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Apartment Dwellers In West Facing Biggest Rent Increases In Years
The Associated Press Jul. 19, 2007 07:25 AMSAN FRANCISCO - Apartment dwellers throughout the West are facing the biggest rent increases in years.
A new survey by RealFacts says more people are vying to lease units amid a strong job market and feeble home-buying market.
As of June, the average apartment rent had climbed by at least five percent during the past year in nine of 20 major western markets.
The increases were well above the United States' core inflation rate of two-point-three percent.
The biggest price shocks occurred in Northern California's Silicon Valley, where apartment rents climbed eleven percent to an average of 16-hundred-dollars per month, and Seattle, where rents rose ten percent to an average of one-thousand dollars.
The cheapest rents were found in Tucson, where the average is 660 dollars -- up four percent from a year ago.
The Phoenix area also saw a four percent increase, with average rents now at 809 dollars.