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actyourwageSo, I may not be thinking 100% clearly about this, due to some RL stuff (two deaths in my immediate family, craziness at work, etc), but let me lay this out for y'all and then ask a couple of questions.
I've been living in my apartment for 4 years as of August 31st. My lease is up for renewal, and the rent they've offered me to renew for 12 months is 12% higher than my current base rent. For 10 months, it's 10% higher. Less then 10 months and the rate skyrockets even further. A 12 month lease would put my rent at 34% of my net income.
When I questioned this, they assured me that it's standard. But that doesn't make sense to me, because if rents for current residents are rising at a rate some 2 to 6 times that of what most of us can expect for a salary increase -- if we can expect one at all in this economy -- than how are we supposed to develop any kind of stable housing history? Are we to either expect move every year or two, or to chose a place that's half what we can afford now in hopes we can still afford it in 3 or 4 years? And how are apartment managements supposed to maintain any kind of stable community? They'll just have a constant stream of folks moving in and out as current residents are priced out of their homes. That seems like it would lead to an unhealthy community and would negatively affect their ability to get folks to come live there.
And second, so, of course I've been considering moving. I'll be talking to the leasing agents about this increase thing, but I doubt they'll write anything into the lease for me so it's really just a conversation -- I was told here that rents never rise very much either. And I've been trying to figure out how much rent I can afford. My credit card debt is about 5% of my net salary and my car payment is around 12% of my net, and that's the only debt I have right now. After that, I have pretty much just the usual expenses -- insurance of various kinds, groceries, gas for the car, cable, mobile phone, etc.
But when I look for "how much rent can I afford" calculators, the one thing they never tell you is whether you're calculating on annual net income or annual gross income.
And so, the questions:
Does it make sense to y'all that rents would typically rise 10-12% for current tenants each year? Have other people here experienced this same kind of rent hike? How is a resident supposed to manage that if their salary isn't increasing at the same rate? (And if your salary is increasing at that rate, where do you work and are you hiring?)
And assuming that rents don't rise more than 5% on a current resident, does anyone know what percent of their net income a person should expect to pay in rent?
Alternately, if you have found that lease renewals typically offer such a high increase, how do you plan for and manage that?
I've been living in my apartment for 4 years as of August 31st. My lease is up for renewal, and the rent they've offered me to renew for 12 months is 12% higher than my current base rent. For 10 months, it's 10% higher. Less then 10 months and the rate skyrockets even further. A 12 month lease would put my rent at 34% of my net income.
When I questioned this, they assured me that it's standard. But that doesn't make sense to me, because if rents for current residents are rising at a rate some 2 to 6 times that of what most of us can expect for a salary increase -- if we can expect one at all in this economy -- than how are we supposed to develop any kind of stable housing history? Are we to either expect move every year or two, or to chose a place that's half what we can afford now in hopes we can still afford it in 3 or 4 years? And how are apartment managements supposed to maintain any kind of stable community? They'll just have a constant stream of folks moving in and out as current residents are priced out of their homes. That seems like it would lead to an unhealthy community and would negatively affect their ability to get folks to come live there.
And second, so, of course I've been considering moving. I'll be talking to the leasing agents about this increase thing, but I doubt they'll write anything into the lease for me so it's really just a conversation -- I was told here that rents never rise very much either. And I've been trying to figure out how much rent I can afford. My credit card debt is about 5% of my net salary and my car payment is around 12% of my net, and that's the only debt I have right now. After that, I have pretty much just the usual expenses -- insurance of various kinds, groceries, gas for the car, cable, mobile phone, etc.
But when I look for "how much rent can I afford" calculators, the one thing they never tell you is whether you're calculating on annual net income or annual gross income.
And so, the questions:
Does it make sense to y'all that rents would typically rise 10-12% for current tenants each year? Have other people here experienced this same kind of rent hike? How is a resident supposed to manage that if their salary isn't increasing at the same rate? (And if your salary is increasing at that rate, where do you work and are you hiring?)
And assuming that rents don't rise more than 5% on a current resident, does anyone know what percent of their net income a person should expect to pay in rent?
Alternately, if you have found that lease renewals typically offer such a high increase, how do you plan for and manage that?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-07 12:51 am (UTC)But it could be worth looking into again. I'm sure there are lots of landlords out there who don't provide great stories for cocktail parties. :)