Rent prices in Colorado Springs (transplants, real estate, cheap apartment)

[BornintheSprings]

Affordable housing is sorely needed all over the US. People shouldn't be spending more than 20 percent of there income on rent.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by BornintheSprings

Affordable housing is sorely needed all over the US. People shouldn't be spending more than 20 percent of there income on rent.

Yup. But by that metric, to afford that median 2 bedroom apartment, one should earn $76.3K per year.

I'd guess that wage is somewhere near the 60th percentile in Colorado Springs.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Yup. But by that metric, to afford that median 2 bedroom apartment, one should earn $76.3K per year.

I'd guess that wage is somewhere near the 60th percentile in Colorado Springs.

For military contractors with TS clearances probably correct (and maybe a bit low)- for service workers no way.

[rochester_veteran]

Originally Posted by Vision67

https://patch.com/colorado/colorado-...skyrocket-2019

"Rent in Colorado Springs has gone up by a whopping 27.3 percent over the past five years, and Aurora has gone up by 22 percent.

Colorado Springs' median two-bedroom rent of $1,272 is above the national average of $1,192"

Like it or not, this fact squeezes out many lower income people. It also greatly contributes to the homelessness problem.

One observation is that many apartment complexes were recently bought and refurbished by investors. Upon refurbishment, rents zoomed.

I was concerned about how much my rent would go up when I renewed my lease, but the complex I live offered a "renew our leases now with no rent increase" and I took the deal and my rent will remain the same until 7/31/2021. I'm retired living on a fixed income and to keep my biggest expense, my rent payments stable for a year and a half is a nice break for me! I like my apartment and the complex itself and it's in the Mesa neighborhood, a nice area with shopping and the VA Clinic close by. It's an older complex built in the early 1970s but my apartment has been updated and there's no bugs or vermin and it's a nice place and it feels like home now since moving in at the end of August 2019. The whole enchilada, rent, trash removal, water, gas and electric averages around $970 a month for a one bedroom with a balcony. Cable and internet are more expensive here in Cos and I'm paying $40 more a month for the same thing I got from Spectrum back in Rochester, NY. My car insurance has almost doubled as well. The increase in cable/internet and car insurance were a surprise for me, I didn't expect that much of an increase!

[Sonic_Spork]

My son and his fiance have been researching apartments, planning to move out of my house, for months. Two of the places they were keen on have jacked up the rent by a couple hundred a month, since March.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork

My son and his fiance have been researching apartments, planning to move out of my house, for months. Two of the places they were keen on have jacked up the rent by a couple hundred a month, since March.

Any way they could consider the housing market instead? Or rent a house instead of an apartment? My nephew was able to move out by finding a house rental situation with 3-4 other people involved....

[Vision67]

It's possible that some AirBnb landlords will either shift to long term rentals or dump the properties. Either would increase the supply.

That's happening in the Bay Area now.

[Sonic_Spork]

Originally Posted by otowi

Any way they could consider the housing market instead? Or rent a house instead of an apartment? My nephew was able to move out by finding a house rental situation with 3-4 other people involved....

They are shut out of buying for the same reason that a lot of people are, they don't have enough savings for a down payment. They're just getting started as young adults, how are they supposed to have tens of thousands of dollars saved, or even good credit?

But that aside, I have mentioned the option of renting a house to them, and the prices on those are still pretty high, unless they roomied up with others, and my older son is pretty adamant about not wanting to live in the same home as a stranger.

In all honesty though I think it's a step they are not ready for. The upkeep, even on a house you're renting, is higher. You often have to do the yard work and such. I'm not sure that's something that they're looking for. They changed course from looking to get a regular apartment, to looking now to get into student housing across from UCCS, and it's now looking like both of my sons, and my older son's fiance (all college students) will attempt to share a 3 bedroom apartment there. The benefits of that, are that they're more accustomed to dealing with young adults without much history of employment, credit, or rental references, and each will have their own lease on a room, so if one of them (*cough* my younger son *cough*) messes things up, they don't ALL lose their housing. The others have limited liability for what the flakiest of the bunch might do.

I'm just pretty shocked that places are jacking up the rent by hundreds of dollars at a time like this. Maybe I shouldn't be. Guess they'll try to get their money however they can.

I've thought, ever since I moved here, and comparing this area to other areas I've lived, that because probably a lot of the rental homes on the market here are under management, since they'd be owned by military who move away and have to hire a PM company... These companies seem to have and exercise more power to game the rental market and keep rent prices climbing. In places I've lived where rentals by the owner are more common, I used to see more reasonable rents, and they did not automatically increase it every year on lease renewal. If you were a good tenant, they wanted to keep you. Management companies don't care if you move out...a home sitting vacant might harm the owner but it won't harm them in proportion to the benefit they see from constantly rising overall rental rates on their whole portfolio of managed properties.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork

They are shut out of buying for the same reason that a lot of people are, they don't have enough savings for a down payment. They're just getting started as young adults, how are they supposed to have tens of thousands of dollars saved, or even good credit?

I'm just pretty shocked that places are jacking up the rent by hundreds of dollars at a time like this. Maybe I shouldn't be. Guess they'll try to get their money however they can.

I can get that they aren't ready. But I don't know if I'd assume they need a strong down payment to buy a house. It might not be true - my niece was thinking about it two summers ago and wasn't going to be required to have much of one, but the relationship (and thus the two incomes) that would've let her qualify fell through so she wisely changed her mind.

The "low end" houses down where I live are still increasing in sales price through all this - apparently because inventory in that price range is so low. We're talking 70 year old houses under 1000 sq ft selling for 250k (with some recent updates). Might be good for my equity but sure makes it hard for people to get into the market.

I don't know if my nieces will ever be able to move out from home on one income.

[Even_Stephen]

Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork

I'm just pretty shocked that places are jacking up the rent by hundreds of dollars at a time like this. Maybe I shouldn't be. Guess they'll try to get their money however they can.

Yes. You would too if you were a landlord. You charge as much as you can. If what you ask in rent is too high for the market, it will sit empty. So if I "jack up the rent at a time like this", the tenant has a choice: Pay up, move, or negotiate.

If you think that being a landlord is such a great racket, why don't you try it? It's not hard *at all* to get started, though there is a lot of financial risk. Get a mortgage, buy a house, put up a For Rent sign. The trick is to actually make money at it.

Making money at it isn't really hard, either. You just have to work hard. You have to keep the place nice so that you can attract nice tenants. Nice tenants take care of the place and pay rent on time. But how to find nice tenants? Mortgage company expects a payment on time every month. El Paso County expects property taxes on time. Insurance company expects payment on time. Shouldn't the landlord expect the same from the tenant?

Or, you could just buy a dump, put as little as possible into it, and rent to anyone with a pulse. You can make money this way, too. I can't, though. Because I don't want to own dumps. And I don't want the headaches of chasing rent from people who can't/won't pay.

Personally, I like to provide nice places to nice tenants. But it doesn't come cheap either to me nor to the tenant. I don't set the maximum rent - The free market does. If I ask too much, it sits empty. If I ask too little, I can't pay all the expenses. If what I can get in rent doesn't cover expenses, then I'm out of business.

Again, give it try if you think you can do a better job.