August 29, 2010
By Tara Nurin
For the Courier Post

The rental market in South Jersey is heating up as the ranks of the formerly unemployed are managing to secure jobs and move out of consolidated or family homes. At the same time, some hopeful buyers are having trouble qualifying and others in the market were not able to close before the federal tax credit expired.

Meanwhile, the availability of rentals is solid, as existing property owners who have moved into new homes rent out their old homes while they wait for a sale, and recession-hit owners of vacation properties choose to earn income by renting their homes year-round.

Such is the picture for renters in South Jersey, who are discovering that they might be able to rent a previously untouchable single-family home or a luxurious condo at the Jersey Shore.

“What you’ll find in South Jersey are really nice apartment buildings with nice amenities and great staff,” says Sunny Kancherla, a founder and board member of the multiple listing service GardenStateApartments.com. “That’s in addition to really nice older housing stock that’s owned by people who became landlords only because they couldn’t sell.”

Renters are finding inexpensive rates but not the bargain-basement prices that governed the rental market over the past few years when vacancy rates were astronomical. A glut of unsold new construction is being temporarily converted to rental status and is helping temper rates, though prices could begin to increase slightly as more new renters search the classifieds. 

On the lower end of the price spectrum, there’s pressure on rents to stay low because of the availability of the higher-quality properties that typically wouldn’t be on the rental market. According to Kancherla, in South Jersey this affects a lot of “B and C” quality complexes because their usual tenants are likely to jump at the opportunity to upgrade their living spaces, while tenants in “A” quality apartments are usually there temporarily until they purchase a home of their own.

Some hot rental markets to look at are Haddonfield, Haddon Township and Collingswood, which benefit from their proximity to public transportation.

Pat Ciervo, the broker/owner of Main Street Realty, which has offices in Collingswood and Haddon Heights, said, “Anything near the PATCO Hi-Speedline is going to be in demand right now because people want easy access into Philadelphia.”

It’s important for prospective South Jersey renters to realize, however, that this region presents a unique challenge to anyone attempting to understand the market as a whole.

Each one of many closely compressed municipalities possesses distinct characteristics, which leads to extreme variation among neighboring towns and requires house and apartment hunters to work hard to identify their ideal new neighborhood.