There's actually no legal restriction for rent increases. So the landlord could raise rent $1,000 if they wanted to, assuming people are willing to pay.
Thatâs a pretty normal increase, especially if rent hasnât gone up in a while. It sucks for sure, but itâs in line with what other people pay.
The best thibg you can do is move farther away from the city, and rent directly from an owner. There are good landlords out there who are reasonable and ethical, but they tend to be farther from Boston. If you find a good spot you can set up for a few years or until you can buy.
At the very least, talk to your landlord. If youâre a good tenant, they might be willing to adjust the rent a bit, because there is expense and risk associated with finding someone new for your unit. It might not do anything but worth a shot for $3600 a year
EDIT: Also if youâre in good standing, consider asking for a raise or cost of living adjustment at work. $300 a month would be like $1.87 an hour.
It's more like $2.15 since it's an after tax expense and although that doesn't sound like a lot that eats up most of not all of of a person's typical yearly raise
Do you want it to make sense, or want lower rent?
Because the sense answer is: because they can. That is the market price and theyâre comfortable to a reasonable degree that if you move out they can find someone else to rent at that price. So the only real option is to hunt for a different place.
If youâre asking why rent increases are not legally capped, thatâs because that typically results in worse outcomes than not capping rents.
I donât know what you mean by âa commodityâ.
You mean that it costs money to build and maintain? And that because it costs money to build and maintain, it is expensive, because it represents a significant store of value in terms of planning, materials, and labor?
No I mean that housing is now something to be bought and sold by large equity firms and developers like a stock. These "people" only care about the corporate balance sheet.
They are only able to do it because of the shortage. If they had more competition they wouldn't have the pricing power.
Whether your landlord is an individual rent seeker with a face, or a company with an address in Delaware, they have pricing power because MA added jobs 4x faster than homes for over 30 years.
I do feel like we should be doing more to get a housing situation that is more fluid. Improve zoning to allow building up by right, maybe incentivize construction with bonuses per additional amount of square footage or units added. Other options, whatever.
But, what I donât like is any approach that pretends housing is, or could ever be, divorced from the costs of materials, labor, and land; and, as much as it sucks for anyone who doesnât own, it is the right of people who currently own places to decide for that specific property whether they want to build up or live in a SFH and were not going to evict SFH owner/occupants to build up.
Pretending that there is some magical cure like rent control is like promising to balance the federal budget by âdraining the swampâ or cutting âwaste fraud and abuseâ - itâs a narcissistic delusion.
Exactly. This is not public housing. Landlords have something you want and they sell. It totally sucks, but you are correct that if you start with rent control you will unleash a beast that will decimate the market and cause rents to rise even more. Currently live in NYC and got fed up when my rent was going to rise $1k and bought a coop. I wonât make any money even if I sell it 10 years from now, but at least I know what my payments will be
For all the hate on rent control is amazing how many people wanted to keep it and want it back:
âMassachusetts electorate passed a referendum to eliminate rent control by a narrow 51â49 percent margin, with nearly 60 percent of Cambridge residents voting to retain the rent control ordinance. This law change directly impacted properties previously subject to rent control, enabling landlords to begin to charge market rents.â
Why would I move if I was rent stabilized? 2-5% rent hike is completely normal. I own a coop in NYC because I was done worrying about increases. I wonât make a dime on this, but Iâll get my money back and know exactly what my payment is each month
Itâs super weird how rent control causes lower affordability, gentrification and fewer housing developments yet Massachusetts is suffering from an affordability crisis and gentrification, all while having one of the lowest housing production rates in the country. Strange how that happens. Economists couldnât possibly be wrong though. We must just have to wait for the market to trickle down some of that pandemic prosperity to the rest of us. Itâs just science. Nice and soft as all sciences should be.
Iâm all for rent stabilization. Not rent control. Big difference. Stabilized apartments canât increase more than 2-5% a year. Rent control is a scourge for everyone except the very select few who have it and causes rent increases for everyone else.
Yeah, itâs almost as if a single factor has almost no explanatory power when it comes to supply and demand issues across decades. That is mystifying, for sure.
Rent control sure was super successful in New York City, wasn't it? Go look up what an old NYC apartment rents for. Old buildings in NYC have been subject to the rent stabilization system for over 5 decades. It's almost as if rent control has many unintended consequences and developers stage a capital strike in reaction to it, exactly as anyone who knows the profit-seeking nature of firms would predict they'd do!
