The clock is ticking for Tooele County real estate agent Sandy Critchlow and her client.
Critchlow, an agent with Premier Utah Real Estate, works with local companies that relocate employees to Tooele County.
She has a client who has just come to Tooele County to work. All the hotels in Tooele are full, so the client and their family is staying in a hotel in Salt Lake City for 30 days.
Before the 30 days are up, Critchlow needs to have the family in a rental home in Tooele County.
Critchlow, who also manages several rental units, said finding rental units in Tooele County is no easy task.
“There’s nothing to rent in Tooele,” she said. “I usually have three or four vacant units. But I don’t have any vacancies now, haven’t had one for a long time, and have no planned vacancies in the nest 30 days.”
Tooele’s rental market was tight two years ago and is even tighter now, according to Critchlow.
It is not that the demand for rentals has increased dramatically, but the supply of rental units has decreased, according to Critchlow.
“The real estate market is hot right now,” she said. “People that were renting out their homes because they couldn’t sell them have pulled them off the rental market and they are selling.”
In many cases the person renting the home buys it, she said.
The short supply for rental homes and apartments has driven prices up a little, according to Critchlow.
“The typical three-bedroom, two-bath home rented a year ago for between $1,000 to $1,200,” she said. “Today the same house rents for $1,100 to $1,250.”
Availability and price of apartments is also tight, Critchlow said.
“I just raised the rent of my two-bedroom, one bath apartments from $650 per month to $750 per month,” she said. “But I don’t have any vacancies.”
Williams Management Group, a Tooele City-based property management company, also has no vacancies in its rental units, according to Trevor Williams, WMG property manager.
“We have no vacancies in units owned by the Williams Group,” he said. “We advertise planned vacancies at least 30 days ahead of availability and have them filled before they are empty.”
Williams suggests potential renters should be aggressive when they see something they like.
“I’ve seen a lot of people that see something they like, but they wait and look at other places and then come back,” Williams said. “And it’s too late. The place is already rented.”
Jack Walters, real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Tooele, has no vacancies in his 45 rental units.
“We’re full, and I have a waiting list,” he said. “Tooele is really short of good rentals right now.”
Tooele City’s newest apartment complex is also full.
The Cove at Overlake, built by Salt Lake City-based Castlewood Development, started renting out apartments in August 2014. The complex has one-, two-, and three- bedroom units.
All 60 units at The Cove are occupied, according to Arielle McBride, property manager.
The Cove is expanding, however. Twenty four units will be added in August, 12 more in September, 12 more in October, and 24 in December, according to McBride.
The long-term solution to the rental problem is more affordable housing, according to Walters.
“What we need is for somebody to start building homes in the $140,000 to $160,000 range,” he said. At that price, couples just starting out could afford to buy a home instead of renting.”
The smaller homes, in the 900 to 1,100 square-foot range, could be built on existing empty lots and void spaces, said Walters.
“I wouldn’t lump them all together in one development,” he said. “I would spread them out.”
Walters suggested that maybe the city could offer some kind of incentive for builders to build affordable homes.
“It is for our children,” he said. “When they leave home at 18, there’s no way they can afford a $200,000 home.”
Often times a mortgage payment can be less than rent, according to Critchlow.
“If a renter can qualify and wants to buy, we can convert a renter into a buyer,” she said. “But not everybody has good credit and not everybody wants to buy.”
