I would just say the housing
market is just its inflated.
Right now it's just high wherever you look,
whether it's rental or sales.
It just is high. So when a listing
it's an interesting new strategy.
People are actually listing properties
on the sales side a little bit lower
and the bidding prices are going
way way up like way up 1020% over.
And then on the rental market
we don't do the same thing.
It isn't about.
There isn't a bidding process.
Instead there is a rental rate
set and it depends on the level
of interest whether it rents and
so rental rates are being set
very high and believe it or not,
people are willing to rent the
properties at those prices,
and so it is driving.
If you research well,
what would my two bedroom 2 bath rent
for and you go out on the market
and you see 102 bedroom 2 bath
listed at a price that's inflated.
You believe per the market,
your property should be listed
at that same rate,
and so it is just and nobody knows
there's no public record of rental rates.
When a lease is signed,
we don't report that the way
we report a sale,
so instead people are looking at these
inflated prices that are put out on
the market and they are in good sense.
Anybody would look at it and say, Oh well,
my place must be also worth that.
And so it is just naturally
inflating the rental market,
so they're very different markets
and they're and and the way that
we get to a price. Very different.
Right,
there's a bidding when you're
buying and selling, and for rentals,
you just seeing what the rate is,
and that's what you pay.
But both are inflated and so it
is just forcing people to rent
beyond their means or continue to
move further east and find places
that are less less expensive.
And you know we're seeing the
prices increase year over year,
but you know, we also are seeing
our occupancy rate is at 96%,
so we don't have vacant properties.
You know, when we put something
out there, it gets rented.
In the market we are in the most
expensive properties rent 1st.
The properties that are listed
over 6 seven 8000 have the quickest
applications that are rented the quickest.
It I we're not quite sure other than
a lot of people relocating here who
have money who cannot buy in the market
because there's not enough inventory
but they wanna live in a nice house.
And those places fly off the market.
It's it's extraordinary.
We might recommend a price and an
owner might ask for it to be higher.
And we are.
We would be astonished if they
could rent it for that price.
We put it on the market because
we are representing them.
We are their agent and it runs
for that price and we are shocked
and the way we behave.
As a property management
company is also different.
If we're renting a place that
is available versus renewing to
a tenant that's already in it,
and so we really try to encourage our
owners to keep tenants in their homes,
and one way to do that is to not raise
your rent a ton and allow them to stay.
There's a a lot of benefit for everyone
in that continuity of of being in a
home for the tenant and the owner,
and so we typically do either no or very
little increase on people who are renewing,
but if they move out and it's
going to be a new rental, then we.
Do a little bit more work to look at
the market and that tends to be more
in the three to 5% range typically,
but this year we're we're looking at.
You know,
you could increase rent by 20,
thirty 40% in Lewisville,
and get that rent and so that
creates a a major problem that
that's achievable for a landlord,
because that's not achievable
for our current tenants.
And that's that's really problematic.
You know we had a crisis here in Lewisville.
We lost 1000 homes so.
In December of 2021,
we weren't seeing a housing crisis
or rent rates being crazy right.
We started to see that in our own community
when all of a sudden there were thousand
people looking for homes and I even
got a phone call from someone who said,
hey, one of my clients is thinking
about moving to California.
They'll rent their house out to
someone who needs it fully furnished.
We like to rent it for 10,000 a
month and I'm like.
That's not, it's not worth 10.
Well that's the only way we'll do it.
And now we have a second
issue that's coming which is.
Not fire victims, but just people
who are living in their homes,
paying their rent,
taking care of their space are going
to be evicted by rent increases
because landlords know they can
get higher rent and there isn't
a support structure for a renter
who just got their rent raised.
You know, the federal government
isn't coming in to save people because
their landlords raise their rent,
but we're going to have a second
wave of displaced people in our
community because they can't
afford to pay the new rent rates.
We don't have to be a part of
this just because we can get 20%.
Doesn't mean we should.
Can we take care of our neighbors?
Can we take care of our community by
just behaving as if it's a normal year?
Raising our rents? 3 percent 5%?
That's still good. You still have a home.
You still have someone renting it?
You're increasing your rents,
but you're keeping your tenants.
You're not being a part of this displacement,
and it helps everyone.
We're seeing a bit of a correction with the
interest rates going up in the sales market,
and I think that there is.
There's a bit of a settling down
that I think may happen now.
I can't say that that's the
case for everybody.
Once you have data points out there
and you use them to determine a market,
you know I just don't think
it's going to keep going up.
I think it could just kind of flatten it.
It may stay high a little bit.
I do think that some people that rented
their houses for a certain amount of
money this year may be very surprised
in a year or two when they can't rent
their house for the same amount.
Colorado's growing more than almost
any other state and so I think that
that's problematic in that you know,
there's this supply demand issue,
and as so many people are trying to
come in that does keep the prices pretty
high and the state of Colorado has no
sort of rent control so rents can go
up 20% a year in any city in Colorado.
And so I'm not sure if we're going
to rely entirely on the free market
and going to let people set.
Their prices based on what
people are willing to pay.
I think we're going to see a
a really high rental market,
and so I agree that I don't.
I don't think this is gonna keep going up
and up and up and up at the rate it is,
but this increase I think
is gonna hold for a while.
It's going to be very hard
to come back down so
I do believe there will be more
people choosing to live with people
in order to reduce that cost.
I think that people are being
forced to relocate into areas where
costs are still a little bit lower.
They may look at new build areas
in areas where they might be
able to lock in a price and buy
something further east and again.
That's the whole thing you
just got to go further east,
but that changes people's lifestyles
and right the schools that their
kids go to and all that sort of
stuff it causes displacement.
That's very vulnerable
situation for renters right now.
But one other option they could
look at is trying to lock in longer
lease terms so you know if they
can lock in a 2 year lease term,
even if it's a small graduated
increase over time might give
them some sense of security,
so that might be advice for for a renter,
once you find a place,
see if you can stay there for
a while and secure that lease.
I,
I think
there's there's something about.
You know community helping each other
the the only people that can have an
impact right now on the affordability
of rental homes are the people that
own these homes and it's one of
those sort of rich getting richer.
Poor getting poorer.
We're having inflation all over
the place and So what an owner says
is well my costs are going up.
I'm going to increase my rent but
that puts 100% of this inflation
cost on the tenant who is not
necessarily in the best position to
take on all of that inflation and so.
We're not going to make an impact by
having the tenants do something different,
or having the people with the least
resources change their behavior.
We need people who have the resources
and are in a good position to
make conscious choices to be a
part of this community,
and part of all these communities,
and to benefit fairly,
but not unfairly,
to not make every single penny that could
possibly be squeezed out of property.
But to be a part of housing to be a part
of providing housing for our whole comma.