2011 Housing Planning Study - Rental Report

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Table 2. Average Asking Rent, Counties and State of Hawaii, 2003-2011 Group 2000 12001 12002 12003 12004 12005 12006 12007 12008 12009 2010 HOUSING 178 179 181 186 194 205 223 238 229 230 236 Shelter 192 193 196 200 210 221 242 261 249 250 253 Rent of primary residence 180 182 185 190 197 208 229 247 266 273 273 Owners' equivalent rent 196 198 202 206 214 225 248 268 256 264 266 Fuel and utilities 147 147 143 154 161 180 203 214 275 283 283 *Indexes on a December 1982=100 base. Source: U.S Bureauof Labor Statistics;Hawaii State Department of Business,Economic Development&Tourism, Statistics&Data Support Bran Based on decreasing rates of change in contract rents, we might expect that asking rents have been dropping or at least showing slower growth. Current trends suggest, however, that the cost to rent a home in the State of Hawaii's on the rise. Trends among the average asking rent, median contract rent and Fair Market Rent all point toward increases in the rents for units of all sizes in each of Hawaii's counties. ASKING RENTS In order to perform a thorough review of Hawaii's current rental housing market, a comprehensive data set was constructed to identify current and historical rental availability, rental rates and other trends. For each island, information including location, rent rate, bedrooms, property type, furnished or unfurnished, was gathered from current and historical rental advertisements for each island. Database entries excluded rentals wanted, vacation rentals, rentals to share, property management, rooms for rent, and all commercial properties. The Oahu rental database was collected from the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin's mid- month Sunday classified advertisements for rentals of houses, apartments (including both apartment building units and condominium units) and townhouses'. For the purposes of this review, the Oahu rental database was filtered to include advertisements for three- and four- bedroom houses and studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. The neighbor island rental database was constructed from the mid-month Sunday Classified ads from the major newspapers for each island. Sources include the Maui News, West Hawaii Today, the Hawaii Tribune Herald and The Garden Island. The database contains information from advertisements for two-, three-, and four-bedroom houses and studio, one- and two- bedroom apartments. Although still among the highest in the nationz, asking rents across Hawaii had been falling since 2007. In the past six to twelve months, however, there have been indications that asking rents are on the rise. Discussion with some experts (developers, advocates for affordable housing, and housing planners) suggest that asking rents are rising and have been for at least 18 months. HHPS Rental Housing Study data tend to support the upswing in asking rents. 1 Data collection continued from the single source following the merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin June, 2010. 2 Out of Reach 2011, National Low Income Housing Coalition, June 2011, hftp7//www.niihc.org/oor/oor2011. Hawaii Housing Planning Study,2011: Rental Housing Page 5 0 SMS, Inc. October,2011