Rents are falling?

[Alan]

This is the craigslist search I used to find my current rental.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/ap ... bedrooms=2

Last summer I considered my current rental to be an absolute steal (and it took me two months to find it), but today I am seeing lots of comparable prices.

Are rents falling or have they not yet adjusted for the spring/summer price hike?

[CliveL]

Rents do seem to be falling in areas close to Microsoft. I was talking with rental agency person a couple of weeks back regarding a SFH. The previous renter was paying $300 more than what they are asking for the same place now and they are still not able to rent it.

[sorin]

I suspect this is an artifact of so many condos and other properties being added to the rental market. Not necessarily whole developments (though that is also happening) but there seem to be a lot of individuals that purchased in the past couple years trying to rent either for income purposes or just because they can't sell for more than they paid. In both cases, what I'm seeing around Ballard is they are getting negative returns (rents are lower than the cost of a mortgage plus HOA dues) due to rents and sales prices being out of whack to begin with, and because of increasing rental inventory.

Interesting how part of the fallout from the bubble may be lower rents.