Submitted by chazthetic t3_118drdc in jerseycity
We moved to Jersey City and love it here. In the last few years, we've seen our rents increase more than 10% a year. That far outpaces inflation. Rents keep increasing insane amounts, even with more and more apartment buildings being built. And to top it we live in a nearly 20 year old building.
Anyone else seeing huge increases in their lease renewals?
Ding ding ding
The big real estate companies are still gouging renters, but let’s not overlook property taxes as a culprit too. Especially for regular landlords who need to keep up with their now doubled taxes.
And for those that have abatements, they can still mark to the market but instead of all that additional rent going to the city, it goes into their pockets.
This just highlights the fact that landlords will generally seek to charge the maximum amount they can get in a particular market.
It doesn’t matter what happens with their property tax bill. They will seek the maximum rent possible given prevailing market forces.
If a similar tax increase happened in a market like Detroit, many landlords there would not be able to recoup the cost simply because their housing market is the opposite of ours in terms of supply/demand factors.
Can’t have landlords possibly “earning” a penny less! Let’s not pretend that every landlord isn’t seeking to milk tenants out of the highest possible rent amount. The main culprit is and always be a system that allows greedy people to hoard housing
10% was roughly where we were able to negotiate down to after several years of being “invited” to sign a new lease every year or two in a high rise. Eventually became aware that the high rises were not a home and were merely a number of a form and left. It’s not sustainable long term and probably wasn’t designed that way. Unfortunately. Good luck.
Yeah we’re starting to feel the same way. We don’t want to leave, but its getting harder to keep up
Check your DM
My Dungeon Master only has clauses for Bulettes and the occasional Drow.
Ours went up 44% at 70 greene and we moved. Worst part is I spoke to the new tenant and he said when he applied there was no increase- so he’s paying what we were paying before they increased it 44% and we had to move … smh
That’s what sucks about so many of the LUXIRY buildings in Downtown JC! (I don’t know if other neighborhoods/cities.) The buildings often advertise great deals - free amenities, free 1-2 months’ rent upon signing, etc., but they offer those only to “new” tenants, not to existing ones.
That is so stupid and counterproductive, it seems. If you have had a good tenant all along, who paid rent on time and was never a problem (loud music, smoking in hallways, etc.), why wouldn’t you want that tenant to continue instead of risking it with a newer tenant you have little idea about?! Also, with a new tenant, you need to spend money on professional deep cleaning, repainting, etc., and it just seems that continuing with the existing tenant is cost-effective.
But still, they never offer such deals to existing tenants. It always boggles my mind.
Reason is moving costs. They know moving costs money, so if they are able to raise rent just enough to be competitive with moving costs, most people will stay put. Also yieldstar software is definitely leading to collusion in jersey city + Hoboken in particular.
It’s exactly the same as when companies suppress salary increases but then hire new workers at much higher rates, resulting in an endless cycle of attrition and recruitment
[deleted]
yeah they gotta have a solid scam where they make more money turning over tenants than keeping them. maybe fees, maybe security deposits, or maybe something as dumb as commissions on "new" tenants for sales people who happen to also work in the building.
Jersey city does indeed seem to be a counterpoint that nonstop new building does not lower rental prices in a meaningful way.
How many times does it need to be said that building housing reduces the rate at which prices increase. It does not guarantee lower prices. Without new housing rent would just shoot up even faster.
A great analogy I heard: Saying building more housing doesn't help is like free-falling from an airplane and complaining the parachute hasn't completely stopped you mid-air.
Try telling this to r/rebubble…
According to them, there is so much housing in this country that a crash is going to happen any day now…
I guess they are technically correct, there is plenty of housing in the country.... if you just add it all together irrelevant of location and quality. Housing crisis is specifically because there isn't enough housing where the jobs are and where people generally want to live thats a reasonable commuting distance.
Also the day people realize that housing cannot sustainably appreciate forever (for numerous reasons) as an asset there probably will be an enormous crash and cultural shift of housing as an investment to housing as a need (see: Japan). We are nowhere close to that yet sadly. Probably take another 20 or so years.
Not trying to fight but anyone buying expensive property in hot neighborhoods already knows not to count on huge appreciation.
People buy in popular neighborhoods because they want to live there + build equity while doing so.
A collapse is not happening unless there are major external factors.
Unless you’re levered to the tits… but yes, my wife and I bought in a pretty hot area and there will be some appreciation, but not like it has been. We bought where we did because of the charming housing stock and gas street lamps, commute time to Manhattan, and like minded people living in the town.
This is my understanding based, too, especially regarding high-rise buildings. It can drive the overall values of an area up, while simultaneously helping to keep surrounding rents low by adding more supply. So there’s some give and take.
