By Katelyn Reinhart | YourValley
While increases in the housing market can be felt across the state, Chandler renters have faced a particularly turbulent market — a Rent.com report published in May found the city at the highest national increase in rent for two-bedroom apartments.
According to Rent.com, the city claimed the highest increase rate nationally at 68.6 % in year-to-year rent for two-bedroom units. In the May report, Chandler beat out cities like Miami, Portland, Salt Lake City and Nashville for the title.
“Arizona is a victim of its own success,” Chandler City Councilmember Matt Orlando said. “People want to move here so now we have to create dwellings to be able to accommodate those individuals, but we’re running out of room.”
The city of Chandler is at roughly 93 % buildout, leaving little room for further developments. Orlando said the city is seeing a compounding issue: there is a shortage of land to add more housing units, but more and more people are moving to the city.
Pandemic worsens pre-existing housing concerns
Kathleen Banister, an associate broker at Mountain Sage Realty, specializes in assisting people relocating to or from the greater Phoenix area. She said the current real estate environment is “rapidly changing,” partially due to an influx of people who flocked to Maricopa County during the COVID-19 pandemic.