According to data collected by Dupree & Scott Apartment Advisors (www.dsaa.com) rent for the average single family house in King and Snohomish counties is $1822 per month, up 3.5% from $1761 per month last year.
I have felt it for the last couple of years, but now we have some data to back it up. From the Property Management perspective, it started out as simply a few more phone calls on our advertised rental properties.
In recent months, this has translated into increased rental asking prices. Kind of like the old sales market…when things were good…if the comparable rental properties indicated a rent of, say, $1500 per month, the market dictates that we reach a little higher…to maybe $1525 per month.
For us marketing and managing rental homes, it means we can finally keep up with the increased costs of insurance, maintenance, and repairs. Many don’t remember, that when the real estate market was at its peak, the tax assessments were going up faster than rents. And values were going up so fast that insurance rates increased annually as well. I suspect that this is the first real sign of the real estate recovery. As demand and rents go up for rentals homes, there may be increased interest in buying a home. And the cycle begins again.