This is an interesting watch:
What an odd take... the *correct* take is that we are NOT building enough. For all that "nonstop new building" people love to bemoan and criticize, we are getting MORE people than actual housing units, which is why prices DON'T come down or remain stable. Just to illustrate the issue, consider this: in 2000, it was estimated that JC's population was 240K. By 2010, it was estimated to be 247K (an increase of ~3% over 10 years) and then by 2020 it was estimated to be 292K (a increase of over 18% over 10 years, or 6x the growth of the previous decade). In the same period, the number of housing units did not grow nearly enough, so our vacancy rate of available housing units actually went down, demonstrating that we are not keeping up and instead are facing a market that is further constrained.
I think you got some of your numbers mixed up there.
It feels like they want nothing but luxury renters from NYC
If Jersey City stopped building, rich people would simply bid up the old houses, as happened in San Francisco and most of Manhattan.
If you could charge more for a product you sell, wouldn't you?
I moved to the NJ side of the Hudson specifically because my income became high enough that the ~4% city tax for NYC became a non trivial amount of money. I suspect many others did the same especially during covid when no one has to commute into the office. This gentrification effect is now at the snowballing phase for Jersey City where soon our rents east of Grove Street will rival the West Village in NYC.
Over a 30 year period "luxury" apartments should start trickling down to more affordable prices as new luxury buildings overtake them. But the NYC area is so insane that you can have old buildings like Grove Pointe continue to charge rents comparable to new builds in the area.
My biggest regret financially for rent was not buying property in Q3 2020 when prices were down (became a digital nomad instead since I thought NYC would become a crime and germ filled cesspool there was a really nice 1BR in Brooklyn that has now gone up 20%) or signing a longer term lease in Q1 2021 when rental market was still soft.
I regret not buying as well. I agree with you about the trajectory of JC, but the unfortunate truth is the price increases right now feel like price gouging, the same kinds of price gouging we saw with groceries, gas, etc over the last few years.
I doubt the rising costs of an apartment were solely due to the costs of managing a building, and rather the desire to simply squeeze more and more out of the customers.
Alas this is how capitalism works. You squeeze and get higher margins anywhere you can.
Interest rates were the other huge driver. Many other portfolio buildings for these owners are commercial properties on floating rate debt that they are deeply underwater on. So they're probably trying to make up for it where they can.
Have you considered that what Jersey City is building is not enough to serve a metro of 20 million people? And yes, that is the market for Jersey City housing, not the 290k already here.
No one on the New York side is building anywhere close to enough. All that demand gets added on to Jersey City. Nothing Jersey City can do to fix it. New York has to fix it. If Jersey City stopped building, people would simply bid up the old houses, as happened in San Francisco and most of Manhattan.
What you see is that we aren't building enough. The prices would be even higher if we were building less housing.
Induced demand was first observed in housing.
Mine went up 48%.
Yikes, that’s quite a steep jump
Where?
Can't be here. Cuz more apartments means cheaper rent I heard on here.
In the LUXURY neighborhood.
Greenville?
> I don't see how this is sustainable long term.
It isn't. General strike/rent strike when?
No need to strike. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation. High taxes due to school corruption. Vote to change it or leave Jersey City.
I just received a 15% increase in Hilltop. It was 6% last year. I keep sucking it up because I don't want to move, but eventually it just won't be worth it anymore.
I have had reasonable increases with KRE. 4% increase two years in a row
"Forsooth, thee gentrifier is gentrify'd."
William Shakespeare, probably.
White people leave = white flight
White people move in = gentrifiers/colonizers
woke
Search the sub, this is asked 5x a week for the last year
I did. I saw a few posts, but it's indicative of a much larger problem
> but it's indicative of a much larger problem
But... It is not. You simply feel that way because you are struggling to keep up, but that's the way an unregulated market is supposed to work. You may not be able to afford it, but others will. Since we are not building enough units to absorb the population growth, we will continue to see increases in housing costs. Until population growth slows down, or some other shock to the system comes (like with the pandemic) we will continue to see higher rents.
That’s slightly below inflation actually.
Right now inflation nationwide is about 8%. But for service/labor it’s substantially more, especially in NJ where minimum wage is going up on a predefined schedule.
Then you’ve got taxes.
The costs to operate a building went up above 10% due to labor alone.
10% means your landlord is taking a smaller percentage profit. There’s no other way to look at it.
Ours went up 27%
Yikes. Did that include incentives like free months?
This is the raise we got so far. Not too bad for a 2.5 bd + 1.5 bath. 4% increase.
Wow where are you getting a deal like this?’
2.5 bd 1.5bth? Even in 2018 that’s well below market. Wonder what neighborhood this is in.
Newly renovated. Bergen/Lafayette area.
The whole area isn’t gentrifying that quickly, rent is still super affordable and you’re still only 20 minutes from JSQ or a short shot to downtown. I’m nearby and my rent also only went up 5%
Yeah that’s not too bad at all
We’ve been here since 2018 I believe. They only raised the rent once.
