Rents Rising on US Family Properties

Family properties in the US have seen rents rising over the last year due to a lack of availability for suitable properties.

The latest data released by real estate analytics firm CoreLogic has shown family property rents rising on average across the United States by 2.8 per cent in the 12 months to January 2018.

The rental growth was led by Las Vegas where rental prices rose by 4.8 per cent over the period, supported by strong growth of 4.5 per cent in Orlando and Phoenix.

Honolulu was the only metro area of the twenty covered by the CoreLogic index where rents were seen to fall over the 12-month period, with a drop of 1.1 per cent.

The research also showed rents rising faster at the lower end of the market, with growth of 3.8 per cent, compared to a rise of 2.4 per cent for higher-end properties over the 12-month period.

The strongest rental growth was unsurprisingly in areas where there was limited new construction, low rental vacancies and strong local economies that attract new employees.

Orlando and Phoenix both enjoyed employment growth of 3.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively, compared with the national employment growth rate average of 1.4 per cent.

The lowest employment growth was recorded in Chicago, leading to rental growth on the low side. However, Houston saw its first increase since April 2016, recording rental price growth of 2.8 per cent over the year.

Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic, commented: ‘High demand and low supply for entry level properties drove lower priced rentals to have faster price growth than higher priced rentals, revealing affordability pressures in this segment of the rental market.

With rents rising across most metro areas of the US, strong rental yields could be enjoyed by those overseas property investors looking to invest stateside.