If you are renting an apartment in the Tampa Bay area, you may have noticed a sudden jump in your monthly rent.
Jack and Gwen Fairiday have spent the last four years living at Fusion, one of several trendy apartment complexes along St. Petersburg's Central Avenue corridor.
It was part of their plans to downsize and economize in their retirement years, but that changed when they got a letter in the mail from the new apartment management, stating their rent was going to increase by $300 to $1,780 a month.
The Fairidays aren't alone. Housing officials say the cost of renting across Tampa Bay is spiking. With apartments seeing 97-99 percent occupancy, it's causing rent to soar.
Leroy Moore, who is the Sr. Vice President Chief Operating Officer of the Tampa Housing Authority, says we're seeing the after-effects of the Great Recession, which saw a wave of home foreclosures that forced more families into renting.
"But at the same time, we're now at the age where millennial are at 25 years old, when people start looking typically at buying a home," he said. "But the mentality and the social profile of millennial suggest that they will be long term renters."
So instead of paying higher rent, the Fairidays are going back to being homeowners again, and it's saving them a lot of money.
"We will save approximately $800 a month on our new home," Gwen Fairiday said. "Our mortgage payment will be about that much less."
That could be what changes trends between renting and owning.
"As those rental rates continue to rise, it's gonna make home ownership look better and more feasible for people that are paying higher rental rates," Moore said.