Very tight rental market (Portland, Bend: transplants, real estate market, apartment complexes)

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by Dry Side

The UGB expansion (still pending) will not keep up with demand (especially on the West Side).

Is that a guess or is there data available supporting that statement?

Originally Posted by Dry Side

That said Bend is still a deal when compared to the greater Silicon Valley.

Bend is still a deal when compared to NY city but I'm not sure what that has to do with anything?

[Dry Side]

The data is the proposed UGB expansion on the West Side is very limited and demand for NWX appears strong.

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by Dry Side

The data is the proposed UGB expansion on the West Side is very limited and demand for NWX appears strong.

I fail to see what the demand for NWX has to do with the UBG expansion. NWX is a relatively unique development that is limited in scope. Even if the UGB was gigantic it wouldn't increase the size of NWX. And I doubt we'll see the NWX popularity reproduced in developments that are farther out because much of the appeal is the proximity to town.

[kapetrich]

Housing Works to develop 40 more affordable units: More affordable housing due on Bend's Eastside | Latest News - Home

It's a start.....

[delta07]

Originally Posted by nevergreener

Bend Rental Problems and solutions for renters:
1. The new breed of landlord is getting too much too fast on the backs of folks working too hard for too little.
PMC's and Owners are full of rationalizations and explanations of how they aren't making money so here is an example of a home I sold that became a rental after I sold it - Sold in perfect condition for 155k one year ago, taxes are $2100 annual and insurance is under $600 per year so, principal interest taxes and insurance are about $850 per month and He's renting the place for $1400. Worst case and it's vacant one month and requires $500 in annual repairs he is profiting $5,200 per year (or more).Thai is over a 25% return on the $20k investment he made. SOLUTION get word out to offer less that what these greedy folks are asking.
2. Lease agreements need to be read and some of the things that make you as the renter overly responsible to provide the owner extra profits need to be stricken out of the lease. Examples are tenant being responsible for repairs and maintenance and allowing the owner to be showing and re-renting your home while you are still paying rent and living there. Solution READ the LEASE and don't be so desperate to find a place that you make a bad deal.
3. Rookie Landlords - it seems that everyone with a few dollars has now bought a rental and some of these amateurs are so focused on the property being theirs that they will be extremely annoying and paranoid about this business that realistically they may not even be qualified to run. Solution- you need to be comfortable interviewing landlords as they interview you.
4. Most of the owner sob stories are a result of their putting a bad tenant into their rental with a bad lease. SOLUTION if you're a good tenant Know that you are a good landlords dream so let your benefits to them shine and don't agree to bad terms.
Most important is get together and refuse to over pay and tell others the same. Remember that the low wages in Bend will eventually cause renters to move away and then supply and demand will shift but a fair professional owner will have a permanent happy tenant while the greedy owners will be dealing with evictions, broken leases and vacancies- what comes around goes around.

I definitely agree with you that rents are very high right now compared with the cost of living, and many landlords are probably profiting off of the increased demand for housing. However, I don't necessarily think you can determine what actual profit the person is making on the home you sold them last year, as you don't know the terms of their loan, etc. Individuals who buy investment properties often have a higher interest rate on their loans. As the home ages, there will also be more repairs, thus needing to bring in more money on the home. With renters, a good landlord will also invest in painting, etc. each time a tenant moves out, increasing the cost of maintenance.

I am in no way justifying landlords who are greedy and hoping to make a huge profit off of people. However, we did rent our home out in Colorado for a short time while we decided to pursue travel nursing with my husband's career. It was a lot of work, we had to pay a property management company 10% of the rent a month, we ended up with smokers who ruined our carpets and walls, and we actually had a net loss of about 20% from our mortgage. If I were to rent out a home I own again, I would certainly do it differently.

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by kapetrich

it's a start.....

+1

[Steve Pickering]

The Market is getting tight all over. It is still driven by the crash. All those foreclosures had to have someplace to live. They have income. Rent is their only option for years to come. Even here in Dallas, low income rentals are tight. Last weekend the 100 year old 4 br Farm House next to me emptied at noon. The truck was pulling out and a couple stopped by to ask if it was for rent. They moved in before the place was empty for 24 hours. Of course it rents for $700 a month with acreage.

[redguard57]

Zillow and New York Times put out a report not long ago saying rising rent rates have become a crisis nationwide.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/business/more-renters-find-30-affordability-ratio-unattainable.html?_r=0

[BendLocal]

Bend eyes affordable housing; City Council will decide whether to offer public property for development

Bend officials will ask the City Council to offer two city-owned parcels of land for sale next month, as a short-term option to ease the shortage of affordable housing.

The parcels are both in northeast Bend: one on Butler Market Road and the other on Daggett Lane. A third potential affordable-housing site — two pieces of land near the Cascades East Transit operations building on Northeast Bear Creek Road — will take a bit more work to prepare it for sale, Affordable Housing Manager Jim Long said on Wednesday. The city will put out a request for proposals from developers for the first two properties in mid-July, Long said. “It’s going to be up to council whether they want to sell those for the maximum amount of money available,” Long said.

On Wednesday, members of the committee also discussed several potential changes to city development code aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing. Members of the committee said they are concerned not only about providing housing for low-income households, but also want to ensure there is reasonably priced housing for middle-income people. Proposals to change the development code include creating a “density bonus” that would allow developers who include affordable housing in a project to build more houses, on smaller lots, that otherwise would not be allowed in a particular zone. Committee members also discussed a possible code amendment to allow larger accessory dwellings, such as apartments above garages, to make them more economically feasible to develop, and a change that would make it easier for property owners to build them.

“This one’s going to be brutally unpopular with certain segments in the population,” Long said during the meeting on Wednesday. Nonetheless, accessory dwelling units have been popular in Portland and the program led to the creation of thousands of new units of rental housing, Long said.

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

Bend eyes affordable housing; City Council will decide whether to offer public property for development

Great news, IMO. It's a shame most, if not all, of the land in and around St. Charles is owned by health care providers. So much of that land is zoned perfectly to help alleviate some of these growing pains.

It's really the only downside to all that amazing healthcare over there

Originally Posted by Dry Side

That said Bend is still a deal when compared to the greater Silicon Valley.

Originally Posted by BendLocal

Bend is still a deal when compared to NY city but I'm not sure what that has to do with anything?

To this point, just think about it for 2 seconds. This site is a tiny sampling and of the few posters posting are people relocating from DC, Baltimore, Denver, Portland, Seattle, SF, Austin, etc......This is not meant to exclude people relocating from smaller areas of which there are many.

The markets high. It could be good timing for you to jump ship as I know you want to.