“I am wondering if you can quantify your search. How much is the increase?”
A year ago a 1-bedroom apartment in Hillcrest/Mission Hills/North Park/ was about $1000. Now it costs $1200 – $1300. I wish I had actually logged the figures because the increase is so high, I’m beginning to wonder if I remembered it wrong?? But I just confirmed with my siter and brother-in-law, and they agreed.
Interestingly, this morning I called about a rent-to-own house in Mission Hills. The owner is in Hawaii, and previously did a rent-to-own with a millitary couple who gave him a note from the prior sale of their home, and stayed there 5 years. Well, they got transferred to Iraq, so they gave up the house. He claims he gave them back their note, and now he wants to repeat the process. I asked him, “why not sell outright,” and he said, “Well there are 10-15 other homes on the market right now that are comparable properties, so this is a good way for me to unload it because I really don’t want to be a landlord in another state, and it worked before.” He is asking $899K and is willing to finance at 7%. He’s also asking for a 10K security deposit. (!)
I searched for it on Zillow, and the prior sale (to the millitary couple) was never on the books, and in fact he bought it in ’96 for $223K.
I suspect the whole rental market is going to get really wacky for a while.