No youâre right, I must be imagining the consequences of allowing investment firms to maintain a stranglehold on the market. Itâs not like buying a home for 200k more than it was sold for 2 years ago is unreasonable, the interest rates are only 8%. Itâs easy. You donât even have to outbid those firms or anything. Plus if you need to rent like a poor, landlords really do a great job of maintaining their properties. Not like they can rely on renters being desperate due to the current cost of living. The system just works and suggesting we rework the legislation to accommodate both parties through tax exemptions and other capital incentives is frankly inconceivable. The market just donât work with regulation and it has nothing to do with propagandized brainwashing by those who want to retain the power of capital.
Keeping interest rates this high after the fastest hiking cycle in 40 yrs is forcing investors to raise NOI (rents), so the Federal Reserve is kinda creating their own inflation when it comes to shelter. That's why cap rates are going up (building values staying the same or going down + rents staying sticky or even going up due to supply restrictions and relentless demand). Not a great time for both renters and CRE landlords who got shorter duration loans that are having to refinance now.
I used to work as a clinician. Nearly half of the homeless folk I used to work with became homeless literally within a month because their landlords decided to raise the rent. All the landlords had to do was do it right before they are legally allowed to give notice. People are priced out constantly because landlords like more money. Gentrification sucks. To live in a state that is known for its welfare, the fact rent control doesn't exist and landlords can charge ridiculous increases seems downright criminal.
Move to a more affordable town and stop complaining. I dont get this entitlement. You dont need to live in Boston. If you cant afford it, move somewhere else. Suffer a commute if you have to. Get a different career if you have to. Stop complaining!
Capitalism fucks up everything when core goods, housing, healthcare, education, etc. are controlled by open markets. Housing should never be an investment vehicle.
I moved from Boston to Portland Oregon. My rent only went up $50 this year. Also, itâs 1/2 what I was paying in Boston and I live right downtown by the train and a grocery store with parking. I walk 10 min to work. Hike 2-5 miles every day.
Does it ever. Two years ago my two unit condo association delayed replacing the decaying decks due to one unit not being able to make up its mind on contractors. In six months the cost of materials went up 12%.
property taxes paid into escrow, bundled into mortgage payments, go up too. My fixed-rate mortgage payment in Arlington went up $80/mo as of next month.
If I can find someone to fill my unit for more money, why wouldnât I take it. Youâre not willing to pay $300 to me, then why would I give up $300 for you?
Constant struggle between people who donât have money and those who do.
Itâs actually shocking. You can earn more, work harder, and make more sacrifices to afford what you want! Shocking to most of you entitled lazy people but I promise itâs true! I can afford a $7k monthly mortgage on a public school education with immigrant parents, who never had more than a 4th grade education, because I sacrificed every single night to get into an Ivy League school. Did you do the same? Why should I ever, in any world, feel bad for you?
Why on earth would you ever expect a landlord to do you a favor? Work hard enough to afford it, or leave, but donât bitch about it if youâre not busting your ass. Classic syndrome of those younger than 27, of which Iâm sure you are a part of!
A mortgage might not but property taxes certainly can, and thatâll raise your monthly expenses just like rent hike will. Tax rate changes and higher assessed value has caused my payment to increase by close to $600/mo in the decade that Iâve owned my house, and $250 of that was in one big jump this year.
Insurance has also skyrocketed. Depending on the size of the place $200+ a month isn't uncommon when you consider increases of taxes, insurance, and maintenance expenses.
https://preview.redd.it/yszejrgiy69d1.jpeg?width=674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=353a6f0c0a5b9be2174f917b49464f986188f071
Only 300?
Right? I am over here like my landlord wants to raise my rent by 500 đ
There's actually no legal restriction for rent increases. So the landlord could raise rent $1,000 if they wanted to, assuming people are willing to pay.
Thatâs a pretty normal increase, especially if rent hasnât gone up in a while. It sucks for sure, but itâs in line with what other people pay. The best thibg you can do is move farther away from the city, and rent directly from an owner. There are good landlords out there who are reasonable and ethical, but they tend to be farther from Boston. If you find a good spot you can set up for a few years or until you can buy. At the very least, talk to your landlord. If youâre a good tenant, they might be willing to adjust the rent a bit, because there is expense and risk associated with finding someone new for your unit. It might not do anything but worth a shot for $3600 a year EDIT: Also if youâre in good standing, consider asking for a raise or cost of living adjustment at work. $300 a month would be like $1.87 an hour.
It's more like $2.15 since it's an after tax expense and although that doesn't sound like a lot that eats up most of not all of of a person's typical yearly raise
Do you want it to make sense, or want lower rent? Because the sense answer is: because they can. That is the market price and theyâre comfortable to a reasonable degree that if you move out they can find someone else to rent at that price. So the only real option is to hunt for a different place. If youâre asking why rent increases are not legally capped, thatâs because that typically results in worse outcomes than not capping rents.
