How much does your rent go up this year?

[WildcatTofu]

Last year, when I first moved to my apartment in belltown, my rent was 1120 plus parking. Six months ago, when I had to renew my lease, I thought the housing meltdown will bring the rent down in early 2008. For this reason, I only signed another 6 months with the leasing company. And the new rate was 1225.... an amazing 9.3% growth in just 6 month.

Fast forward to this month..... It's about time to renew my lease again... My landlord sent me a notice telling me the new rate will be 1340(9.8% increase).

I was shocked that my rent goes up 20% in just 12 months, also I did some survey and found out most apartments in belltown raise their rate by more than 10% YTY.

It looks like the housing meltdown also hurt us renters. Because of the condo-conversion, there are fewer apartments available in the Seattle. And this situation will not change until early 2009.

Last time, when I checked the governmental reports, it said the rent only expected to go up 8% this year. My fellow renters, do you agree with government's analysis?

[MrRational]

Ah yes... gotta love those benefits of renting. But wait, did your income go up over 10% YOY? I thought rents had to follow income growth because you can't take out a suicide loan to pay your rents.

I remember about 5 years ago when I first moved to the area and was looking at renting in Bellevue the going rate for a decent 2 bed apartment was around $900/mo (in the Factorial area). Now I'm seeing rents in the same buildings I was looking at 5 years ago at around $1400/mo. There will always be some people on this blog who will chime in with something like "oh, my rent only went up 3% last year" or "my rent actually went down...renting is so smart." But it seems the truth for most people is that rents have gone up substantially in the past several years and are not about to go down any time soon.

[kpom]

Yep - my rent on a SFH went up by a big, big twenty-five bucks a month this year (the first rent increase in several years).

To keep my rent from going up, I'm going to buy a house, so it can drop 30% in value over the next couple of years - at least I won't be throwing my money away on rent!

I think that Belltown rents will drop, once all those genius Belltown condo "investors" figure out that they can't sell their condo this year for anything close to their wishing price, and put their condo out for rent, as they wait for the 2009 "spring bounce".

This is actually a cycle we've seen in markets farther along than Seattle - rents rise at the top of the RE market, because flippers and other housing speculators are buying housing and holding it off the rental market. Rents drop as the sellers can't get their wishing prices and put the housing on the rental market (after all, they aren't going to "give their house away"). The final stage is when the price of distressed housing falls to the point where the cost of owning is equivalent to the cost of renting, plus a small premium for expected appreciation.

[Matthew]

Currently renting a 350,000 dollar condo in Belltown for 1,200 a month (includes garage parking). Wow renting is so dumb!

[gettohomes]

My rent will be DECREASING as I move a few blocks up from Belltown into Lower Queen Anne into a larger place with a just as nice view and a larger balcony.

I had been paying $1220 (which is what it has been for the last year after going up $20 after the first year of my lease) with parking included and will now be paying $1175 with parking included.

[Lake Hills Renter]

My rent has gone up once by $50 on this SFH in 4 years, and that was to get back to the normal rental price. I basically got my "move in special" for over 2 years (matching my old rent on a crappy place). It was a great deal before the raise, and now it's just a good deal. If it goes up again it won't be that any more and he knows I'll move, and he specifically wanted me living here because he knew I'd take care of the place -- and I have, better than he did when he was living here. I don't see my rent going up, or I'll find a better deal.

[Alan]

Your landlord is pricing your costs to move into your rent. As long as you keep paying, he figures he can bump it up more. Time to find a new landlord.

[deejayoh]

Typical rent increases are in the order of 3-5% per year over the long term. Rent increases were flat from 2001-2005 - as population in Seattle actually decreased. IMO, what we we are seeing now is a "catch up" for those years. I expect it will flatten out over the next year or so to a more moderate rate of increase.

Remember this chart? The last dot on the rent line is 2006 when rents were under priced. 2007 was up 8% from that. My math says we are pretty close to being back on the trend line

[ayles]

Rent increases for the house I live in in Ballard. $0 over the last three years.

$1450 per month for a 4 bedroom, 3 story house. I'm sure this is not the norm, but there is very little incentive to move at this point.

[perfectfire]

If I had stayed in my apartment last year (a decent 2 bd near the factoria area) the rent would've gone from 1045 to 1115. Almost a 7% increase. That's pretty high, but not nearly the 20%+ increase that a lot of homedebtors are praying for. Instead we moved into a house that rents for $1400/month. The previous resident of 2 years payed $1400/month the first year and $1400/month the second year. So that makes 2 years of 0% increases. We won't have to renew our contract for several months, but I'm betting it'll be $1400/month next year too. The landlord is afraid of the house sitting vacant.

[EconE]

None Zip Zilch Nada.

I signed a 2 year lease in mid 2007.

550-600k new concrete & steel construction 1BR downtown for $1667 that includes parking, WSG &Gas for cooking and heating (gas fireplace, gas cooktop, gas oven).

Utilities have been averaging $15/mo total.

Mid 2009 will be interesting.

[sorin]

Yeah, us stupid renters... I moved into my place in Magnolia 3 years ago at $800 a month... and it's been the same ever since, and the landlord rocks.

Should I add that a comparable condo in this neighborhood would cost over $1600 a month? Plus another $300 for HOA dues?

Oh, but I don't have granite countertops -- oh, the horror! To think, I'm only banking $1100 a month, and I've had to sacrifice granite countertops!

[aldreth]

.

[Wanderer]

I am very happy to be renting and cannot see a reason to risk buying in the next 12 months. That said, I did get a pretty big rent increase when I took over the upstairs lease in my duplex house. I was hoping that recent housing inventory increases would keep a little pressure on the landlord, so I actually asked for a reduction ($875) from the rent that the previous upstairs tenant was paying ($950). That didn't fly very well and he jacked it up to $1050/mo. I was unable to make my astute knowledge of the housing market (thanks SB!) translate to rent stability. Oh well. In the end, the LL has been way underpricing the place for a while. He really is an idiot, but it turns out that even he couldn't miss news reports about rising rents. He could still get more for it if he tried since it is a nice place in Wallingford with 2 patios and a great view of Downtown (lake between the trees too). I would have liked to haggle with him more, but I haven't seen as good of a place for any less money.

[WildcatTofu]