Rents in major cities seems to be going down

[Ragnaroni]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apartment-rents-fall-as-crush-of-new-supply-hits-market-2403c6ea?mod=economy_lead_pos1

This is good, very good!

[Kamala's side hoe]

Article says metro areas, not necessarily cities proper

Apartment rents fell in every major metropolitan area in the U.S. over the past six months through January, a trend that is poised to continue as the biggest delivery of new apartments in nearly four decades is slated for this year.  
Renters with new leases in January paid a median rent that was 3.5% lower than they would have paid last August, according to estimates from listing website Apartment List. It was the first time in five years that rent fell every month over a six-month period, according to the same estimates.
Four other market measures by housing-data companies also show that new-lease rents either fell or remained flat in January compared with the previous month, extending a streak of monthly rent declines that began at the end of the summer.

The coming increase in new apartments is most likely to affect rents at higher-end buildings, because there might not be enough people who make enough money to rent them, according to CoStar.
“The potential demand for newly developed [high-end] properties remains dependent on an expanding pool of high income renter households only,” CoStar said.
Amid rising concerns of a recession, many housing economists don’t think job and wage growth will be strong enough to sustain much in the way of rent increases this year. Both Yardi and Moody’s expect rents to rise about 3% nationally during the next 12 months, less than half the rate seen in 2022.
“When you look at real wages, you saw that they were pretty darn stagnant for the last year or two years,” Mr. LaSalvia said.

obligatory daily anti-NIMBY plug

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Based.

[bagelman]

Finally some good news, but I imagine it's still well above what it was pre-pandemic and adjusted for inflation.

[Dr. MB]

We need another riot wave and more homeless people so all the rich people leave cities and the rent goes down.

Portland and Seattle seem to be taking the opposite direction these days though.

[Joe Republic]

How many landlords are offering to lower the rent on their existing tenants, after having raised it on them already?  Any at all?  This statistic only applies to new rental leases.

[Хahar 🤔]

How many landlords are offering to lower the rent on their existing tenants, after having raised it on them already?  Any at all?  This statistic only applies to new rental leases.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I've never signed a rental contract where the landlord had the ability to raise rent unilaterally in the middle of the contract; raises have always come upon the expiry of the contract when the landlord has offered a new rate. (Personally I've never taken that rate and have always found a new and cheaper place to live.) Falling rents will not affect tenants who are currently in the middle of a rental contract any more than rising rents do, but when landlords offer new rental contracts to their existing tenants either the rents will be lower or those tenants will be able to go somewhere that they can get a better deal.

[Joe Republic]

How many landlords are offering to lower the rent on their existing tenants, after having raised it on them already?  Any at all?  This statistic only applies to new rental leases.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I've never signed a rental contract where the landlord had the ability to raise rent unilaterally in the middle of the contract; raises have always come upon the expiry of the contract when the landlord has offered a new rate.

I don't believe such agreements exist, and I apologize if I implied that they do.  But a one year lease goes by quicker than most people think.

(Personally I've never taken that rate and have always found a new and cheaper place to live.)

Yes, that's a luxury of being fairly young and with no family in tow.  I used to be like that; moving from place to place sometimes more than once in one year, with only enough furniture to fill the back of the car.  Now that I have a wife and two small children, the pain of moving to another home is a massive endeavor.  And then there's elderly folks who may have been renting the same place for decades; they may not own it but it's certainly their home.

Falling rents will not affect tenants who are currently in the middle of a rental contract any more than rising rents do, but when landlords offer new rental contracts to their existing tenants either the rents will be lower

I don't believe that has ever happened to anyone I know, ever.  A landlord just initiating an offer of a lower rent payment when their tenant's lease expires?!

Any tenants who try to negotiate a lower deal often fail, because the landlords will see how much of a hassle and expense it is for many tenants to actually follow through on a threat to move out.  So they'll just spin some yarn about their property taxes, home insurance, HOA fees, etc. to justify why the rent has to either stay the same or possibly even go up more.

or those tenants will be able to go somewhere that they can get a better deal.

Again, it's easy if you can.  In my own case, a "better deal" can only be found in a much smaller, older, or more run-down property, or in a completely different town which would require us to change jobs, the kids' schools, etc...

[Joe Republic]

Side note: the first apartment that my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into in Las Vegas in 2013 charged us $800/m.  I just looked up the same apartment complex and now they're asking $1300/m.  That's a 63% increase in only ten years.

[jaichind]

Side note: the first apartment that my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into in Las Vegas in 2013 charged us $800/m.  I just looked up the same apartment complex and now they're asking $1300/m.  That's a 63% increase in only ten years.

Las Vegas real estate collapsed in 2008-2009 and only partially recovered by 2013 so a lot of the 63% increase I suspect is part of the recovery from 2008-2009

[Хahar 🤔]

(Personally I've never taken that rate and have always found a new and cheaper place to live.)

Yes, that's a luxury of being fairly young and with no family in tow.  I used to be like that; moving from place to place sometimes more than once in one year, with only enough furniture to fill the back of the car.  Now that I have a wife and two small children, the pain of moving to another home is a massive endeavor.  And then there's elderly folks who may have been renting the same place for decades; they may not own it but it's certainly their home.

Yeah, I know that renting when you have kids sucks for this reason, but at the very least a slackening rental market makes it suck less.

Side note: the first apartment that my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into in Las Vegas in 2013 charged us $800/m.  I just looked up the same apartment complex and now they're asking $1300/m.  That's a 63% increase in only ten years.

I was paying roughly $900 for the lease I signed on my one-bedroom apartment in Sandy Springs in the summer of 2019. Last month I suggested to a poster on this forum that he try renting there, but then I looked at the price and the exact same unit was now going for $1350 for a 50% increase in three years. I'm glad I'm not renting now.