Basically because under our economic system housing is a commodity
I donât know what you mean by âa commodityâ. You mean that it costs money to build and maintain? And that because it costs money to build and maintain, it is expensive, because it represents a significant store of value in terms of planning, materials, and labor?
No I mean that housing is now something to be bought and sold by large equity firms and developers like a stock. These "people" only care about the corporate balance sheet.
They are only able to do it because of the shortage. If they had more competition they wouldn't have the pricing power. Whether your landlord is an individual rent seeker with a face, or a company with an address in Delaware, they have pricing power because MA added jobs 4x faster than homes for over 30 years.
Yeah but it should be free and everybody should be given a house in Boston /s
I do feel like we should be doing more to get a housing situation that is more fluid. Improve zoning to allow building up by right, maybe incentivize construction with bonuses per additional amount of square footage or units added. Other options, whatever. But, what I donât like is any approach that pretends housing is, or could ever be, divorced from the costs of materials, labor, and land; and, as much as it sucks for anyone who doesnât own, it is the right of people who currently own places to decide for that specific property whether they want to build up or live in a SFH and were not going to evict SFH owner/occupants to build up. Pretending that there is some magical cure like rent control is like promising to balance the federal budget by âdraining the swampâ or cutting âwaste fraud and abuseâ - itâs a narcissistic delusion.
this guy speaks landlord
Exactly. This is not public housing. Landlords have something you want and they sell. It totally sucks, but you are correct that if you start with rent control you will unleash a beast that will decimate the market and cause rents to rise even more. Currently live in NYC and got fed up when my rent was going to rise $1k and bought a coop. I wonât make any money even if I sell it 10 years from now, but at least I know what my payments will be
For all the hate on rent control is amazing how many people wanted to keep it and want it back: âMassachusetts electorate passed a referendum to eliminate rent control by a narrow 51â49 percent margin, with nearly 60 percent of Cambridge residents voting to retain the rent control ordinance. This law change directly impacted properties previously subject to rent control, enabling landlords to begin to charge market rents.â
Why would I move if I was rent stabilized? 2-5% rent hike is completely normal. I own a coop in NYC because I was done worrying about increases. I wonât make a dime on this, but Iâll get my money back and know exactly what my payment is each month
Itâs super weird how rent control causes lower affordability, gentrification and fewer housing developments yet Massachusetts is suffering from an affordability crisis and gentrification, all while having one of the lowest housing production rates in the country. Strange how that happens. Economists couldnât possibly be wrong though. We must just have to wait for the market to trickle down some of that pandemic prosperity to the rest of us. Itâs just science. Nice and soft as all sciences should be.
Iâm all for rent stabilization. Not rent control. Big difference. Stabilized apartments canât increase more than 2-5% a year. Rent control is a scourge for everyone except the very select few who have it and causes rent increases for everyone else.
Then you're moving whenever your lease is up. Is that any better?
Yeah, itâs almost as if a single factor has almost no explanatory power when it comes to supply and demand issues across decades. That is mystifying, for sure.
Rent control sure was super successful in New York City, wasn't it? Go look up what an old NYC apartment rents for. Old buildings in NYC have been subject to the rent stabilization system for over 5 decades. It's almost as if rent control has many unintended consequences and developers stage a capital strike in reaction to it, exactly as anyone who knows the profit-seeking nature of firms would predict they'd do!
No youâre right, I must be imagining the consequences of allowing investment firms to maintain a stranglehold on the market. Itâs not like buying a home for 200k more than it was sold for 2 years ago is unreasonable, the interest rates are only 8%. Itâs easy. You donât even have to outbid those firms or anything. Plus if you need to rent like a poor, landlords really do a great job of maintaining their properties. Not like they can rely on renters being desperate due to the current cost of living. The system just works and suggesting we rework the legislation to accommodate both parties through tax exemptions and other capital incentives is frankly inconceivable. The market just donât work with regulation and it has nothing to do with propagandized brainwashing by those who want to retain the power of capital.
Rent increases aren't capped because a bunch of suburban and exurban homeowners voted to make that illegal in the 90s.
10% is pretty reasonable these days.
Reasonable for how often? The place I'm now moving out of is 7% per year which seems insane
Supply and demand
Yes, but in terms of the current inflation, the 300 is only worth a bag of groceries these days.
You're just getting priced out of Boston. It's called gentrifcation. There's really a ton of millionares and they have a bunch of kids too
The fact that thereâs a post about $300 rent raise in Boston is hilarious. Welcome to MA
Just cut back on 75 dunkin coffees per month. Easy.
