Disappointing Residential Housing Rental Market
The Brevard County, Florida residential housing rental market has been very disappointing lately. There are still around 200 available rental units in the local rental market including single-family houses and many apartments. So much so, that the other day I noticed more than one teenager out of school for the holidays holding large “for rent” signs by the roadside, presumably being paid a few dollars for their trouble.
Thus far, I have decided to list the property that has been empty for about 2 months now on Google Base, Rent.com and my own web site. News paper advertising here in town is pretty dismal.
Florida Today which is the larger “local” paper in this area has taken to gouging advertisers, especially of real estate, so much so that the number of advertisers is in a decline. The other local paper which is a free “community” paper has raised their advertising rates since the number of properties for rent has increased.
This increase in the number of properties for rent has been fueled mostly by investors buying single-family homes at pre-construction prices and hoping to either sell them before they get built or at least sell them at a profit after they get built as well as every Tom, Dick & Harry buying houses to flip them. See item #1 of the previous link.
The other reason for the glut in the rental market seems to be the multitude of multi-family housing being built nationwide as well as locally. I have seen many apartment complexes advertising three months free rent, no credit checks, and other move-in incentives.
I’m not that worried about the increases in the multi-family market because typically it’s more desirable to live in a detached house than an apartment.
