Rising rent prices create issues for Portage County Community

Across Portage County, many renters are paying a significant percentage of their income just to pay rent. In Ohio, Portage County is second only to Athens County with 6.7% of its residents spending between 30 and 35% of their income towards rent, and 46.9% spend more than 35% of their income on rent.

Information from iPropertyManagment shows the significant increase in rent in Ohio since 2000. 

Austin Richner, a senior criminology major at Kent State University, has experienced this struggle himself.

“I would say there’s a rent issue,” Richner said. “I think it’s gotten out of hand. I wanted to be able to get a single apartment, but when I was looking around for one last year, it became obvious that I was going to need roommates.”

As a college student, Richner is only able to work a part time job, limiting his options.

“I don’t work a full-time job, so a house or my own place is probably out of reach, but my uncle told me once that he was able to get by in college with a part-time job living by himself,” Richner said. “I think we’re living in a very different world than past generations when it comes to the cost of living.”

According to CU Today, Richner is correct. The rent to income ratio in the United States in 1985 was nine percent, whereas in 2020, the rate was 17%.

Richner worries about post-college living, citing the fact that many recent college graduates’ first jobs still don’t allow them to comfortably live by themselves.

“I’ve always wanted to live by myself once I get out of college, but I’m hearing about it from my friends that have graduated, and it sounds like I may not be able to,” Richner said. “It doesn’t sound like paychecks from their first jobs combined with the high rent are allowing them to even consider living by themselves unless it’s in a dump.”

Some citizens believe that landlords have increased rent to unnecessary costs, but according to Sophia Graves, a landlord herself, that is not the case. 

“Property taxes continue to rise, and so does insurance, so it puts us in a difficult position.” Graves, who now rents out the Brimfield house she lived in during college, explained that she does what she can to help her tenants by charging less than the region’s average rent.

“I don’t see a reason to charge anything crazy. I checked the average rent in the area, and I charge a few hundred dollars less than that,” Graves said. “I don’t just want to be another landlord that puts tenants in difficult situations, and I think a lot of the issues pertaining to rent would be solved if more of us thought that way.”

Graves also recalls what it was like to be a student with rent due each month and does not want to place extra stress on others.

“In my later years in college, I worked a full-time job in order to keep up with rent, and that put together with school was obviously stressful, so if I can make things a little bit easier for someone, that’s what I’m going to try to do,” Graves said.

Some of the issues that arise in Kent come from the high student population. Many students are signing nine-month or 12-month contracts, which creates high turnover. This allows the landlords to reset the prices after each cycle and increase the prices each time. Whether the students like it or not, some may not have an option but to rent from the apartments near the university, no matter how much they cost. The high demand allows the landlords to raise their prices.

Senior construction management student Morgan Crist found himself paying more for rent in his Kent apartment last year than his current mortgage in Ravenna, Ohio.

“The mortgage at my house is less than my rent was in Kent last year,” Crist said, referring to his former 345 Flats apartment. “Rent went up about 400 to 500 dollars a month since maybe 2021 in that place.”

Crist owns a condo that he rents in Sagamore Hills, Ohio, and he says its value has dramatically increased in recent years. 

“The price skyrocketed around 400 percent in the last four years. It went from about $60,000 dollars to around 300,000,” Crist said. 

When it comes to setting his prices for rent, Crist takes a similar approach to Graves.

“I charge 1,200 dollars for it. It’s a two-bedroom condo, and when I looked around the area, that seemed to be a good number that was a bit lower than most other places,” Crist said. “I was never scrounging for rent money when I was at my apartment, but I could definitely see where someone would have trouble paying rent, so it’s not worth it to me to make someone miserable every month for an extra couple hundred bucks.”

The Portage Metropolitan Housing Authority has multiple programs to help, such as the Housing Choice Voucher program, which offers rental assistance to low-income families.

Richner acknowledged that they are helpful to some, but not to all.

“I think it’s great that there are programs like that available, but the thing about that is it doesn’t do anything for students that are victims of high rent,” Richner said. “That also doesn’t really help people with full-time jobs that don’t feel like sinking half their paycheck into rent when they’re already paying back college loans as well.”

If the current trajectory continues, average rent in Ohio could be nearing, or surpassing, 2,000 dollars by 2030.

“Something needs to be done,” Richner said. “Something needs to be done for the average, everyday person because I’m not even out of college yet, but I can tell this is getting seriously out of hand.”