Fort Lauderdale Rents Rose 5 Percent in a Month

According to guys from Abodo.com, a startup website that helps people list and find apartments for rent, the price of a one-bedroom in Fort Lauderdale rose 5 percent just from January to February of this year. Everyone knows rent is eating up way too much of our salaries, but dayum. 

Abodo's figures show the average rent price creeping up over the past four months: 

• November: $1,201
  
• December: $1,214
  
• January: $1,218
  
• February: $1,279
  

Fort Lauderdale's rent bump was the seventh-biggest in metro areas measured. 
Michael Taus, vice president of growth at Abodo, noted several factors that may have caused the increase. Low supply and high demand, obviously. But he also suggested that the market is kind of correcting itself — that homeownership was higher than normal when mortgages were being handed out like Halloween candy in the early 2000s,and that the shift back to renting is in line with history.

Said Taus: "The U.S. rental market saw historically low levels during the mortgage finance boom and has been steadily shifting to historical norms since the mortgage bust. This boom-bust cycle also impacted new apartment starts. With homeownership rates falling, it makes sense for landlords to continue to raise pricing on their rental units, especially in markets with tighter inventory.”

And, sadly for young'uns, “Fort Lauderdale, specifically, is following a trend that analysts and industry experts have seen in many U.S. cities. Young adults either can’t afford to buy a home or they don’t want to be bothered with the hassle of owning one. This has led to more demand for rentals and an increase in price.” The average college student who graduates with debt will have to pay back $35,000 in loans, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Abodo spokesperson Sam Radbil said the company's statistics are based on data from Abodo's website — they have a million listings nationwide, he says — as well as other outside data to create a large sample pool. 

He noted, "We see fluctuations [in rent prices] based on seasonality, whether school's in session, college campuses filling up," and so on. 

Abodo says that nationally, rent prices have been on the upswing since 2010 and that rents rose by 3.5 percent in 2014 and 4.7 percent in 2015. 

• Broward News