Changing Housing Market Means Changes In Rental Behavior

Added July 2, 2009 by Jennifer A. Freeman

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Summary: With the housing crisis and rising foreclosures, there are more renters on the market. Add these new renters to the existing renters, and you may see changes in renters' behavior. According to a study by Rent.com, more renters are trying to find additional roommates and they're looking for the basic necessities in their apartments, instead of luxury rental units.

I’ve been a renter since I was in college, and living in a big city without a lot of disposable income means I’ll probably stay a renter for a while.

In this crazy housing economy, more people are turning to rentals as their homes go into foreclosure. Even more people, existing and new renters, are trying to combining households and trying to cut costs by finding additional roommates. On Craigslist.org, postings for those seeking roommates have gone up 160 percent in the last 24 months nationally.

According to a recent study from Rent.com, rental behavior has changed over the last two years because of the economic situation. Rent.com found that in addition to taking more roommates, renters were spending more time looking for apartments, but were only looking for basic amenities versus luxuries. Renters were also more concerned with finding a landlord that would accept or overlook bad credit.

With June, July and August being the most popular months to move (according to the American Moving & Storage Association), you might be facing stiff competition to find these ideal bare bones apartments that accept multiple roommates and overlook bad credit scores.

Another survey from Rent.com found that 17 percent of Americans think finding the perfect apartment is more stressful than getting a job. I might fall into the other 83 percent, but the survey reported pretty high levels of anxiety from apartment hunters.
* 50 percent of Americans are frustrated by rental ads without enough information
* 49 percent reported that they find the apartment-hunting process to be too time-consuming
* 26% find it difficult to take time off from work to visit apartments

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