What is happening with the
rental market in Tigard,
Oregon?
Should rents be going up and vacancy down? You would think so, but
I’m talking
to more and more investors that are sitting with empty rental
properties for
longer than six months and are lowering the rents to try to attract
renters.
Why
is this? You would think with all the foreclosures that more and more
people would be in the rental market,
but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
What is actually happening is renters are arriving and because of the
economy
they can’t afford to pay first and last months rent. They
can’t afford large monthly
rents, and then, once they are in they may lose their jobs and stop
paying rent
all together, leaving a landlord to spend thousands to get them out.
So
why are there so many vacancies in the Tigard, Oregon, rental market? One
reason is that
families are moving in together to save money or even two families into
one
home. I talked to a family last week that lived with a friend because
both
husbands had lost their jobs and alone they couldn’t make it.
But on their
spouses incomes they could keep the one house, which was large enough
for both
of them.
After talking to this landlord for about an hour, she decided that it just wasn’t worth it any more and was going to sell these properties to just get out of the rental game for awhile. She made a lot of good money over the past 10 years, but with the current economy, she can’t risk getting someone moved in and then taking 4 months to get them out once they stop paying.
So, if you are you a landlord from the Tigard area and have experienced the same thing, please give me a call. I would love to see if I can help and get you in contact with other landlords who may have come up with solutions to these problems.
Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739
© 2009 Todd Clark - What is happening with the rental market in Tigard Oregon?
Todd, that is very interesting. Here we are seeing the opposite. just in the last 2 weeks we have had more requests from buyers to rent instead and sellers to lease. Go figure. ~Rita
Rita - Oh, we have plenty of people looking for rentals, it is just they can't afford them. No down payments, horrible credit and really bad references. The renters are out there, but I certainly wouldn't put the ones that are out there in my property.
Todd, I guess the thought that comes to mind is if a person can no longer afford their mortgage why would we think that they can afford rent? I suppose if there is enough difference between the rent and the mortgage payment and the person is still employed it might work. Then again, so many sellers have defaulted because they have lost their jobs so what do they do? Combing households is one solution and I think we will see more of it.
Todd: What I have noticed in my area, is that to atract better tenants, I have had to lower my rents by about 10%.
I just finished dealing with the "tenant from hell" Rentals have been good to me, so I will stick till better times come.
Todd ---very good points --most interesting --- I am getting ready to go into an office meeting with my agents --- I'm going to use your idea of going to the landlords for listings. Thanks, my Oregon friend.
Some landlords are having to take a chance on tenants with less than stellar credit due to job loss, foreclosure etc and as you mentioned here many families are combining their resources to afford one home rather than 2.
Barb - Here the difference between a mortgage and rent can be as much as $1500 per month.
Tere - These landlords have even tried that and still are getting the worst of the worst.
Mama Liz - I would love to see how many listings you have by the end of the month directly from upset landlords... Don't forget to report back.
Judy - You do what you have to do in this economy.
Personally I haven't been having trouble with my residential tenants paying on time (knock on wood) -- but my commercial properties are starting to suffer! My commercial tenants are all late on their rent. It's sad to see these businesses suffering, but in the end I'm going to end up suffering as well.
Jeannie - That is exactly what is happening to my landlords. They are starting get behind on their own mortgages because of others not paying them.