If you are a Nevada County, CA tenant in search of a rental home in Nevada City, Grass Valley, Penn Valley or surroundings areas, you probably know just how “tight” the market is right now.
Supply is down and demand is up for home rentals in Grass Valley and Nevada City, CA. There are very few homes for rent on the market in Nevada County at this time and landlords are considering, or already have, increased rental rates for existing tenants. Low inventory of home rentals on the market generate multiple applications for new listings and frustrated tenants wondering why they cannot get into a home.
“Currently, we have received five to nine separate parties applications for each home that we’ve listed in the past two months,” says Amelia Barrett, Owner/Broker of Barrett Property Management in Nevada County, CA (see photos below for a small snapshot of our inventory and how quickly homes have rented). “This is a wonderful market for Nevada County investment property owners because they get to select the ‘most qualified’ party out of a handful of applications. However, it also creates frustrated tenants, which is a tricky thing to manage because you’re dealing with people’s livelihood. Out of the applications we receive, about half are not qualified at all, and the other half are qualified, but it ultimately comes down to who is the MOST qualified,” Barrett explains. “My advice to tenants searching is: Don’t give up! Stay persistent, check Craigslist 3x’s per day and when you see a new listing that you may be interested in drive by first and then call the owner or property manager. If you’ve applied with Barrett Property Management within the last 3 months and have only been declined because ‘other applicants were more qualified’ then chances are you may qualify for the next rental home that hits the Nevada County, CA rental market.”
What is currently driving the supply and demand forces that create this tight rental market for Nevada County tenants?
1. Good Weather/No Winter: Believe it or not, weather is probably one of the biggest forces that drives the Nevada County rental market. Landlords and owners carefully calculate their leases to end in the summer months. If you sign a lease now, you will probably sign a six month lease with an option to renew for another year at the end of the initial term. Summer months are a more desirable time to move because of the favorable weather…or in this case, an early summer in February!
2. The Low Inventory of Residential Homes for Sale in Nevada County: According to the NCAOR (Nevada County Association of Realtors) Western Nevada County Sales Statistics, there were only 86 residential sales from January 1 to January 31 2015. If we look at 2014, there were a total of 1,284 sales for the year. The monthly average of residential home sales for 2014 would be 107/month. That translates to being down 21 residential sales per month this year from last year. What does this mean? There is low inventory for 2015 compared to 2014 and the median sales price of residential sales is up. Those two factors combined make it harder to purchase a home, which results in more people looking to rent.
