BOOM A BOON TO RENTERS
Rent inflation moderate in many CT municipalities, but little comfort to struggling tenants
As the calendar flips to June — peak season for apartment moves across the country — rental rates across the U. S. are starting to rise, as states continue to lift pandemic- related restrictions on travel, indoor and outdoor gatherings and mask- wearing.
Rents in Connecticut, however, while historically high, could be benefiting from a huge expansion of new buildings constructed since 2011, which are now competing for tenants flooding in from New York City and elsewhere.
A Hearst Connecticut Media analysis of data from the U. S. Census Bureau, Zillow and Apartments. com shows that rent inflation in dozens of municipalities across the state has been moderate compared with other population centers.
That’s little comfort, however, to thousands of renters who struggle to afford what they’re currently paying each month, while Connecticut landlords face mounting costs associated with the long- running moratorium on evictions.
Many prospective tenants struggle to get a signature on an initial lease, said Charmain Yun, a landlord engagement specialist with the Coordinated Action Network in New Haven. Some advocates now advise clients to seek rooms
for rent as an alternative to full apartments.
“I have one client who has a criminal history ... [ but] has wonderful jobs — a full- time job with a great reference and another part time job,” Yun said. “I think he would make a great tenant, but his application keeps getting denied. ... That’s not a [ unique] scenario.”
What people pay and where
The National Low Income Housing Coalition calculates a “housing wage” of $ 55,000 in annual income for any individual or family to afford a twobedroom apartment in Connecticut, under a formula that devotes 30 percent of income to housing costs.
But depending on the locale, that baseline income can swing widely, from $ 83,000 in Stamford to $ 46,000 in Waterbury. Bridgeport has the highest estimated totals of renters classified as “cost burdened” by NLIHC, at nearly six of every 10.
In Stamford and Greenwich, at least 40 percent of renters pay $ 2,000 or more in monthly rent, according to U. S. Census Bureau estimates of rent brackets in Connecticut cities and towns with at least 5,000 renters.
Just over 30 percent of renters in Norwalk pay that amount, along with 15 percent of tenants in both Danbury and West Hartford. In two sections of Milford that add up to more than 5,000 renters, 19 percent pay $ 2,000 or more a month.
At the opposite end of the rent scale, only Waterbury, Torrington and New London had more than half their populations of renters paying less than $ 1,000 a month. At least 50 percent of renters in Manchester and West Haven paid between $ 1,000 and $ 1,499 to lead the state in that bracket.
Danbury and Norwalk were highest for the rental range between $ 1,500 and $ 1,999, hovering around 30 percent of all renters in the two cities.
The Connecticut Department of Housing is in the process of awarding $ 250 million in rental assistance to tenants and landlords through federal funding. But with limitations on evictions for participating landlords, not all are choosing to participate, according to John Souza, president of the CT Coalition of Property Owners.
In April, researchers with Harvard University and the Housing Crisis Research Collaborative issued a study that estimated a quarter of renters nationally depleted their savings significantly during the pandemic, with a smaller percentage resorting to loans to make rent.
A boom in new construction
Unlike the home sale market, in which real estate associations keep meticulous data on transactions,