Today’s Rental Market

Real estate, whether you’re in the market to buy or looking for your next rental, is on everybody’s mind. People have been affected by the bubble bursting several years ago, and now everyone is making it their business to be informed. The rents keep getting higher and more working families are struggling to keep up. In February the Federal Center for Housing Policy reported that 1 in 4 working households in America spend more than half of their pre-tax income dollars on housing. That’s 10.6 million families.

In late March, the National Low Income Housing Coalition stated that in no community in America is it possible to reasonably make the rent on minimum wage. In 86% of the counties surveyed, even the average pay of tenants, which is about twice the minimum wage, is not enough. The NLIHC defines affordable housing costs as no more than 30% of gross income. Nationally, the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom home in 2012 is $949. This means that a full time worker needs to make $18.25 an hour to pay rent without straining their family budget. That’s $4.10 more than the average tenant wage of $14.15 and two and a half times the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

The local San Antonio moving specialists found out that out of the 22.5 million working families who rent, 26% give more than half their pre-tax income towards their housing. That’s an increase of 12% since 2008, which is an additional 630,000 families. The San Antonio movers learned that the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership gets 9,000 requests for assistance every year. Most recently, that number increased to 15,000. The organizations says it used to see more homeless people asking for help, but these days it’s people who work and are part of the moderate income family.

There are many factors at work, making rent in America more expensive. More people are getting jobs, meaning that more young professionals are soaking up the moderately priced apartments. People are still nervous about buying in this economy and are also having trouble getting the right financing, so they’re opting to rent in the meantime. It takes time to build more rental units and the inventory hasn’t increased simultaneously with demand.

As rentals go up in price, know that the local San Antonio movers provide affordable moving services should you need to move somewhere else to fit your budget. We’ll quilt pad wrap your furniture and help you with assembling your household items so you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. When you’re ready, call the All My Sons of San Antonio.