Renters Market

More good news for renters - it's a renters market. There is a glut of apartments in Jersey and many landlords are willing to negotiate in order to rent their space. While some parts have not changed, people still need first months rent and a hefty deposit. Also going in with knowledge of a credit score is a good start. But for other things like rent price and terms landlords are willing to negotiate. Things like lowering the monthly rent, allowing pets and throwing in other perks are apparently taking place. This article from The Record titled It's a renters market; so shop around describes the current action in the rental world. Let's take a look -

A recent survey by Rent.com, an online rentals search site, found a number of signs that the recession is affecting the apartment market, including:

* A larger percentage of tenants searching for two- and three-bedroom apartments — apparently a sign that people are living with roommates or relatives to cut housing costs.

* A larger percentage of tenants using search terms like "bad credit apartments" or "no credit-check apartments," apparently because their credit records are not as clean as they'd like.

* Visits to more Internet apartment sites, apparently because tenants now have a larger inventory of apartments to choose from.

...

Apartment vacancies are up, for several reasons. For one thing, there's a larger supply of properties because of building, especially near the Hudson River, during the housing boom. In addition, many homeowners who have failed to sell their homes are renting them out instead.

At the same time, rising unemployment rates mean fewer people are looking for apartments. For example, recent college grads struggling to find work are now more likely to live with their parents than to get places of their own, as they might in a healthier economy.

We wonder if the larger units are due to roommates or families living together. If a family can not buy a house they will be looking at the bigger apartments. We wonder if anyone tracks the rental units - who is renting for how much.