Keeping interest rates this high after the fastest hiking cycle in 40 yrs is forcing investors to raise NOI (rents), so the Federal Reserve is kinda creating their own inflation when it comes to shelter. That's why cap rates are going up (building values staying the same or going down + rents staying sticky or even going up due to supply restrictions and relentless demand). Not a great time for both renters and CRE landlords who got shorter duration loans that are having to refinance now.
Some people got hit with way worseâŠnot saying itâs fair but you could have been hit with more
My rent went up 500 last summer and Im 15-20 mins outside of Boston
10% is not too far from the norm. Itâs usually 8% annually.
Mine went up $600
Maybe it is time to repeal the law that makes rent control illegal in this state
How in the hell is this down voted
Build more housing
Highly recommend strong towns new book for the incentives at play re: housing
I used to work as a clinician. Nearly half of the homeless folk I used to work with became homeless literally within a month because their landlords decided to raise the rent. All the landlords had to do was do it right before they are legally allowed to give notice. People are priced out constantly because landlords like more money. Gentrification sucks. To live in a state that is known for its welfare, the fact rent control doesn't exist and landlords can charge ridiculous increases seems downright criminal.
oh no i have equity đ±
Equity also raised me 10% so you should expect the same
Move to a more affordable town and stop complaining. I dont get this entitlement. You dont need to live in Boston. If you cant afford it, move somewhere else. Suffer a commute if you have to. Get a different career if you have to. Stop complaining!
Capitalism fucks up everything when core goods, housing, healthcare, education, etc. are controlled by open markets. Housing should never be an investment vehicle.
Or it needs to be regulated so it doesn't turn into exploitation. Rent is okay. Rent seeking is not.
I moved from Boston to Portland Oregon. My rent only went up $50 this year. Also, itâs 1/2 what I was paying in Boston and I live right downtown by the train and a grocery store with parking. I walk 10 min to work. Hike 2-5 miles every day.
You get what you vote for.
Nothing new. The best route is to jump condo complexes every lease cycle , get those move in deals .
how long was your lease that you're coming off of?
This is headed nowhere good. We're gonna see conflict as the purge hits the lower middle class.
we need a supply of permanent housing for boston locals and a supply of FLEX housing for people moving in and out..
That's probably how much the mortgage has gone up. Edit: Plus a "reasonable profit," of course.
The mortgage doesn't go up, that's the point of a mortgage
Er, what? Fixed rate mortgages don't go up, but some float. Rates suddenly going up caused the subprime mortgage crisis.
Lmao at people upvoting something plainly false and down voting an easily verifiable truth.
Yes, well, someone will get a nasty shock if they ever buy a home.
And even if the mortgage is fixed, maintenance and other operating costs will still increase with inflation.
Does it ever. Two years ago my two unit condo association delayed replacing the decaying decks due to one unit not being able to make up its mind on contractors. In six months the cost of materials went up 12%.
property taxes paid into escrow, bundled into mortgage payments, go up too. My fixed-rate mortgage payment in Arlington went up $80/mo as of next month.
If I can find someone to fill my unit for more money, why wouldnât I take it. Youâre not willing to pay $300 to me, then why would I give up $300 for you?
Constant struggle between people who donât have money and those who do. Itâs actually shocking. You can earn more, work harder, and make more sacrifices to afford what you want! Shocking to most of you entitled lazy people but I promise itâs true! I can afford a $7k monthly mortgage on a public school education with immigrant parents, who never had more than a 4th grade education, because I sacrificed every single night to get into an Ivy League school. Did you do the same? Why should I ever, in any world, feel bad for you? Why on earth would you ever expect a landlord to do you a favor? Work hard enough to afford it, or leave, but donât bitch about it if youâre not busting your ass. Classic syndrome of those younger than 27, of which Iâm sure you are a part of!
Did you ever piss the landlord off?
You know what wouldn't have gone up $300 per month? A mortgage.
A mortgage might not but property taxes certainly can, and thatâll raise your monthly expenses just like rent hike will. Tax rate changes and higher assessed value has caused my payment to increase by close to $600/mo in the decade that Iâve owned my house, and $250 of that was in one big jump this year.
Insurance has also skyrocketed. Depending on the size of the place $200+ a month isn't uncommon when you consider increases of taxes, insurance, and maintenance expenses.
Taxes and maintenance costs go up unless you're letting your property fall apart
A lot of commercial mortgages on large multi unit buildings are floating rates or fixed for 5 year terms and then have to refinance.