Rents in the OC are on the rise as less people are out of work. Orange County Register reports Irvine, Calif. as the highest increase in rents with a meteoric 8.9% equating to a $155 monthly increase to $1,897. The irony is the 30-year mortgage as fallen to a record low and home prices have not been appreciating. One reason rents are rising is occupancy has gone up and many people still don’t qualify for homes because banks are requiring pristine credit. Politically speaking the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing of rates only benefits the 1% while the 99% are taxed in other obscure ways, in this case, rising rents. Now that banks don’t have an insatiable appetite to push loans through so they can package and repackage them in investments that fueled bottom line growth they are all of a sudden overly prudent.
Overall, in the OC rents rose 5.8% in late 2011 from last year; the average rent rate is now $1,561. Newport Beach has the highest rent in the county with a rate of $2,012 per month. At that rate once banks start passing through mortgage applications many people who are renting will be able to afford a home.
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