Zillow: Philadelphia renters paid $8.1 billion in 2014
It’s no secret that rent prices have been going up – both nationally and locally – but how much exactly are Philadelphians shelling out of their pockets for these homes?
It's no secret that rent prices have been going up – both nationally and locally – but how much exactly are Philadelphians shelling out of their pockets for these homes?
A new Zillow report out Tuesday found that in 2014, renters in the Philly metro area spent a whopping $8.1 billion collectively, with a median monthly cost of $936. That's a 4.4 percent increase from 2013. The apartment size was not accounted for in this analysis.
According to the report, the price increase is attributed to the addition of 13,000 new renters this year - a nearly 2 percent rise. Currently, there are about 724,000 renters in the region.
"Over the past fourteen years, rents have grown at twice the pace of income due to weak income growth, burgeoning rental demand, and insufficient growth in the supply of rental housing," said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.
As the New Year approaches, Humpries said he expects rents to increase even more next year, with rents rising faster than home values.
In Zillow's report, which looked at the largest 50 metro areas in the U.S., San Francisco saw the largest rent increase, rising 13.5 percent and totaling $14.6 billion.
Not surprisingly, the largest amount of rent was paid in the New York-Northern New Jersey region, which totaled $50 billion.
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