Renters’ Market Coming to an End
Enjoying those low, low rents and prompt repairs that have made A2 such a “renters’ market” over the past few years? Well, the market may be about to get tighter, according to a story in the new Observer. “The vacancy rate is dropping — in small increments, but dropping nonetheless.”
How does the Observer know that it’s dropping? The U’s housing office keeps detailed records of these numbers, which have been relatively high in recent years. “The office hasn’t yet calculated this year’s vacancy rate, but it’s likely to be down.” So, in other words, they’re basing the entire premise of this article on statistics that have yet to be computed, but, when they are computed, are certainly going to confirm their predictions.
Not that the Observer would make such an assertion without compelling reasons. The writer (the piece is un-bylined) has two pieces of evidence. First of all, some apartment advertising banners at State and Kingsley (a short jaunt from the Observer’s office) have disappeared. No mention of when they were taken down last year. Also, “landlords say fewer apartments are sitting empty.”
Oh, well, if they say so. The piece quotes a leasing agent and a landlord who claim that vacancies are going down, and a management company representative who talks only about how low the rents were this year. “In July, the calls for one-bedrooms went through the roof,” says the leasing agent. Normally in A2, it’s mainly squirrels and rain that go through the roofs of rental properties.
The piece is nicely timed to coincide with the beginning of the rental season under the new ordinance. Remember, kids, take what you can get — this sweet renters’ market isn’t going to stick around much longer.
I no longer surprised at the poor reporting and writing in the Observer. They just make it up as they go. How can a college town have such lousy media?
posted by AAMom on November 29th, 2006 at 12:45 pmThe same reason Ann Arbor has many inexplicably lousy institutions — self-satisfaction and an economic interest in the status quo.
posted by Dale on November 29th, 2006 at 1:00 pmI enjoy reading the Observer. They do a good job in general.
Of course, I know some AAIO readers have lived in many small towns on the East Coast which had Pulitzer Prize winning local newspapers, or some other BS like that.
posted by James on November 29th, 2006 at 2:36 pmI like the Observer’s investigative and political articles, usually. That Cowherd one still stands as one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in a local paper.
When I lived in Boston, everyone called the Globe “the Glob,” but I generally thought they were pretty good. I guess I’m just easy to please…
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 29th, 2006 at 2:45 pmBy the way, I’m from a Chicago suburb where the local paper is called “Suburban Life.”
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 29th, 2006 at 2:47 pmThe Observer is not a newspaper. It is a magazine deliberately modeled on The New Yorker. That is, the pre-Tina-Brown New Yorker that you probably have to be my age to remember. “A friend writes” and “talk about town” and all that.
Incidentally, for those into the UM/OSU thing, Columbus, Ohio is the second largest city in America which has never had a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper. (The #1 largest is San Antonio.)
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on November 29th, 2006 at 3:43 pmMaybe someone should tell the people at the Observer that even the New Yorker has changed in the past thirty years.
posted by AAMom on November 29th, 2006 at 4:05 pmHa. I saw that article, and reflected on how funny (read: disgusting) it is that it’s been a renter’s market the past few years, yet the apartments still suck and are overpriced, and the landlords act like renting apartments in a university town is such a huge burden. They should try renting apartments in a city where people have enough choices that they just change neighborhoods if everything sucks.
posted by Bitterness on November 29th, 2006 at 7:35 pmModeled after the New Yorker? Hmm. That may have been the intent. . .
posted by LittleB on November 29th, 2006 at 9:20 pmI always thought The Observer was the Ann Arbor equivalent of the newspaper “Cosy Moments” in P.G. Wodehouse’s “Psmith in the City,” but perhaps the reference is to obscure…..
posted by CMS on November 29th, 2006 at 11:18 pmWhere did you go, AAIO? Turkey hunting? …
posted by David Boyle on November 29th, 2006 at 11:32 pmNo way! Someone else is into the Psmith books? (That one was actually Psmith Journalist; Psmith in the City was the one where they worked at a bank.)
Yeah, I was in Chicago for a while.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 30th, 2006 at 10:00 amYou are right, it was Psmith Journalist! My apologies. But you have to admit some parallels between Cosy Moments and The Observer.
posted by CMS on December 2nd, 2006 at 11:22 am