How Often Are Renters Evicted?

My Dad has had rental properties for many years now and in total he manages about 20 units including the properties we own jointly.   I can only recall 2-3 instances when my Dad actually had to complete a full eviction with the courts and go to the end to have the Sheriff actually remove someone.    Almost always tenants will either pay their rent or leave if first presented with a 3 day pay or quit notice.   A minority of people will push it further than that and only a small fraction will actually let it get into the courts.  People really don't want to be evicted for good reason.   Personally I've not had to evict anyone and my wife and I have been managing our own properties for several years now.  

 From watching my Dad and my own experiences it really seems that actual evictions are quite rare.   If you look at the number of years in question and the total number of tenants it would probably work out to around 0.5% to 1% of tenants are evicted.   Thats a pretty rough ballpark number though.


The American Housing Survey for 2009 captures reasons people moved and in that data they say that 191,000 people moved in the year because they were evicted.   Among the total of 35.3M renters that would equate to about 0.5% of renters being evicted in a given year.

I found an article on SF Gate that said San Francisco logged "1,716 evictions between March 2012 and February 2013".   In any case thats in a city of 825k people and 38% of the population rents.    That comes out to about a 0.5% eviction rate.

I've got 3 different ways of looking at the eviction rate and come out to about 0.5% each way.
It seems that this is probably a fairly accurate estimate then.

My conclusion :  About 0.5% of renters are evicted annually.

--

MOST Students Go To Universities Where Tuition is Under $12,000

It seems typical when a news report is talking about college costs they'll cite one of the most expensive universities in the nation where the full retail sticker price including tuition, fees and room and board is in the ballpark of $60,000.    Then they'll go on to talk about someone who graduated from the overpriced school with a basketweaving degree who has over $200,000 in student loans somehow.   THis clearly isn't the norm.  Its the exception to the norm.    I've already discussed before about how a very small fraction, 0.3%, of undergrads end up with over $100,000 of student loan debt.    But how many students go to those over priced private schools?   Very few.


The collegeboard has the data in a nice chart on their site showing the distribution of students who attend schools by the published tuition & fees rates :
Distribution of Full-Time Undergraduates by Tuition and Fees


Full time undergrads go to universities with a median published tuition & fee rate of $11,093.



Pubic schools median is $9,011 and private nonprofit is  $31,290.     Most students go to public schools so the overall median is much closer to the public school rate than the higher private school cost.


About 2/3 of students go to schools with rates below $18,000 and 81.9% are at schools charging under $30,000.



88% of public university students are at schools that cost UNDER $18,000.    84% of students are in private schools that cost OVER $18,000

The vast majority of public universities charge under $18,000 and the vast majority of private universities charge over $18,000.


Keep in mind that these are the published tuition and fee rates and that most students also receive financial aid of some form so the actual net cost to students is less.

 While the average tuition at public schools is $8,890 in  the '13-'14 school year the NET paid amount is just $3,120.    For profit schools the average was $30,090 and the net was $12,460.   You can find the net pricing in the college board trends in college pricing data.   Specifically see Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 in the XLS data.

In 2012 the average student aid in grants was about $7,200 and tax benefits averaged $1200.   See college board info on trends in student aid.
Of course this figure is an average while the other figure is a median.  And aid will be weighted at the lower income group.   So the two figures don't really match.

--

Amazon Subscribe & Save Filler Items Updated August 2014

I'd previously compiled a list of items that Amazon sells as Subscribe & Save products that cost under $2.  However that list is mostly now obsolete and most of the items are well over $2.   I think all but the Barilla pasta was over $2.

Here's an updated list of items under $2 picked as of August 2014:


Glade Plugins Scented Oil Warmers = $1.32

Suave Naturals 2 In 1 Almond Verbena Shampoo, 22.5 Ounce = $1.42

Barilla PLUS Spaghetti Pasta, 14.5 Ounce Box = $1.42
Bull's Eye Texas Style Regional Barbecue Sauce, 17.5 Ounce Bottle = $1.42

Pringles Fat Free Sour Cream and Onion Super Stack, 5.43 Ounce = $1.44
Velveeta Kraft Cheesy Skillets Dinner Kit Box, Creamy Beef Stroganoff, 11.6 Ounce = $1.88

Kraft Shake N Bake Seasoned Coating Mix Box, Parmesan Crusted, 4.75 Ounce = $1.90

Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Naturals Popcorn, Garlic Butter and Sea Salt, 76.3 Grams, 3 Count = $2.07

OK that last one is over $2 but hey I figured its popcorn and it would have pretty wide appeal.


I've discussed before how you can get a  better discount on Amazon Subscribe and Save purchases if you order 5 items at once.  However if you don't buy a lot of stuff then it can be hard to come up with a 5 item order.   However if your products are worth enough then it can be worth it to add some filler items to get up to 5 items to get the 15% discount. 

Say for example, you want to buy a couple cases of Pampers Swaddlers Diapers  that run $45.97 each with a normal purchase.   With Subscribe and save you'd get a 5% discount.to get the price down to $43.67.    But if you have 5 items in your S&S order then it is only $36.78 or a $6.89 savings.   And if you're buying two of those then thats double or $13.78.    Adding the 4 cheapest items listed here to the S&S order would only cost you $4.99 total with the 5 item discount so its worth buying those items to get you a net savings of $8.79.

Note if you don't want the filler items and only use them to get a 5 item discount then you can of course always give away the food items to someone you know or donate them to the local food bank.


-- This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

Best of Blogs for Week of August 22nd

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

Linked from The Big Picture : If You Used Valuation, You Would Be Out of Stocks Since 1993

FMF discusses an article that concludes It Takes $130k to Live the American Dream



 --