people who might have bought homes a year ago settle for apartments while they wait for housing prices to tumble.

In addition, the supply of rental housing tightened in the past year as many apartments were converted into condominiums in places like Florida and Southern California. Some of those units are now returning to rental markets at high prices as owners struggle to sell them.

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, the average advertised rent reached $978, up 3.9 percent over the year-ago period, according to an analysis of 75 markets by real estate research firm Reis Inc. in New York. Some of the biggest increases were seen in Florida and Southern California.

Meanwhile, the nationwide vacancy rate for rental housing dropped to 5.4 percent during the quarter from 6.7 percent in the same period of 2004.

Apartment rents and demand are soaring nationwide as the economy produces good jobs and people who might have bought homes a year ago settle for apartments while they wait for housing prices to tumble.
I thought the Bush economy was only producing minimum wage jobs? What's going on here??? :scratch:

DoubleEdgeSword
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:19 PM
What the hell are you talking about? You're making even less sense than usual.

*Katy*
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:30 PM
What? I see this completely different, People cant afford to buy a house, and rent is going up b/c the demand for rentals are going up(and people still cant afford that..). 3,000 a month for a apartment is ridiculous, sounds like Kristin can afford it seeing as though shes a cancer researcher although if she went somewhere else im sure she could find a number she likes better. Its called shopping around :rolleyes:

Annoyedlistner
Oct 27th, 2006, 06:14 AM
regis...do you understand that people typically rent because they cant afford to buy a house?

this isnt good news at all. But it goes right along with the news from yesterday stating that new home sales are at the lowest point in 35 years.

*rockstar54*
Oct 31st, 2006, 03:41 PM
$3,000 a month for a two bedroom two bath in Russian Hill doesn't sound too bad, relative to other SF rent. However, it is a ridiculously exorbitant amount to have to pay for rent......but that's not a bad deal for San Francisco.