Hacker News Reader

Comment by greglindahl | Hacker News Reader

My rent in Palo Alto fell 5% on my last renewal, and my apartment complex is letting me renew for 3 months at the 12 month price. Yes, Palo Alto's market is usually a lot hotter than the nation as a whole, but yes, it's currently following the average.

View on HN

Almost the same at my rental in Oakland. My landlord has put me on a month to month lease at the same price as my twelve month lease. I'm pretty sure that new renters in my building are probably paying less rent than me.

What is the reason they are doing the month to month. Did you ask for it? This is super useful due to the fleeting nature of employment.

A landlord (or tenant) on month-to-month schedule can provide a 30-day notice to vacate, while those in 12+ month leases must provide a 60-day notice. So it's partially about increasing landlord's flexibility (which might or might not involve raising the rent or kicking the tenant out in case prices go up), and partially about what the market will accept - it seems that everybody else is doing 12-month leases and switching MTM afterwards.

(Landlord here). From my perspective for a residential tenant a shorter lease is typically better. Mainly because you aren't going to want to spend money on legal action so with the tenant tying the property up you have less flexibility (note most of my tenants are commercials and credit worthy so it's the opposite).

They just gave it to me. I've had this happen before when I lived in lower demand areas (also it was during the recession), so I don't think it's that unusual.

Come Fall and the rent would increase again due to incoming students in Cal. Have seen that in Berkeley a lot.

m-to-m at the same rate after 12 months is a standard thing in areas where it isn't a seller's market.

I've had luck tracking the overall market by setting up a craigslist rss feed, matching my complex and a nearby complex.

Exactly. But this is coming off a series of rent increases I've encountered, including one for $500 more per month (needless to say I found different housing).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com