Although Palm State Mortgage Company avoids harassing people who feel they must rent their apartments or homes, we feel honor-bound to alert you that Orlando is now the second most expensive place in the United States to rent an apartment.

Beware of Rental Rates!

According to the experts, rent hikes in February gained a whopping 13 percent increase over January.  Orlando is not alone.  Rentals also went up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Reno, Nevada, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Dallas, Texas, to name a few of the top ten cities.

It is no wonder that Palm State Mortgage Company feels justified in sending out an alert to all our friends and clients.  If you are indecisive about renting an apartment or buying a home, this blog article is dedicated to you.

Are You A Renter or Buyer?

This week, we hope to share some specific 2016 information if you are trying to decide whether to rent or buy your Orlando home.Palm State Helps House Hunters

Abodo’s National Apartment Report in February 2016, announced two rather remarkable financial features of the rampant raises in rent in recent years, across the country:  

  1. They stated, “Nationally, effective rents rose by 4.7% in 2015 compared to gains of 3.5% in 2014…”
  2. By itself this certainly helped enrich landlords and owners of multi-family dwellings.  Abodo experts said politely, “rent growth represents a nice healthy boost for owners.”
  3. The also stated a bit of recent history:

Whereas the last month and year certainly pleased landlords, it is even more extraordinary “that it comes after a multi-year run of strong rent growth that started back in 2010.”

So, to be perfectly clear, Renters have been battling a serious and incremental increase in home rental expense, with rents on the rise for the last six years.

Perhaps renters have not noticed this phenomenon; Palm State Mortgage Company is here to give you some straight statistics for buying vs. renting.

Why Are You A Renter, Anyway?

We have put together a primer of lifestyle choices and reasons people are trapped into renting as opposed to buying.

Palm State Mortgage:  The Renter Primer!

A is for Availability:  Landlords have been helped by supply and demand.  This has caused vacancies to remain just below 5 percent over the last few years.Palm State Mortgage brings your dream home to life!

At the present time, renters have fewer rentals from which to choose, but new apartment construction is on the rise in spite of construction costs.

Unfortunately for many families, the new structures are mostly high-end.

B is for Boomers (and Millennials.)

We know that baby-boomers and Millennials both have helped create the rental trend.

Rentals have become increasingly popular choices with these two groups because the “landlords are spending dollars to give properties a facelift and add more modern amenities.”

Naturally, this is going to result in higher rent charges.

C is for Credit:   Likewise, we realize many of our college students have huge levels of student loan debt.  Would it shock you to know that the average student loan debt is at least “over 30,000.00 dollars?”

Do the math and know what you can afford on a house.

We also know the high rent charges prevent many young families from saving up for a down payment.

D is for Decisions:  Meanwhile, we have some really interesting statistics for you from the experts at RealityTrac.

E is for Education for the Renter:  recently reported that “Home-owners in the Orlando area spent an average of 35.4 percent of their wages on housing, while renters coughed up an average of 43.4.”

We can only remind our readers and friends that we have told you previously your home should not “exceed 28 percent of gross monthly income.”

If you can not quite hit that golden number, you might still discover that owning your home can actually be less costly than paying exorbitant rental fees.

Our question is, “How long will renters be satisfied with garden tubs, granite counters and common clubhouses?  We still believe in the American dreams of privacy, front yards and independence.

Ultimately, the decision is yours.  We only want you to be on alert for high rental payments and aware that predictions show the Orlando high rent trend continuing until at least 2019.

Meanwhile, mortgages are available at reasonable rates and Palm State Mortgage Company can help you find lenders to fit your financial situation.

By the way, there are several Rent vs. Buy calculators available on the Internet.  Check out the formula and see if you should buy a home in 2016.

You might be surprised!