OHIO, USA — The booming housing market in the Cleveland area has brought on heavy competition for homes and have sent prices through the roof. So if you’re looking to move, should you consider renting? Well, that all depends on where you’re looking.
“Barrington on paper looked amazing,” says Barrington Place resident, Hannah Berke. “I mean, everything looked perfect.”
Berke chose the Barrington Place Apartments in Westlake when she moved to the area several years ago because of the easy commute, the style of the place and the price was right. Was, being the operative word. The first time her lease was up, the price didn’t change. However, this time it’s a different story.
“I got my recent rent increase which was about 12.5 percent,” says Berke. “One hundred and fifty dollars more a month is what I’d be paying, which is absolutely absurd.”
It’s the same story in suburbs all over northeast Ohio and all over the country. According to a new report from QuoteWizard, rent is skyrocketing in the burbs, while the cities themselves are dropping. The report shows rent in Cleveland is down more than 6% since 2019.
“You’re talking about, in some cases, 5 to almost 15 percent increases and decreases,” says Nick VinZant, a senior research analyst at QuoteWizard. “Over the course of a year, you’re either saving or spending thousands more dollars on rent.”
VinZant says it can be indirectly tied to the pandemic. Since more people are able to work from home, they’ve traded in their city amenities for the space of the suburbs. It’s led to rising home and rental prices outside the city, but the problem is wages aren’t rising along with them.
“It is going to get much more expensive,” says VinZant. “What we also found is that even though rent is going up and housing prices are zooming up, people aren’t making more money. That’s just something that, how is this going to continue.”
Unfortunately for people like Hannah, it means if you want stay outside the city, at least right now, you’re going to be paying for it.
“With that extra $150, what are we getting,” asks Berke. “We’re not getting anything new. It’s just increasing based on fluctuation, but what fluctuation is 12.5%? Nothing. It’s just frustrating.”
We did reach out to Barrington Place, who declined to comment.
As a whole, the state of Ohio saw a 3.4% overall increase in rent in the report, which was about middle of the road as a state. However, the rises and loses are all over the map depending on if it’s a city or suburb. The report also found that the rental stock in the state has dropped significantly, with a vacancy rate down almost 30% since 2019. To read the full report, click here.