Finding a place to rent has become more and more difficult lately in the Inland Empire. Add to that the rising costs of rentals it is becoming harder and harder to keep up with how much you can afford and finding that place. Other factor that play into this is where in the Inland Empire do you want to live? The Inland Empire is made up of the largest County in the United States (San Bernardino County) and it also includes Riverside County which stretches all the way down to San Diego County. So do you want to live in the more affordable High Desert or are you open to spending more to live in Temecula or Claremont?
Finding a place to rent
With the Inland Empire becoming a more desirable place to live the construction of new units just isn’t able to keep up with demand. Depending on where you live in the Inland Empire finding a place to rent can be easier or harder. Some cities like Rancho Cucamonga and Riverside are big enough and offer many different opportunities to get into a rental. Medium size cities like Rialto and Redlands have seen an uptick in development and are moving on new units coming up very soon.
Balancing the cost
A HUD federal housing report stated that “In the United States, an estimated 12 million households pay more than 50 percent of their annual income on housing. Of those, 72,620 live in Riverside County, with 12,365 households located in the City of Riverside and 8,481 in Moreno Valley.” How is anyone ever supposed to figure out what they can afford and where available listings are? With the bump in technology over the years tons of tools have become available to make your search easier. We found a rent calculator that takes the struggle out of both issues.
Zumper is a site where you can figure out what you can afford and then shows you available listings in your area it is like killing 2 birds with one stone! Zumper goes beyond asking you what your looking to spend it asks you what you make and how much your bills are, then it gives you what the industry says you should be spending on rent. After that they give you available listings in the area your looking in. Most of the time finding out what you can afford before going through the rental application process. A quality landlord will do a credit check on you to see if you can afford to complete the term of the lease. Zumper is a free app that not only helps you find out what a credit check will tell your landlord but will give you a better idea of where to look. Then Zumper offers you a list of places that are available in your price range and area.
Where are the best places to rent
Carolyn Albee wrote about the top 9 places to live in the Inland Empire and we have to say we can agree her picks are amazing and we love how she stretches the boundaries of what is considered the Inland Empire. Here are some selections from Carolyn’s article where you can find a large selection of rentals.
- Rancho Cucamonga is known as the place where older millennials are starting to end up. Rancho is a growing city that offers a lot of quality jobs that pay well. Healthcare and Innovation are on Ranchos mind. Not to mention one of the regions premier outdoor walking malls (Victoria Gardens), Beautiful Foothill views, great schools and miles of shopping and eating along Route 66 and there is no doubt that Rancho Cucamonga is the place to be. Outside of home ownership that city of Rancho keeps adding affordable rental developments with a walking consumer in mind. One of those examples are the apartments near Victoria Gardens you can live within a 5 min walk of one of the premier shopping malls in Southern California.
- Redlands is a old soul community with a flare for the arts. Redlands is another growing city that is moving away from its history of Orange & Avocado Groves. It has become the new place for growth and development coupled with being a great place to raise a family. Redlands has one university Redlands University inside the city and a Medical University on its boarder Loma Linda University. This makes for a large amount of rentals available and also makes for a different type of city. Redlands is also known for having one of the best school districts in the Inland Empire. That isn’t our opinion ask any parent who’s kid has gone there of anyone that has ever worked there
- Ontario is known as one of the fastest growing cities hosting some of the largest corporations in the nation. They host most of the well known car dealers in the area and also offer places for you to buy brand new luxury cars. They also have a Convention Space that hosts massive events from Los Angeles and have a Arena that hosts minor league sports for the NHL, Soccer and the NBA.