You are incredibly lucky. Stay there as long as you can!
Not sure what your rent went from and to but the market has definitely slowed down and I've even seen some of the crazy prices come down slightly. You should look around and see if there are available units elsewhere more affordable for you. They definitely exist. Otherwise unfortunately 10% isn't good but last year people were seeing crazy 15%-20% increases. It's not good but 10% is likely a sign of your management being bold but not as bold as they would have been last year, simply because they can't.
Yep, I just saw that Haus 25 is offering 1 month free now, which I’m pretty sure they weren’t doing just a few months ago.
It’s a sign the market is beginning to soften even if the advertised sticker price hasn’t gone down yet.
Property Taxes went up!
Bodhipooh is so cool and Knowledgeable y’all 🤪
They have the worst takes, used to post lots of anti-vaccine nonsense back during the worse days of the pandemic.
It’s not sustainable. It’s not worth it to live downtown if that’s what’s happening.
ours went up by 10% it’s the building that looks like a lego
I moved here from the city because rent was way to high there no matter where I lived. Got myself a place I’d be paying double in the city if it were there (high rise, rooftop, gym, personal washer and dryer) Rent went up last year and will only go up again I’m sure. So far I’m managing but at some point I won’t be able to save if I pay these prices. The rent here is basically the same as living in the city. Ive been considering moving to Newark but even those prices I hear are going up, but still currently low enough that I’d Live comfortably for a few years.
Ours went up 40% at 88 Regent
lol wtf?
I moved to JC from West New York because my rent increased 40%. I wish it only went up 10 like it did for you LOL
Believe it or not but renters have more leverage now than any other time in the last 24 months. Did you try to negotiate? Most landlords don’t like vacancy
We did actually, got the increase down to 7%
I’ve been here about 8 years and have seen 1-5% increases every time I’ve resigned. In 2 different luxury buildings. Are you using the base as a pro-rated first time tenant or a COVID deal?
No that’s from our base, regular rent price, no specials or deals
Man idk, judging from all the comments I must be part of a very small minority who got extremely lucky. That said, of the 7 times we’ve signed or re-signed a lease, 3x were 2-year terms and most recent was a 14mo term. I guess that’s probably helped a lot.
Where are people being priced out moving to?
Deeper into jersey or out of state
Ours went up 880 dollars from 2650/month to 3530/month….. when we told them we were moving they offered to raise our rent “only” 300/month. We said no out of principal…. Lived on Morris and moving about 10 minutes to a new place
Windsor? Increases have been STEEP
Move to theBlvd collection, u can negotiate rent increase, I used to increase it like 50-70$ every year with 1.5-2 year leases
That’s where are are actually
The approval of the huge new school complex in Bergen Lafayette is going to mean another huge tax hike. The school is definitely needed, and I'm all about a highly educated population, but it's going to be rough on the renters and homeowners here.
It's all good. There are way richer people to replace us.
Yeah I'm just moving back to a walk-up. Had my first year at one of the supposedly better "luxury" doorman buildings and it just isn't worth it to me. My rent will be halved and my savings will go up, double victory.
These buildings don’t want you to stay. It’s in any city you move to a fancy luxury building they want you there for two years max. It’s their model. My guess is if you stay for awhile you become protected. There are great homes in other areas of JC, might not be as fancy but w the extra money you save buying you can get a car and be to those areas in 10 min. And have more space. This is a great city w many great areas. Bet on yourself and buy something, make it your own and continue to make this a great city and screw these robbers.
Nyc prices ! It was only a matter of time!
Water charges which most landlords pay, especially on smaller non 'luxury' buildings, has increased 10 fold as well in the last year.
Thanks, School Board! Next year it'll be another 30% in property tax, voted in by the ''I'm such a good person and I want everyone to know it'' crowd.
It’s also the city. The mayor has passed backdoor taxes and the city also raised its taxes quite dramatically. I think it’s disingenuous to just blame the tax hike on the the schools.
If they just increase it 25 dollars at a time like the art tax, then landlords won't pass it on to the renters
Terrible tone lol
> In the last few years, we've seen our rents increase more than 10% a year. That far outpaces inflation.
Only if you believe the number the government is telling you, which is allegedly 6-7% last year. The real inflation rate is probably around 15% or higher. -80% of US dollars in circulation were printed from 2020 onwards. There is absolutely no way inflation is just 6%
There’s no rent control ?
That's what I was going to ask. I'm new to Jersey City (approaching 1 year of occupancy) and I thought Jersey City, as a municipality, had a rent increase cap of 4%. If so, does it only apply to specific types of properties?
There must not be for the increases to be so rampant
Refuse to pay it. Unconscionable rent increase is not allowed by law
Happyjee t1_j9gtr9p wrote
One of the main culprit for rent increase, unfortunately is that the property taxes in Jersey City almost doubled last year