Good news for renters

Good news for renters: according to Real Page Inc., rents only rose 2.3% in the second quarter compared to the previous year. That is the weakest annual increase since the third quarter of 2010. Additionally, due to large amounts of new supply, rental growth has stagnated in major cities with otherwise strong economies, such as Austin, Portland, Seattle, Dallas and Washington, D.C. 

But aside from large supply, what else is contributing to the lull in rental prices? Millennials! It's always the millennials...A large portion of the generation, having started to marry and have children, are buying homes or moving into single-family rentals. According to Census data released in April, the U.S. added 1.3 million owner households in the first quarter over the same period last year and lost 286,000 renter households.

What does this mean for landlords? It becomes that much more difficult to attract renters. Some individual landlords are offering incentives of up to three months without rent, free parking, credit for ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, and Amazon gift cards for as much as $2,5000, according to renters, real estate brokers and Hotpads.

But don't worry. While this might seem slightly concerning on a broader economic front, apartment inhabitants are saying the market isn't in danger of crashing and foreclosures are unlikely as they are carrying much less debt. 

From a U.S. domestic relocation perspective, 91.67% of companies are offering rental assistance in the destination location per our recent surveying. For tiered relocation policies, lower to mid-level employees tend to get 1 to 2 days of rental search assistance while higher level executives tend to get 3 or more days of support. From a departure perspective, the majority of companies provide up to 2 months reimbursement for lease termination penalties.