Where Are All the Middle-Class Rentals? via Bloomberg Business

Ryan Dravitz and a roommate shared a spacious apartment in Denver, paying $1,200 a month for 1,200 square feet in a high-rise building a mile from the center of downtown. Then, in 2012, the rental market exploded. The roommate moved out, and Dravitz, 26, moved into a house with four others. His old apartment is now renting for $2,000.

“Luckily, I got engaged recently, so we have a dual income,” said Dravitz, a bank teller and freelance writer and editor. Even so, it’s unlikely the couple will be able to afford to stay downtown, where rents are rising rapidly, and new rental buildings with such amenities as golf simulators and dog spas are becoming increasingly common.

Skyrocketing rents and multiple roommates—these are the kinds of war stories you expect to hear in space-constrained cities such as New York and San Francisco. But the rental crunch has been steadily creeping inland from coastal cities and up the economic ladder.

Read more...Where Are All the Middle-Class Rentals? - Bloomberg Business