Your Rent May Not Increase As Much As You Think This Year

• November 5, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

Data released on Monday reveals that housing asking prices in the DC area and around the country are moving up more than ever, however rents in the region, are slowing their rise.

In October, asking prices rose by 5.7 percent year-over-year in the DC area and 2.9 percent nationwide, according to Trulia’s latest Price and Rent Monitors. (If you exclude foreclosures, asking prices year-over-year nationally increased 3.6 percent.)

“Continued widespread price increases are good for homeowners but not for home-seekers,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “For homeowners, rising prices add to their wealth and help bring underwater borrowers closer to positive equity. For home-seekers, however, rising prices could put homeownership out of reach. In markets like Denver, San Francisco, and Oakland, where prices and rents are both rising, higher prices mean higher down payments, but rising rents make it harder to save enough.”

While sale prices are rising, Trulia’s Rent Monitor found the rate of acceleration for residential rents is slowing down. In DC, asking rents were up 2.7 percent year-over-year, down from a 3.4 percent increase in September and a 3.7 percent increase in August. Nationwide, rents rose 5.1 percent annually, still outpacing the housing price increase.

For more stats and analysis, click here.

A full explanation of Trulia’s methodology can be found here, but in short, the Price and Rent Monitors compare current asking prices and asking rents year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, adjusting for seasonal swings.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/trulia_rent_in_dc_slowing_their_rise/6254