USA Today reports that the National Association of Realtors is forecasting a 5.3 percent increase in rents this year, which is about double last year’s increase. The paper reports it would be the largest increase in rents since 2000, when the Internet boom and a white hot job market sent lots of young adults out of college looking for places to live. The last six years have seen a boom in new home construction, though, along with low mortgage rates, which helped many former renters move into their own homes, and helped keep rent increases more modest.

Rising rents is one of the factors in the higher-than-expected jump in consumer prices in the April reading from the Labor Department. In addition to making home purchases less affordable, the recent housing boom led many investors to convert apartment buildings to condominiums to try to cash in on the rise in real estate prices. One out of three apartment buildings sold last year were converted into condos for sale, the paper reports, and that took 191,400 apartments off the market, according to the Realtors. In addition, the newspaper reports the number of new apartment buildings under construction is down this year.

click here for article

search for : National Association of Realtors, Internet, new home construction, real estate prices, apartment

bookmark this article to your choice of sites