My roommate informed me that our landlord is raising our rent in 2012. I was worried it was going to be a huge increase, given we haven’t had rents raised in a while, and at my last “property management-owned” complex where my rent was increased 22% the first year and 18% the next (from $900 to $1100 to $1300 when I finally got out and got roommates again.)
My rent started out at my current place at $602.50 for my room (I share an apartment with two other girls.) Shortly after I moved in my rent was raised to $632.50 per month, which was still less than half of what my former studio was charging. In 2012, my rent will go up to a whopping $647.50 a month. I just looked up the current cost for my old studio, and it’s now listed at $1570 – $1705 per month! For a studio! Yikes, I’m glad I left. That would be eating up half of my income now, and back then it would have eaten up all of it.
However, looking at my old apartment rent increases is a good reminder how important it is to try to get a yearly raise to at least keep with the rate of inflation, and hopefully a little extra. Since the beginning of my career, I’ve managed to take my raises by switching jobs and factoring in what I should be making, even if I never got a raise at my earlier company.
However, now that I plan to stay at one company for a long time, I know I must focus on figuring out a way to obtain reasonable pay raises or better in the coming years. I’m not too concerned about the price in rent at my current apartment, but what if my elderly landlord decides to sell the condo for one reason or another, and I have to move to a place that costs more.
How much do you pay for rent? How much did you pay in 2010?
I'm glad the increase isn't as much as last time! And I have a mortgage, it's at $1033 a month.
We pay $320 a week for a two bedroom house with garage (although the second bedroom is pretty much just a glorified cupboard/reading room). We moved into our previous place nearly 2 years ago – a studio at $250 a week which went up to $280 around July/August. Our rent can't be raised for at least nine months because of our lease, but after that, who knows? It's a gamble – locking in a rent rate is always a good thing, but so is the flexibility to leave and move elsewhere should your circumstances suddenly change.
I'm in the process of figuring out a similar switch as you did, going from a studio to roommates. My rent was $1650 for 2010, raised to $1750 for 2011. I've been subletting out my studio as the rent eats up too much of my income as well. Living at home for awhile now, budget-wise I need to find roommates for when I move back, but it's such a huge sacrifice for me as I've lived alone for 10 yrs of my life. Sigh. Btw the rent that I cited is for Manhattan, NYC.