In NYC it’s typical for rents to increase by 3-5% each year. In my last apartment that was an additional $75.
By “tomorrow” I mean today, Saturday.
I haven’t been a rental tenant for nearly 6 years. I only experienced one rental increase in three years of renting the same apartment, then and it was only $20/month.
In Las Vegas, it is not uncommon for rental properties, especially apartments, to raise the rent on an annual basis, anywhere between $50 and $100 a month(according to people I know who rent apartments). I don’t know about rental homes (single family homes, town homes, etc).
Rents went crazy along with the housing market boom. Of course, the rents haven’t come down with the foreclosures and lots of people needing rentals.
In my zip code a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment that is around 700 square feet will run you, on average, $900 a month right now.
1920’s, that sounds nuts. Rental inspections I’ve also never heard of, living in the US South.
My mom died three years ago, The tenants in her house in San Diego were there then. Having rented most of my adult life (now I have a mortgage), I hate rent increases. But my sister and I are charging $200 to $300 per month less than the going rate. She wanted to raise the rent to $2000/month so as to be at the prevailing rate. If I were a tenant I’d rebel. But I did send notice that the rent will be increasing effective next month by 5% ($85). I hate dealing with money, and I hate to raise the rent because I’d hated being on the receiving end. The tenants have been good, though they’re not diligent about watering the lawn. But it’s a business, and it has to be done. It’s still quite a bit lower than other properties in the area, but I just couldn’t raise it too much too quickly.
That “reason” you are looking for is that to the landlord, that appartment you live is a financial investment, not an act of charity. Like sugar and spice, I would expect that my rent would increase each year at a rate proportional to inflation and the local housing market. The landlord has to also consider the risks if you move out and they can’t find a decent tenant.
If you are a good tenant, the landlord would want to take that into account when calculating your increase. You may also see if there is some way to negotiate a lower rent. For example, after living in my New York studio appartment for 2 years, I was able to convince them to lower the rent from $1800 a month to around $1600 a month through a combination of being a good tenant and signing up for a direct withdrawel from my bank account.
I’ve just had a quick play with one of the bank’s home loan repayment calculators - on a 20yr $300K loan at standard variable rates, the past 4 rate rises will have seen repayments increase by around $200 a month. While that’s a rough guess as to your own landlord’s scenario it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that in this climate, with almost zero vacancy rates, that a landlord will increase rents. And while your ability to negotiate this down may be helped by being a little out of the city, the rate rises will have affected all landlords.
Personally I’d chalk it up to it being an exceptional year and take it, but then again I’m paying a mortgage and I have no choice! I do second the suggestion to move back north of the river - what are you thinking?!