Our apartment lease gets updated on a yearly basis. Lea and I just committed to another year to
get a much better rate than, say, month-to-month. I have been here a dozen years which is
easily the most stable living situation in my adult life. The apartments were
owned and managed by BRE Properties until last month when BRE was merged with
Essex Property Management forming a REIT with $11 billion in market
capitalization.
Unfortunately Essex seems to be in a hurry to get its money back trying
to raise my rent by 9% in a regional market projected to go up by 4% this
year. I was able to negotiate a 6% rent
increase. Downtown Bellevue is the
epicenter of high and increasing rental rates on the Eastside. I am just east of the freeway from
there. I like living here in a nice
apartment with an extremely convenient location and am not interested in
moving.
The biggest downside to this place is we live on a small hill lacking
sidewalks so I can’t get readily around the neighborhood in my wheelchair. Most destinations are within a 5 or 10 minute
drive.
I am grateful to be able to afford and have a nice place to live in a
convenient location. I am glad Lea is
here. We get along well and are good
for each other.
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