By Kevin Reagan
Staff Writer
Despite adding hundreds of new multi-family housing units in the last fiscal year, Chandler is being recognized for its rapidly rising apartment rents.
More than 1,200 multi-family units were added to the city’s housing stock in the last year, ramping up Chandler’s total housing to 107,250 units. More supply would expectedly bring down prices, but Chandler’s rental averages appear to keep growing.
Data collected by real estate websites indicate apartment rents in Chandler have increased more than several other Valley cities over the last year.
Apartment List, a website that describes itself as a guide for renters to find affordable housing, listed Chandler as having the Valley’s second highest rental costs.
Gilbert outranked Chandler with its median rental costs for one- and two-bedroom apartments. But Chandler surpassed the town with size of the rental increase over the last year. Chandler’s rents increased by 6.3 percent and Gilbert experienced a 3.9 percent hike.
Chandler may be experiencing the consequence of residents being squeezed out of the Phoenix rental market, according to Igor Popov, the chief economist for Apartment List.
Chandler listed at least 3,700 new residents this last fiscal year, city records show.
As rents in central Phoenix rise, Popov said, demand in suburban cities like Chandler and Gilbert increase to accommodate the influx of residents fleeing the city.
Millennials are looking to settle down and start families in vibrant suburbs that have good schools and connectivity to other cities, he added, making Chandler prime real estate.
Apartment List estimates at least a third of rental searches done for properties in the Phoenix metro area are done by people living outside Arizona.
This demand predictably comes with a downside given that workers’ wages probably have not kept pace with rising rents.
Renters are finding ways to adapt, Popov said, by recruiting roommates to help counter the rising housing costs.
“There’s no really one-size-fits-all advice for how to survive,” Popov added. “People have found a way to manage.”
No other municipality in Maricopa County experienced rent growth as much as Chandler within the last year, per the analysis done by Apartment List.
RealPage, a data firm that studies real estate trends, recently declared the Phoenix area was experiencing a nine-year high for apartment demand.
Adam Couch, a market analyst for RealPage, said communities such as Chandler may not follow regular supply-and-demand patterns because they’re dominated by large tech companies such as Intel Corp.
“Having an anchor like that can really influence (the market) and throw a curveball,” Couch said.
But Couch estimated rents will soon start to fall as more units across the Valley are constructed and come on the market. Northern Tempe has seen slower rent growth than Chandler and Scottsdale, Couch added, because more construction and development had happened in that region.
Rental costs have been increasing across the Phoenix area over the last couple of years as more people move to central Arizona.
Rents, which reportedly have not decreased in Phoenix since November 2017, have surpassed national growth rates.
Rent Cafe, another website devoted to analyzing rent prices, estimated Chandler’s average rents increased by 11 percent since 2018 – the highest rate in the Phoenix area. Gilbert and Scottsdale both outranked Chandler by having higher rental averages.
