Landlords get busy
After a lull in the rental market, tenants are filling vacant units and prices are rising again
After spending nearly a year shopping for a larger home to replace their Brookline condo, Nicole and Kevin Forrest came to a surprising conclusion about where they should consider living next: a rental unit.
“Given the current housing market, it’s not that crazy of an idea to rent as opposed to buy,” Kevin Forrest said.
With rising interest rates and a soft real estate market with an uncertain future scaring off would-be homebuyers, Greater Boston’s lackluster rental market has finally rebounded.
“Tenants are not having as many options and landlords are not having to reduce their rents anymore,” said Nancy McCreary, manager of the Hammond Residential GMAC Real Estate headquarters in Brookline. She said the rental market began to turn upward this year when demand for apartments increased.
Real estate analysts said the tepid housing market is responsible. Two reports released last week showed that home sales in Massachusetts dropped as much as 8 percent in June, with prices also falling, though not as much. The housing market’s uncertainty, particularly the many forecasts that predict sales will weaken for possibly another year, has kept many would-be buyers on the sidelines: They don’t want to buy a house today that will be worth less in a year.