Have the rents gone up in the CDA-Spokane metro area? (Boise: sales, real estate)

[Seahawksfan33]

Most apartments on Craigslist there went for like $500-$600/month a couple of years now. Now so many are going for WAY OVER $1,000/month, with it being difficult to find one that goes for under $1,000/month. Why are the rents going up so much? The cost of living in Spokane used to be like 1/4 of Seattle's as well two years ago), and now it seems to be more than half of it.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I don't know about rents in Spokane. Real estate in Spokane looks to be relatively low priced.

Rents in CDA are high because the price of real estate is high. Few people are going to buy a residence where the monthly mortgage plus taxes and insurance is over $1,200 a month and then rent it out for $500 a month.

It looks to me like both towns are growing fast which means more people are moving in than there are places for them to live. That raises prices, too.

On top oft that, your money doesn't have the purchasing power it once had. Everything costs more than it used to cost.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Rents in CDA are high because the price of real estate is high. Few people are going to buy a residence where the monthly mortgage plus taxes and insurance is over $1,200 a month and then rent it out for $500 a month.

Coeur d'Alene real estate agents cater to a niche market, that being the older retirees who bring their money with them from other states (usually pensioners from CA or TX who are former state/county employees). There is an inbound crop of them right now, as there is about every 15 years or so. Building your housing market on retirees is faulty for a variety of reasons, but I won't go into them because I'll get banned.

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

It looks to me like both towns are growing fast which means more people are moving in than there are places for them to live. That raises prices, too.

Not really. There's not much to drive the growth in either place. Coeur d'Alene has a healthy retiree market (for the time being) but that's it. Outside of a currently expanding health care presence due to the retiree influx, there's not much else. Zillow also seems to show an abundance of listings in all Coeur d'Alene-Area zip codes (83814, 83854, 83835, 83858).

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

On top oft that, your money doesn't have the purchasing power it once had. Everything costs more than it used to cost.

^Very true!

As you can see from my attachments, there exists ample homes for purchase in Kootenai County:

[Shaner]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

Coeur d'Alene real estate agents cater to a niche market, that being the older retirees who bring their money with them from other states (usually pensioners from CA or TX who are former state/county employees). There is an inbound crop of them right now, as there is about every 15 years or so. Building your housing market on retirees is faulty for a variety of reasons, but I won't go into them because I'll get banned.



Not really. There's not much to drive the growth in either place. Coeur d'Alene has a healthy retiree market (for the time being) but that's it. Outside of a currently expanding health care presence due to the retiree influx, there's not much else. Zillow also seems to show an abundance of listings in all Coeur d'Alene-Area zip codes (83814, 83854, 83835, 83858).



^Very true!

As you can see from my attachments, there exists ample homes for purchase in Kootenai County:

Not certain where your information is coming from, but my business is split up with 50% being people who lost their home and have been renting and now can rebuy, 35% out of towners and 15% 2nd/3rd home people. Also, the median age of our community has dropped by 16 years over the last decade so retirement community is also not a right label.

Zillow is not a good information source in Idaho as we are a non disclosure state and more than not, it is wrong. Realtor.com is only good information source.

To Seahawksfan, yes rents have went up as there are not as many rentals as there once was. A lot of them have been sold off because the market rose.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by Seahawksfan33

Most apartments on Craigslist there went for like $500-$600/month a couple of years now. Now so many are going for WAY OVER $1,000/month, with it being difficult to find one that goes for under $1,000/month. Why are the rents going up so much? The cost of living in Spokane used to be like 1/4 of Seattle's as well two years ago), and now it seems to be more than half of it.

This is a nationwide phenomenon.

Rents have been rising sharply in most major population centers in recent years - more sharply than we've seen in a long, long, time. CDA is in particularly high demand, so its increases have outpaced Boise, for example, but Boise rents are much higher than they were just a handful of years ago. Almost anywhere you look at desirable areas....not the coastal tourist magnets mind you, but just stable and safe areas for families....you see rents 20 and 30 percent higher than what you "knew" them to be. Because they were for so long.

I've been tracking this closely for the last half dozen years as I consider my retirement options, and I can tell you that this trend has hugely impacted my planning. It is not much of an oversimplification to say that I have been, for practical purposes, priced out of the West on my retirement income. At this point, I'm continuing to work for the foreseeable future and that was NOT the plan 10, 5, or even 2 years ago.

[banjomike]

CrownVic's comments are true.
The Great Recession hit the housing industry especially hard, including rentals.

A lot of folks who invested in rental properties just before the big collapse had to bite the bullet for a long time and keep their own returns close to nothing just to keep their rentals occupied; they depended on the rental profit for their own living, but in such dire times, it was more important to hang on to the property than it was to make a profit.

Eventually, as the nation came out the other side and returned to how it was before, during those years, everything crept upward in prices. Including taxes, especially in Idaho, where the solution to everything is to cut taxes at the first sign of trouble.

Now, 6 years after the recession ended, all those owners must raise their rents. It's past time for some, and profits on their investment must be made now. They can be generous no longer, for they have to look out for themselves.

The recession stalled out all wage increases, but it did not stall out the costs of living, anywhere. Even in Idaho. It is not that the rental and home prices are now too high- it's that the wages are too low.

The sooner something is done about that, the better off we will all be.

[pookaspirit]

My perspective is from a mostly anecdotal position. I am retired. I moved to Cda 12/2013. Coming from resort areas with very high housing costs Cda was a breath of fresh air. We were looking to rent due to losing a home at the beginning of the 2008 recession. I did a deep study of rentals in this area before moving and was blown away by the low prices and the abundance of available rentals. After moving to a duplex rental in an attractive neighborhood in Cda I continued studying both rentals and sales in this area. I also happened to notice that there were an abundance of older vehicles here. Initially I attributed that to my contrasting experience in resort areas. Then I started noticing an increase in newer vehicles and a considerable decrease in older ones. That mirrored decreases in unemployment so I assumed a connection. I also noticed modest increases in housing costs. Perspective is important when weighing these issues but at this stage in 2017 it appears to me that housing costs are still low in Cda and even lower in the rest of North Idaho. I will add that the Cda area is worth whatever you pay, IMHO.

[pookaspirit]

Originally Posted by Seahawksfan33

Most apartments on Craigslist there went for like $500-$600/month a couple of years now. Now so many are going for WAY OVER $1,000/month, with it being difficult to find one that goes for under $1,000/month. Why are the rents going up so much? The cost of living in Spokane used to be like 1/4 of Seattle's as well two years ago), and now it seems to be more than half of it.

There is an abundance of rentals for over $1000 a month in Cda. There are still many under $1000. What you get for the price you pay is important. Also consider that in a normal economy in the 21st century prices always go up.

[Seahawksfan33]

Do you think that the rents will decrease against once the fall seasons hits? I really hope that they do just so I can get as far away from St. Louis, Missouri as possible. It's the cheapest city in this country, meaning that it's unfortunately the only one that I can afford right now.

[Shaner]

Originally Posted by Seahawksfan33

Do you think that the rents will decrease against once the fall seasons hits? I really hope that they do just so I can get as far away from St. Louis, Missouri as possible. It's the cheapest city in this country, meaning that it's unfortunately the only one that I can afford right now.

Probably not, thats when the college kids absorb the smaller homes and apts.