Home Slice
I initially learned about the recent tightening in Truckee’s rental market from Heather Hilliard, a colleague in my office. She was living in a fourplex in downtown Truckee until it sold last spring. Hilliard has been looking diligently with a friend for a permanent rental since last May.
‘A rental would come on and have a flood of applicants. One home came on and 55 applicants had responded on the first day,’ said Hilliard. She also encounterd some interesting rental scenarios. One landlord wanted her to pay rent and cook for her son when he visited. Another wanted Hilliard and her friend to pay $1,800 a month for two bedrooms in a three-bedroom house, leaving the third room open for a family of 12 to use when in town for the holidays.
Why the increased demand for rentals when so many homes are sitting empty? Simple supply and demand. Families who short-sold or lost homes to foreclosure are now in the rental market. Demand is up and so are prices.
Local real estate broker Bret Churchman was faced with short-selling his home last winter. He and his family are now in their second rental home in seven months.
‘If I can afford $2,000 a month in rent, I could swing a mortgage on a $300,000 home,’ Churchman said. ‘But nobody is going to give me a loan now. I have two black eyes on what was once a perfect credit score.’
This seems to be the consensus around Truckee. Some homeowners argue that this is the first rent increase in over a decade.
Fall is when we typically have the annual influx of seasonal ski resort employees who will also be looking for housing, so expect to see a further increased demand on the few houses available to rent.
I spoke with an agent at Housing Connection, a local rental company based in Tahoe City, to see if conditions are similar at the lake.
‘We currently have a three bedroom home for $1,600 and a two bedroom home for $1,400 a month on the West Shore that has been vacant for over two months,’ the agent said. This may be due to the higher concentration of primary homeowners in Truckee than at the lake. The North Shore also tends to have a higher demand for vacation rentals than long-term rentals.
In short, the rental crunch is hitting Truckee harder than the North Shore. But with winter coming, even that may change.
