US rental costs start to climb

A new report detailing the progress of the USA real estate markets shows that while house prices are slowly beginning to raise rental costs are steadily climbing. Seasonally adjusted figures show that average asking prices have increased by 0.8 per cent over the last quarter and are now more than 1.5 per cent higher than the same time a year ago. On a national level almost half of the 100 largest cities had a year on year price increase. The largest price increase for homes across the whole of the USA real estate arena occurred in Miami and Phoenix – residential real estate in these two locations are now 15 per cent higher than twelve months ago. Both of these two regions have high numbers of homes in foreclosure and once they hit the market unit prices are expected to fall back slightly. The report also highlights the speed with which rental costs are climbing in most rental market, on a national basis rental costs are nearly 5.5 per cent higher than June 2011.