Holy rent!
The Aloha State once again tops
the nation with a median rental
price of $779, the Census showsThe top 10
Brent Schenk has seen the look before -- when newcomers get sticker shock from Hawaii's costly rental market.
"I have so much fun meeting people fresh off the plane, and I drive them around and show them the different neighborhoods and watch their faces when I say: 'You see this 500-square-foot closet? That's $900!' " said Schenk, a Realtor-associate for Woodstock Properties.
Hawaii once again has the highest median gross rent among the 50 states at $779 a month, according to a report issued today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 1990 the Aloha State had the highest average rent among states at $830 per month.
The survey, which uses information based on Census 2000, showed New Jersey followed Hawaii at $751, while California was third at $747. Median gross rents were lowest in West Virginia, $401, North Dakota, $412, and South Dakota, $426.
Gross rent is the monthly amount of rent plus the estimated average cost of utilities and fuels.
The report showed monthly rents for those of Asian, Pacific Islander and native Hawaiian ethnicity were the highest, namely because these groups were concentrated in Hawaii and California, which had rent far above the U.S. median of $602.
The 1990 U.S. median gross rent was $571. In 1951 median rent was $257.
Schenk explained Hawaii's rental market is the tightest it has been in 20 or 30 years. Rents went down and have started to climb over the past year by almost 20 percent.
He believes part of the reason is an increase in the housing allowance given to military families. He said landlords will raise their rent once they realize the military is paying more for rent.
Another reason is that investors who have long owned rental property and have survived the slow rental market over the decade are now selling their holdings to people who are taking advantage of today's low interest rates to buy a home, he said.
"They're buying what the investors are selling, and they're becoming owner-occupants, and these are displacing tenants," said Schenk, who operates Rental Search Hawaii, which assists newcomers in finding a rental home.
The resulting tightening of the rental market has island newcomers discovering rent to be hundreds of dollars more than they expected and the location of rentals to be farther from town, which increases their commute time.
For a few, Schenk said, the reality of living in Hawaii is not worth the price of paradise, and they return to the mainland.
"Yeah, they turn around and go back, and I don't blame them. There's a certain quality of lifestyle you give up by moving here," he said.
Meanwhile, the report showed Honolulu ranked 52nd when it came to median gross rent by large city, at $760. California cities Irvine, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Fremont had the highest rents, at or above $1,200 a month.
The lowest-rent city was Brownsville, Texas, at $405 a month.
Hawaii renters used 27.2 percent of their income for rent, which is down from 27.4 percent in 1990. Nationally, renters spent 25.5 percent of their pre-tax income on rent in 2000, which is down from 26.4 percent in 1990.
The report showed there were 35.7 million renter-occupied housing units in the country, or about one-third of the nation's 105.5 million housing units. In Hawaii there were 175,457 renter-occupied units, or about 43 percent of the 403,240 housing units.
www.census.gov
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The top 10
Top 10 states in rent
Here are the top 10 states with the highest median gross rent in 2000, which includes the average cost of utilities and fuel:
Hawaii $779 New Jersey $751 California $747 Alaska $720 Nevada $699 Maryland $689 Massachusetts $684 Connecticut $681 New York $672 Colorado $671
Highest-rent cities
Here are the 10 highest-rent cities in the United States:
Irvine, Calif. $1,272 Sunnyvale, Calif. $1,270 Santa Clara, Calif. $1,238 Fremont, Calif. $1,196 Thousand Oaks, Calif. $1,131 San Jose, Calif. $1,123 Daly City, Calif. $1,074 Simi Valley, Calif. $1,058 Stamford, Conn. $1,007 Huntington Beach, Calif. $985 Honolulu (52nd) $760
Source: U.S. Census Bureau