Housing help! North Seattle.

[Trek420]

Why have rents gone up so much? What a huge pain in the butt.

I dunno. You're a long term, stable, good tenant and may be able to negotiate that it at least stays less than not more than new tenant offers at least.

I'm not an economist so can someone explain to me like a 2 year old why when the housing market is collapsed (the phrase we in CA hear anytime the avg house price does not go up triple digits % a year) and we've got a million plus families in foreclosure because they got hosed by the ARMs so it's a buyers market out there.

Which means your land lord has to compete for tenants on the fence between "do I rent? or look for a distressed sale price condo/home?"

So his price should be going down .... not up or at least staying near even.

[lauraelmore1033]

Prices are crazy in Everett too. Someone just paid $240.000 for a shack two houses down from us and they knocked it down to build a house-o-saurus. There's half a duplex across the street from that that is going for 450,000. Even in Everett! I wish you the best of luck with your search!

[Trek420]

Prices are crazy in Everett too. Someone just paid $240.000 for a shack two houses down from us and they knocked it down to build a house-o-saurus. There's half a duplex across the street from that that is going for 450,000. Even in Everett! I wish you the best of luck with your search!

I'd rather renovate a shack than have a MacMansion. The shack would have character, would be unique and would have space to garden. Do these owners not want a garden? Nothing personal to anyone here who owns one though.

I'm sure there's lots of room for bikes in those things, just not what I want.

I bought my condo for $250 about 3 years back, it was far under market value then. Then I proceeded to pass my Nidan, do back to back AIDS rides .... workeatsleeptrainwalkthedog now it's time to nest and turn this joint.

On a humorous note when you sell the offers and counter offers fly back and forth, for sale as is...no, I want the refrigerator, your fridge is dreck but I'll buy if I get the washer dryer....but I think I would never want the owner included

Now Knott, I'm off to search Craigs.

[teigyr]

KnottedYet,

That is horrible! We will definitely keep our eyes out for somewhere though I know you don't have much time. We walk absolutely everywhere and often see rental signs, etc. In fact...I have an idea. If it works, I'll PM you! DH works in Everett, I'll ask him if he's heard anything about rentals being available.

Let me know if you need any help. Dunno what I can do but I'm there if you need it!

[sgtiger]

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but have you looked into renting a house? If you don't mind the little extra work of maintaining a lawn and some exterior stuff, you might be able to find something in the price range you're looking for.

My apartment complex has raised their rates steeply too, so many of my former neighbors have found houses for rent that are cheaper than here. It has to do with the fact that when the housing market was booming and your average income family (who can't afford to buy houses in this area) were buying up all the condos and townhouses, many of the apartment management companies converted many of their apartments to condos. Well this practice has caused an apartment shortage, so it's a landlords' market. However, the prices of houses are falling (albeit slowly as compared to other markets in the country) so it's taking longer for homes to sell or owners have had to drop their prices. Many sellers are opting to hold out and rent out their properties instead of dropping prices. If you do go with this option, I would ask for a lease, so that you know you'll be there a while without them selling/asking you to leave at a moments notice. I think they only have to give you 20 days, but I'm not sure. And you could have it written into the lease that they have to give a longer period, like say 90 days, with a cancellation penalty. Of course the penalty works both ways.

Just my $0.02 anyways