4 ms·

Personally, I'd expect that a for-pay service would mostly capture the higher-end market, and while you /can/ get a room in Sunnyvale for $600-$800 a month, tha

by lsc 15y ago

Personally, I'd expect that a for-pay service would mostly capture the higher-end market, and while you /can/ get a room in Sunnyvale for $600-$800 a month, that's going to be a decidedly low-end room. I imagine most people renting in that range will be a bit more frugal, and less likely to want to split the take with someone else. Add to that the fact that rents are aggressively moving upwards, and I think it's pretty reasonable that a high-end rental service would have $1200 rooms in Sunnyvale. I mean, many of us would prefer a low-end studio to a high end room, and you can get a low-end studio for $1200; but if I were to rent out a room in my 2/2 apartment for half the cost? it would be well over a grand.

usaar333 15y ago
How much have rents surged in a year? I had a place in Sunnyvale from summer 2009 to late 2010 and was doing ~$400 for a small room. The highest rent a roommate was paying was just under $600 for the master bedroom w/ bathroom included. And this was a pretty average place overall.
- lsc 15y ago
  they've surged a lot; as far as I can tell, market rents have surged more than 20% but I think your 'average place' in 2010 was actually a very good deal. It's funny, I've been calling around trying to find places for my employee to live, 'cause he's kinda shy and I'm, you know, the guy who sells stuff. One of the places that was being rented by an owner said they actually lowered the price because the economy was so bad. Which is funny, 'cause all the professionally managed places are jacking up rent a lot. (this place, actually, was a lot like you describe. Big, private room, private bathroom, about $600/month. I mean, these places exist, but that is decidedly below market.) So yeah, you can find below-market deals. Your place last year was one, unless it was exceptionally tiny. in 2006-2007 I was writing the book of xen; I rented a 2/1 in santa clara (Right on the border of sunnyvale) for the two of us right next to the Lawrence caltrain. By Sunnyvale standards, that's a bad negborhood. And the apartment was pretty shitty. $1250 for the whole thing, and we actually had the cops come by our place looking for the previous tenants. We saw the cops going after several neighbors, too. I mean, I didn't feel unsafe or anything; it's not an area where the cops automatically assume everyone is poor or criminal, but it was definitely not a good area. It's possible that I've gotten exceptionally shitty deals, but from what I've seen, $400/month was way below market (though, not unobtainable; just way below the average price) for a room in Sunnyvale anytime in the last five years.

by lsc 15y ago

usaar333 15y ago

How much have rents surged in a year? I had a place in Sunnyvale from summer 2009 to late 2010 and was doing ~$400 for a small room. The highest rent a roommate was paying was just under $600 for the master bedroom w/ bathroom included. And this was a pretty average place overall.

lsc 15y ago
they've surged a lot; as far as I can tell, market rents have surged more than 20% but I think your 'average place' in 2010 was actually a very good deal. It's funny, I've been calling around trying to find places for my employee to live, 'cause he's kinda shy and I'm, you know, the guy who sells stuff. One of the places that was being rented by an owner said they actually lowered the price because the economy was so bad. Which is funny, 'cause all the professionally managed places are jacking up rent a lot. (this place, actually, was a lot like you describe. Big, private room, private bathroom, about $600/month. I mean, these places exist, but that is decidedly below market.) So yeah, you can find below-market deals. Your place last year was one, unless it was exceptionally tiny. in 2006-2007 I was writing the book of xen; I rented a 2/1 in santa clara (Right on the border of sunnyvale) for the two of us right next to the Lawrence caltrain. By Sunnyvale standards, that's a bad negborhood. And the apartment was pretty shitty. $1250 for the whole thing, and we actually had the cops come by our place looking for the previous tenants. We saw the cops going after several neighbors, too. I mean, I didn't feel unsafe or anything; it's not an area where the cops automatically assume everyone is poor or criminal, but it was definitely not a good area. It's possible that I've gotten exceptionally shitty deals, but from what I've seen, $400/month was way below market (though, not unobtainable; just way below the average price) for a room in Sunnyvale anytime in the last five years.