Main Line Rental Market - April, 2018

Main Line Rental Market April, 2018

The Main Line rental market is very hot in April of 2018. Properties frequently come on the market and disappear in a matter of days as families look to secure homes prior to the start of the 2018 school year. The graphic below depicts rentals that have settled in the last year, 4/16/2017 - 4/15/2018. 851 properties were leased in this time period or roughly 71 per month. Currently, there are 164 properties listed for rent. In real estate parlance, this means there is 164 / 71 or 2.3 month's supply on hand. A supply of less than 6 months for a specific real estate market is considered a seller's market. The practical significance of this is that landlords have more bargaining power than tenants with regard to rental price and terms, though prices have not gone up in 2018 versus the same period in 2017.

If you are a prospective tenant, you need to act quickly if you find a property you like as there are likely to be others interested as well. If you can start the lease quickly and lease for multiple years this will help you. It will also pay you to complete a Pennsylvania Association of Realtors rental application, obtain your FICO score and have copies of recent pay stubs on hand. Being able to quickly provide this information to the landlord's agent can be a critical factor in securing a lease. 

The graphic below depicts activity in the main line rental market in 2017. This is typical for other years as well. The number of properties leased rises in May and falls off after October. This means tenants are most actively looking from March to the end of August as there is generally a lag between the time a lease is signed and when it actually begins.

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