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If you drive around the city of Columbus today, you won’t go more than ten minutes without seeing an apartment complex currently under construction. As Central Ohio attempts to recover from a lagging economy, and young professionals continue to be turned off by homeownership, residents are choosing short-term rental options over the longer-term commitment of buying a home.
“The rental housing market in Central Ohio is the hottest it has been since 1985,” said Rob Vogt, specialist in real estate market research at Vogt Santer Insight. “This pent up demand is due to the lack of new apartment construction over the past five years and the increase in the number of households as twenty-somethings have left mom and dad’s basement, and married couples who put off divorce due to the economy follow through with their plans.”
Owning a home in the suburbs has long defined the American Dream. These days, affordable pricing and shorter term commitment are a lot more enticing to residents in the Columbus market.
“We’re able to live our dream in our rental community,” said John Zito, an insurance salesman living at The Hilliard Grand Apartments located off Hayden Run Road. “They have a pool, workout facility, and clubhouse located practically right in my family’s backyard.”
There’s also high demand for rental communities in the Short North and Downtown Columbus, which currently have an average occupancy rate above 98 percent.
“My two friends and I moved into a rental community near Victorian Village and we love it,” said 24-year-old Emily Dempsey. “Home ownership is honestly the last thing on my mind right now.”
Historically, home ownership has been viewed by many Americans as a stable long-term investment. Today, more and more people are seeing a better value in renting and the worry-free obligation of not being required to maintain a property. New apartment communities are responding to this demand by providing more innovative amenities, cementing rentals as a viable way of living in Columbus and throughout the country.
“While we expect overbuilding to occur, the impact will be felt in the lower quality apartments as renters move up to occupy newer choices,” Vogt said. “Better quality choices will likely weather the overbuilding. All of this should mean better rent deals for tenants in the next several years.”
This article was brought to you by the Schottenstein Real Estate Group.
Named both the 2006 and 2010 Developer of the Year by the Building Industry Association (BIA), The Schottenstein Real Estate Group is respected as one of the leaders in the real estate industry. We are dedicated to creating exceptional communities for living, working, shopping and entertainment. Our key personnel have developed, marketed and managed more than 10,000 for sale homes or condominiums, more than 25,000 rental units and a variety of commercial, retail, land and office projects throughout the Midwest and Florida.
More information about The Schottenstein Real Estate Group can be found at www.sregroup.com.
I have to say that I have rented a lot of places over the years. Looking back, I have much preferred renting in two and four unit ‘mom and pop’ type buildings with a little bit of charm than the large ‘rental communities’ I have lived in.
I prefer old school urban apartments with some character. Hillliard Grand reminds me of where we put Grampa.
They have definitely replaced condos as the building genre of choice for developers. I too would forgo the pool and weight room for a smaller scale, more personal residence.
Aside from the pool I guess it isn’t that much different than Victorian Gate…overall its seems nice enough for people that enjoy the feel of hotel living.
I like that these places are new and have all the modern conveniences. That said, rents in these are getting pretty pricey and maybe not really a value. My best apartment so far was in an old half double in Victorian Village. It had a full basement with washer and dryer, a front porch, and a private backyard with a garden.
These big box apartments all seem to have a homogenized feel about them. I agree with the comment about hotel living.
Advertisement masquerading as an article.
barf
definitely reads like one.
I updated the language at the bottom of the article to make it more clear that this article was brought to you by SRE since it sounds like there was some uncertainty. While we do feature sponsored content and/or guest articles from time to time on Columbus Underground, we do our best to ensure that it is still worthwhile content to our readers and not just advertising (advertorial), and we always clearly mark them as sponsored or guest contributed.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note: walker@columbusunderground.com. Thanks!
“This article was brought to you by the Schottenstein Real Estate Group.”
Even with the updated language it is hard to tell this is an advertorial. Maybe an advertorial section or notice that this is a “paid advertisement” would be appropriate.
Hilliard Grand looks like shit. Crap development like this really sets Columbus back.
Perhaps a notice at the top of the page – the Dispatch prints the word “advertisement” at the top of ads that are made to look like articles. I read through this “article” and felt duped at the end.
You have to give them credit for working their slogan into the quote in the article:
“We’re able to ******live our dream******* in our rental community,” said John Zito, an insurance salesman living at The Hilliard Grand Apartments located off Hayden Run Road.
This reminds me of ‘articles’ in those free campus magazines. I am sorry I fell for it.
Thanks for the input everyone. We’ll work with SRE to address the concerns raised.
I don’t really mind it as an advertorial (thanks for the new word Walker!) since it has relevance to other threads on the message board. In the past few weeks there have been at least three threads on Millennials not buying houses, or the economic efficacy of buying a home. I didn’t feel this article was giving me a hard sell, but more continuing the conversation from a different perspective.
I feel it impacts people differently depending on where they are coming from. I am always thinking of moving or buying a house. It is part of my nature. When I read this I thought it was a legitimate article, but also thought it odd that it only mentioned SRE and was a bit vague on the complex in VV. This can be a slippery slope and I agree that the word ‘advertisment’ should be located at the top of the article. I think transparency in that is very important.