Is it standard for a landlord to raise rent by $30 every year?

[futurefields]

Is that standard practice?

 

[Smoblikat]

Its never happened to me, and ive been renting for a little over 2 years.

 

[Matthiasa]

My apartment has been doing approximately that for a while now. Some places will raise more while others raise it less or not at all. All things considering its only like inflationary at best.

 

[Dacalo]

I would take that in a heartbeat. Our apartment raised the rent by $200, or around 10% for a one bed, one bath unit. Granted, we live in the Silicon Valley but still. So damn expensive around here.

 

[KeithTalent]

I just received notice that mine is going up by $34.40.

KT

 

[Dr. Zaus]

The local housing market and your initial monthly rent determines how 'reasonable' this is. An increase of about 3-5% per year is fairly reasonable; higher if you are in a high-demand location.

I'm looking to rent a home in portland for about 3k/month and I would consider myself lucky to only have a $30 a month increase on the second year; I'm budgeting at $120 a month.

One of the primary benefits of buying a house is that your rent will go up over the next twenty years; but your house payment will not (unless you are made out of stupid).

 

[SSSnail]

It depends, in SF, there's rent control, and the landlords can raise the rent as much as the Rent Board allow them in one year. Speaking of which, my landlord has been raising the rent here every freaking year I've been here.

 

[maddogchen]

Here in California, my neighbor is moving out because their landlord raised rent $250 every 6 months the last 2 years.

 

[zinfamous]

yes, and there's a good chance that the rent increase is way below the current value of rent in that place if your landlord were to sign new tenants.

A lot of places have rent control with various limits, some have little or none, but I haven't known a landlord to suddenly jack the rent up on an established tenant to match the current market. Though, I suppose that can happen.

Of course even in cities with heavy rent control, many landlords will stoop to all sorts of shenanigans to encourage tenants to leave so that they can sign a new lease with new tenants at current market rate.

 

[zinfamous]

Here in California, my neighbor is moving out because their landlord raised rent $250 every 6 months the last 2 years.

where in CA? that sounds downright illegal.

 

[stlc8tr]

It depends, in SF, there's rent control, and the landlords can raise the rent as much as the Rent Board allow them in one year. Speaking of which, my landlord has been raising the rent here every freaking year I've been here.

Depends on the building. If it's built after 1979, there's no rent control so after the lease is up, they can raise it as much as they want.

http://www.sftu.org/rentcontrol/

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, that's pretty much normal.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Depends on where. $30 is what percent of what? My guess is that's way below the average rent increase for a dilapidated closet in Denver right now, where there's no sort of rent control. Buddy of mine's rent jumped about 15%. I've heard of others jumping like 25%.

 

[maddogchen]

where in CA? that sounds downright illegal.

Bay Area, south of SF. not sure if single family homes have no rent control?

 

[OverVolt]

I've known this since I was 12. Are you not actually middle class or something? This is middle class common knowledge. Figure common knowledge like this is on the decline so much you could practically write a book on all the dying (but useful) middle class idioms of wisdom.

Oddly enough everybody should know everything 'cause internet. But that is clearly not the case.

Rent typically goes up every year until you get fed up and move.

 

[zinfamous]

Bay Area, south of SF. not sure if single family homes have no rent control?

it differs from community to community here. Berkeley has very strict rent control but just on the northern border in Albany and El Cerrito, not so much. But still, I haven't seen rent raise like that.

In South Bay I think there is much less control. $200 per year doesn't seem that odd, but a 6 month lease, so $500/year, that is insane. Rent is absolutely nuts around here, but going up $1k in a matter of 2 years?

That doesn't seem normal at all, even for this area. Now, signing a new lease with new tenants, and rent going up 40% or 50% and more from what the previous tenant was paying...that is also normal.

 

[Jeff7]

Huh.....interesting.

Almost 8 years in this apartment (no, I wasn't expecting to be here this long), no rent increases at all.
I guess he's glad to have a consistent revenue stream that's on-time.

 

[SSSnail]

Depends on the building. If it's built after 1979, there's no rent control so after the lease is up, they can raise it as much as they want.

http://www.sftu.org/rentcontrol/

Yeah, most everything in SF is built before 1979...

 

[Svnla]

My rent was going up every single time I renewed, bar none. That's only thing I could complain about the place because it is close to my work, quiet and clean, good management, etc. Time to get a house soon, I reckon.

 

[fstime]

It may be a greedy landlord, but that is likely not the case.

Property taxes seem to increase every year, at a rate of about 2-3%/year .

All other costs such as home insurance, landlord's utilities such as cold water, etc also typically increase every year.

That's inflation and corporate attitude of always increasing profits for you, ever increasing costs that eventually get passed down to you some way or another.

So we are left with two possibilities, the landlord eats his increased costs or passes it down to you.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Yeah, most everything in SF is built before 1979...

ftfl
"You live in a rental unit with a certificate of occupancy after June 13, 1979. This “new construction exemption” is the biggest exemption in San Francisco."

 

[CraKaJaX]

Just resigned my lease last week. Rent increased $41.

 

[slayer202]

I think if you're renting from a single owner, you're probably more likely to keep the price steady, maybe a bump every few years. If you're renting from a company, it's going up every year for sure.

I have to move next month, rent will be $300 more :\

 

[gorcorps]

Here in California, my neighbor is moving out because their landlord raised rent $250 every 6 months the last 2 years.

That's ridiculous. In two years just the increase they saw is as much as my entire mortgage payment.

 

[Markbnj]

Yes, $30 is the standard amount. You can offset it by giving the landlord a reacharound.