Bend rents have become significant, impacting both landlords and tenants, but there may be light at end of the tunnel

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Affordable housing and low-income housing are two totally different categories.

Affordable housing defines properties taking less than 30% of a renter’s income.

Low-Income housing describes residences designed to help renters keep up with rising rental costs. A household is considered low income if it makes below 80% of the median income of a local area.

Legally in Oregon, landlords can raise rents by up to 10% this year.

According to a local property management company, rent increases have tapered off, although some renters are still feeling the pinch.

Ron Ross of Compass Commercial Real Estate Services said Tuesday, “The last two years, the rates have been flat. Now, admittedly, between the years of, say, to 2016 and 2021 or '22, yes, rates went up a lot. And that was largely due to a shortage of available housing. The last two years, they were flat. Rent rates are flat. They may even be coming down a little bit.”

Tonya Robertson, a former renter and current Bend home-buyer, said the rapid rising was: “Absolutely not. It was not justified, of you look at how much rent gets raised every year. It'd be different if it was stable and, you know, they raised it every couple of years, but they're raising it to the max amount.

"If there wasn't a limit on the rent, it would be raised even more. And we're not getting 10% raises every year to make up for this 10% increase in our rent, where, you know, you're supposed to have about, what, 25% go to your home. A lot of us have to spend 30%, 35% just to rent."

Compass Commercial Real Estate says, in the current market, right now, there are more available rentals than there are potential renters, which means landlords are more inclined to offer move-in specials and incentives like free gift cards, or one or two months of free rent.

As they say in the real estate world, currently it’s a "renters' market."