There's been a lot of talk how the market is becoming less friendly to renters. However, recent studies have shown just the opposite - and why not in the contrary, Topsy-Turvy market!
According to the National Association of Realtors, due to home owners trying to rent homes they can’t sell, rentals are abundant and prices are at bargain levels in areas hit hard by foreclosures.
Some home owners forced out by foreclosure are finding rental deals that are at "discounts of 50 percent to 70 percent off what they were paying on their mortgages," says Brenda F. Gerdes, who owns Management Specialists Inc. in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
There are 760,000 vacant condos and homes for sale nationwide beyond what the market could normally carry, in addition to a surplus of 350,000 vacant rental properties, according to Ron Witten, a Dallas-based housing analyst.
Declining employment and other signs of a possible recession don't bode well for landlords, since people who lose their jobs will resist paying higher rents or will move in with friends or family. Many displaced home owners forced out by foreclosures also are doubling up, says Mark Obrinsky, chief economist at the National Multi-Housing Council.
"Shadow inventory is coming out and competing against us for rentals," says Richard Campo, chief executive of Camden Property Trust, a Houston-based real-estate company that owns 70,000 apartments. That is weakening landlords' pricing power, he says, because home owners are less concerned about getting full market value.
Meanwhile, I have seen clients closing on the sale of their new homes with interest rates at 5.5%! Bottom line: there might never be a better time to buy than right now.
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