A single mom’s rent went up $700, an increase an economist says is happening across the Valley
“We’re seeing year-over-year rent increases of more than 20% pretty much across the Valley,” Court said.
Colleen Sikora — 12 News
PHOENIX — Photos of two young boys hang on the wall in Alicia’s two-bedroom apartment.
“That’s just right outside,” she said.
They’re her young boys, now 11 and 14, in the photo that was taken several years ago.
“They’ve grown up here,” she said.
The three of them have shared the northeast Phoenix apartment for nearly 10 years.
“We made it our home,” the woman added. “We love it.”
Of course, she’s not paying the rent that she was when she moved in almost a decade ago. She said rent usually goes up each year.
“There’s typically maybe $40 to $50 a year,” she stated.
Alicia currently pays just under $1,300 for the roughly 1,000-square-foot bottom-floor apartment. But this year’s increase was different.
“It was significantly higher. I panicked! I mean it went up almost $700,” she exclaimed.
However, her experience of rent rising exponentially is pretty common.
“It’s a consistent story across the Valley,” Danny Court, partner and senior economist with Elliot D. Pollack & Company said.