Rental State

With the current economy and the shaky real estate market, News 2 looked at the state of rentals. This may be one bright spot in a dark period on the market.
 
For two years, Anne Polito has lived on her own in West Ashley. But the price she pays to rent it,     more than 700 dollars, has pushed her to give up her alone time.
 
“She and I are both in the same kind of situation, where we would rather live by ourselves if we could, but realistically and practically it makes more sense for us to live with a roommate,” she explained.
 
“It's not only so much a buyers market now it is really a renters market,” said Market Analyst Brad Rundbaken, who says Polito and others like her have the timing right. “You are going to continue to see housing prices and rents drop because of the surplus out there.”
 
Rundbaken says many home owners who cannot sell are renting out instead.
 
“Some of these people if no one is living in there you can negotiate with them. They would ratter take $700 than nothing.”
 
In fact, Rudebaken says one subscriber of his Charleston Market Report is renting out a $700,000 townhouse with a boat slip for less than $2,000 a month.
    
“There's huge advantages right now, whether you can afford to buy or not, just to rent, save money, wait for this market to correct itself and let prices drop and then go buy,” he explained.
 
Which is precisely Polito's plan
 
“Recently I have been trying to save money and hope one day to own a house or go on a vacation or something,” she explained.
 
So, she is jumping on the chance to trade in her own space at a time when so many others are stuck with the space they own.
 
One publisher of the Charleston Apartment Guide also calls this is a renters market. She says with thousands of apartments on the market, bigger companies are even offering major incentives. But, unlike your ability to negotiate with private owners, large rental companies are not allowed to do that because of housing rules.
 
Same as with the housing market, experts say you should expect to pay more or less depending on where you are looking. In Mount Pleasant, the median rental rate for a one bedroom apartment is $787 to $891. In Charleston, it's $700 to $836 a month. And in Goose Creek, it's $625.
 
There are some renters losing out during this mortgage crisis. A number of reports indicate because many of the foreclosed homes are investment properties, the people renting them have become homeless overnight.