Many of you know I’m a proponent of HotPads.com. And if you are a member or have used HotPads you too may have received this email. It’s very helpful.
Hi Chris,
The rental price increase is a factor of uncertainty in the US economic climate, which has forced a transition from a home buying mentality to one more in favor of renting. The growing number of homes lost to foreclosure in 2010 expanded the number of people seeking to rent, creating a renter surplus.
Further, with the US unemployment rate over 9% throughout 2010 (up from 4% in 2006), low risk housing options became more desirable, a trend which may continue in the coming months.
At the same time, HotPads expects to see foreclosed and long standing for sale properties re-enter the market as rentals, which should expand the rental supply, thereby helping ease rent prices. This represents an interesting contrast to the peak of the housing market in 2006, when rental units were being converted into for-sale condos.
The 2010 national rental market data is calculated from a sample of one million concurrently active rental prices on HotPads. These are averages of each state’s monthly median rental price weighted by the number of listings in that state.
About HotPads.com
With over 500,000 active rental listings and 4 million homes for sale, HotPads.com is one of the largest national housing resources in the market today. HotPads.com is the premier map-based real estate search engine, delivering the most interactive and personal housing search experience online.
BBQ Capital | Kansas City Real Estate Investing 
Interesting. I haven’t been to this site yet but I’ll have to check it out after reading this post!