When I moved back to Kentucky in 2003, the rent on the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath Berea townhouse I lived in was $425 a month. In 2016, when my husband and I bought a house on 1 1/2 acres outside city limits, the mortgage was $955 a month. A widow in 2024, I am paying $977 a month mortgage on that same house---and considering it a bargain, compared to the obscene rents imposed on Berea renters! The vulture capitalists have discovered Berea (not to denigrate avian vultures), and are making lives miserable here, as they have on the West and East coasts and much of our country in-between. These rental owners and the Berea City Council need to sit down and negotiate what constitutes fair rent prices---and abide by them.
Hi, Tanya. Thank you for your comment, and my condolences to you on your loss. Private equity has certainly started moving into smaller markets like this, but in my own limited research of the issue here in Berea, there aren't enough new residents moving in to attract PE capital, at least not yet. The people who are buying the rentals in town are of two kinds: 1) individuals who tend to live and work here, and buy a second rental home for investment; however, increasingly, those investors are turning those second properties into short-term rentals (air bnb), as they can make at least twice as much per month than if they had a stable tenant for one or more years; and 2) out-of-town investors who, while not billionaires, have small portfolios of apartment complexes either regionally or across multiple states, and, from my own observation, do not feel any loyalty or commitment to the actual citizens of Berea. To your point about what constitutes "fair housing", the numbers I quoted were from the City's official in that regard, and she used an acceptable municipal formula to do so. It's jobs we need, as well as more housing stock. Most important is that we have the Comprehensive Plan being vetted now, and housing is a huge part of it. Hopefully, public comment on it will begin sooner than later.
When I moved back to Kentucky in 2003, the rent on the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath Berea townhouse I lived in was $425 a month. In 2016, when my husband and I bought a house on 1 1/2 acres outside city limits, the mortgage was $955 a month. A widow in 2024, I am paying $977 a month mortgage on that same house---and considering it a bargain, compared to the obscene rents imposed on Berea renters! The vulture capitalists have discovered Berea (not to denigrate avian vultures), and are making lives miserable here, as they have on the West and East coasts and much of our country in-between. These rental owners and the Berea City Council need to sit down and negotiate what constitutes fair rent prices---and abide by them.
Hi, Tanya. Thank you for your comment, and my condolences to you on your loss. Private equity has certainly started moving into smaller markets like this, but in my own limited research of the issue here in Berea, there aren't enough new residents moving in to attract PE capital, at least not yet. The people who are buying the rentals in town are of two kinds: 1) individuals who tend to live and work here, and buy a second rental home for investment; however, increasingly, those investors are turning those second properties into short-term rentals (air bnb), as they can make at least twice as much per month than if they had a stable tenant for one or more years; and 2) out-of-town investors who, while not billionaires, have small portfolios of apartment complexes either regionally or across multiple states, and, from my own observation, do not feel any loyalty or commitment to the actual citizens of Berea. To your point about what constitutes "fair housing", the numbers I quoted were from the City's official in that regard, and she used an acceptable municipal formula to do so. It's jobs we need, as well as more housing stock. Most important is that we have the Comprehensive Plan being vetted now, and housing is a huge part of it. Hopefully, public comment on it will begin sooner than later.