In Phoenix, tenants compete for scarce rentals
Bidding wars, open houses and other features of the real-estate boom are back as tenants scramble to snag rental homes. Rentals are scarce elsewhere, too.
In Phoenix, the real-estate frenzy is back.
Crowds of people are flocking to open houses. Homes are drawing multiple offers. Properties are going for more than asking price.
We're talking about homes for rent, not for sale, though the inventory of homes for sale in Phoenix is low, too.
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"It's a crazy rental market right now," Liza Asbury of Realty One Group told The Arizona Republic. "There are multiple offers for properties. If it (the home) is nice, it is definitely going fast."
A number of factors have converged to create a market in which an abundance of renters are competing for scarce homes, The Republic reports. Homeowners who suffered foreclosures are looking for places to live. Those who might otherwise buy are scared off by what happened to the neighbors as they watched home values fall 60%. And as the overall economy improves, people are moving to Phoenix for jobs and young people who had been living with relatives are looking for their own places.
The Republic tells the story of Greg Gale, a loan officer, who went all out to secure a rental home. To get the 4,600-square-foot Scottsdale home he wanted, he wrote an emotional and personal cover letter to go with his application, complete with photos of his children. He got the house.
The market for homes to buy is hot in Phoenix, too, as investors snap up homes to use as rentals. In July, nearly a third of the single-family homes purchased were slated to become rental property.
There historically has been a shortage of affordable rental properties in many cities, particularly for people at the lowest income levels. But in some cities such as Phoenix – and Peoria, Ill. – there is also a shortage of middle-income homes for rent.
"It's a very tight market. It's been tight before, but never like this. I don't see it easing up," Shawn Hayes, managing broker for Principle Property Management in Peoria, told The Peoria Journal-Star. "We've been 100% full at both of our complexes since May. We're all building more units because we don't see it easing up."
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I don't mean to be cruel, but honestly, folks, from the wording and spelling and illogical assumptions I see here, I'm amazed that any of you could afford to rent a decent place to begin with. Except for the post speaking to how a ghetto begins.
It doesn't always happen that way, but often enough. Depends on how expensive the neighborhood is.
Bottom line: no conspiracy here. Empty houses for sale cheap and people who didn't blow their cash buying them and hoping to make a profit renting them out. A lot of these will lose out along the way as well. That's the chance you take in business.
Yeah right, they're building my ****...how many new construction starts have they had.
Wealthy investors are buying up houses for less that 1/2 of their value because they are foreclosed on, they are lying vacant with no occupants and crime is going up huge so the mortgage companies are blowing them out for some more profit.
They are buying them to keep prices high for renters, slumlords.
How about make loans available to low income people because that is what we have become.
If our country doesn't get creative and invent another housing industry, or internet...We are screwed, we really need to create jobs.
Great just great. Landlords across the country will look at this as their ticket to raise their rents which I already see going on in Oregon which is where we are getting ready to transfer for employment purposes! We would love to buy but how many people have $20,000 - $30,000 sitting around?!
Rentals are already around $1500 in Oregon & gas is $4 a gallon. Wonderful (sarcasm at it's highest level)!
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
msn real estate is social
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