rentable, one-bedroom apartments

Potential tenants looking for rentable, one-bedroom apartments in many parts of the country may need to look harder for a solitary place to live unless they are willing to cash in for an additional bedroom. A recent study conducted by Zillow has found that in many parts of the United States, the median price for a one-bedroom apartment has surpassed the price of a two bed-room apartment in the same metro area. This trend does not indicate that rent is somehow lowering for two-bedroom units, instead it indicates that one-bedroom median rent is simply rising faster.

“[Two bedroom units] are still appreciating at around the same 3 percent annual pace” explains Mark Fahey of CNBC in a recent report on the trend, “it’s just that the median rent on a one-bedroom place has been growing much faster, at around 5 percent each year.” This additional 2 percent of yearly growth helped one and two-bedroom unit rents virtually tie in late 2015 at around $1,215 a month. As of July 2016 the separation between units has widened only slightly with one-bedroom currently at $1,264 while two-bedroom units sit at $1,252.

Experts at Zillow attribute the comparatively high rents for one-bedroom in large part to the rise of luxury multifamily apartments in the trendy neighborhoods of the metros they surveyed. Under these circumstances, tenants are charged generally higher rent in large part because of the location and accessibility these units provide. At the same time, the majority of these units, and similar apartments being built in the same area are predominantly one-bedroom. “Hip, new multifamily buildings are being built, and thoseRents Across the United States 2016 are more likely to be one-bedroom homes,” Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s senior economist, explains to Fahey. “Across the whole housing stock, it could be that one-bedrooms are more expensive because they’re in more attractive parts of town.” With more stylish apartments then ever being built into the most popular areas of cities around the US, renters are also seeing the size of these units shrink as the price increases.

According to research done by RCLCO found that since 2009 the average size of apartments in the United States metro areas has seen as much as a 7% downsize as developers streamline as much space into new construction as possible. Each additional square foot comes with a price that more and more tenants are willing to pay. For San Diego residents, the area rent has not quite reached a point of diminishing returns for one-bedroom rents. Area averages for the County collected by Zillow show One-bedroom rents maintaining at a $1,626 average while two-bedrooms averaged out at $2,026 rents. That’s Multifamily Apartments Are Getting Smallera 25% premium above one-bedroom rents in the same region. Area tenants still looking for a way to save while renting in San Diego may still have to resort to co-habitation and shared rent for the best value. “If an American is willing to live anywhere, he or she could likely find a two-bedroom rental for less than a one-bedroom” comments Fahey as he suggests alternatives to paying full rents, “Of course, if they split that apartment with a roommate, they could effectively cut their rent in half.”

Mark Fahey’s article “It’s getting very expensive to live in America” can be found HERE

Erin Talkington and Clare Healy’s article “Honey I Shrunk the Apartment: Average New Unit Size Declines 7% Since 2009” can be found HERE