Rental Comp Data for January 2013

Bit over a year ago I wrote an article documenting the Rental Comp Data for November 2011 for our rental properties.   In that article I checked the rental rates via Rentometer.com and documented them for Nov. 2011.   I wanted to keep a record of previous rates so I could see if rates were going up or down.  Its a bit over a year later so I figured it was time to pull the numbers again.

Here is the current data for our rental properties as of January 2013:

	A	B	C	D	E
	2bed*	3bed	1bed	1bed	3bed
	house	house	apt	apt	house
10%	$700	$695	$425	$400	$950
20%	$850	$842	$425	$425	$950
median	$900	$995	$510	$460	$1,095
80%	$1,000	$1,050	$535	$540	$1,225
90%	$1,100	$1,100	$625	$620	$1,295
# prop	23	21	22	24	53
dist	0.5	0.8	0.6	1.3	0.4

Comparing the current median numbers to the previous Nov. 2011 numbers we have :

	A	B	C	D
Jan-13	$900	$995	$510	$460
Nov-11	$895	$875	$495	$495
change	1%*	14%	3%	-7%

For some reason when I did the comps for Nov. 2011 I listed property 'A' as a 3 bedroom but its actually a 2 bedroom.   I don't know if the rent figures for A in Nov. 11 were for a 2 bed or a 3 bed, it could be either.  So comparing the numbers from 11/11 to 1/13 on property A are not apples to apples.  


Previously Rentometer would have up to 1000 properties in a 1-3 mile radius in its comparables.  Now it seems they've switched to having 20-50 properties within a smaller 0.5-1 mile radius.  This may be more accurate even with a smaller sample.  The rents for 5 houses in my own neighborhood are more meaningful comps then the rents for 50 houses 2 miles away.


Here's some general background info on rents :    I wrote about how to set your rent in the past.   You should get data from a variety of sources.  HUD Fair Market Rents, Rentometer.com and Craigslist are all valuable sources of rent rate information.    I also pointed out in a previous article how I think that spending the extra time to research rent rates is important.   I'm just tracking Rentometer numbers here for my reference but I wouldn't stop there when doing your own research.

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