SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Kristie Brennan moved to Granger from North Carolina with her two daughters and husband in August. They owned a home for 12 years, Brennan said, but when they moved for her husband’s job in Elkhart, they needed a fast housing option that offered the level of amenities they desired.
They found everything they were looking for at Toscana Park, just north of Cleveland Road along Gumwood Road in northern Mishawaka.
The proximity to shopping, health care and a grocery store, along with the complex’s modern look and high-end features such as a clubhouse, gym and pool provided the family the living experience they wanted, Brennan said, and all in a rental.
“It was nicer than our house,” she said.
The Brennan family is just one demographic contributing to a growing demand for high-end rentals in the Michiana area. A demand local real estate experts say could be connected to a rise in South Bend’s average rent price.
A recent report ranked Indiana as one of the most affordable places to rent in the country, noting dropping average rent prices compared with the rest of the nation. But as prices in the state’s most expensive cities are dropping, South Bend is among the few to see average costs rise.
The report was issued by Apartment List, an online rental marketplace, that studied several hundred thousand listings on its site to provide rental trends throughout the country. With a one-bedroom apartment in Indiana averaging $520 per month and a two-bedroom averaging $640, the report put the Hoosier state as the second least expensive in the country. The national two-bedroom average saw a more than 2 percent rise since March 2014, putting Indiana’s average 36 percent below the nation’s.
Although some of the most expensive cities in the state like Bloomington, Greenwood and Mishawaka had average rent prices decrease in the last year, South Bend was among four of the 13 cities studied that showed average increases in both one- and two-bedroom prices.
South Bend’s one-bedroom average rose by almost 4 percent since last year, with the two-bedroom average up by a little more than 1 percent, according to the report. The $520 one-bedroom average and $600 two-bedroom average for South Bend still made it the second cheapest Indiana city included in the study.
And even with Mishawaka’s almost 3 percent drop in each rent category, its $850 one-bedroom rent average was the second highest.
Bryse Toothaker, vice president of the Bradley Co., sees the local rise in rent averages being spurred by two things.
The year-over-year decrease in the unemployment rate has a lot to do with the change, Toothaker said, because there’s a growing number of people who can afford higher rents. And with renters able to afford more, the demand for better amenities and higher-end units has been growing as well.
“The demand is there for higher-end apartments,” said Toothaker, whose real estate firm manages properties in northern Indiana and western Michigan, including Toscana Park. “And it wasn’t being met before and is still not really being met.”
Location is one of the biggest amenities people are willing to pay more for, but modern living spaces and appliances, and a complex’s upgrades like clubhouses, pools and gyms, are also big sellers. Toothaker said the area had some higher-end rental options before the demand picked up, but most of the options were 10 to 15 years old. A higher bar has been set now for what people expect from a rental, he said.
The aging stock of houses and apartments is also driving people to new high-end developments, according to Steve Smith with Irish Realty. Especially after the housing market bust, he said, he has seen more people getting away from owning and going back to renting.
This has helped create a general rise in demand for apartments across the board, not just in high-end rentals, Toothaker said. The current demand for lower-priced rental options is being met, though, he said. It’s the high-end demand that’s really driving the average price up.
Local Realtors don’t see only one demographic driving this demand though. Smith and Toothaker both said they have seen everyone from grad students to professionals to empty-nesters looking for rentals with high-end amenities. And it’s not only people looking to move from other cities who want these developments, Smith said.
Although the Triangle neighborhood just south of the University of Notre Dame doesn’t have rental units, Smith said it was the perfect example of the location and amenities local people are also seeking.
“Local people were hungry for a development like the Triangle neighborhood,” he said. “This is local people saying ’if you build it, we will come.’”
If economic development in the area keeps improving, Toothaker said, demand for high-end rentals will continue to grow, and with that a continuing gradual increase in the average rent.
With general improvements to downtown South Bend and things like the new South Bend Cubs affiliation, Smith and Toothaker said they see the demand for high-end rentals focusing on downtown next.
“There’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of demand to bring these into the interior of the city,” Smith said.
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Source: South Bend Tribune, https://bit.ly/1bpoWuq
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Information from: South Bend Tribune, https://www.southbendtribune.com
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