Erie rental market includes new and unique options, but not everyone can pay rising costs

Erie renters will find a variety of properties, prices and amenities available in 2023.

Units include studio apartments and duplexes in established Erie neighborhoods; apartments in new and renovated buildings downtown; suburban apartment complexes and townhome communities, as well as mobile homes and single-family homes.

But rent is increasing and taking a larger bite from tenant paychecks.

And that's causing hardships for those struggling to make ends meet.

Coming in 2023: New apartments, parking garage, coffee shops, climbing gym

The rising cost of renting

Rent prices nationally have increased more than 20% in the past three years, to an average of $1,334 monthly in the third quarter of 2022. Earnings haven't kept pace, increasing by only about 10%, according to Realtor.com and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Prices in Erie have also increased.

"My guess would be that they've gone up an average of 10% to 15%," said Patrick Groner, president of the Greater Erie Board of Realtors and a broker/owner with Pennington Lines Real Estate. "It's not surprising. The rental market is seeing inflation the same way we're seeing inflation in grocery, gasoline and other costs. And that's creating some hardship for tenants."

That hardship is evident in an almost 60% increase in the number of people needing help paying their rent, said Lisa Boyd, housing services director for the Greater Erie Community Action Committee. GECAC provides rent assistance to those struggling financially.

The number of referrals for rent assistance has increased from 30 or 40 each week to more than 100 a week since November, primarily due to inflation, Boyd said. One woman who paid $450 or $460 a month for rent was told by her landlord that her rent will increase to about $650, Boyd said.

"That's 80% of the $800 she gets monthly from Social Security," Boyd said.

Because of the increasing need, GECAC now has limited money available to help.

"We've had to lower the amount that we can give people so that we can help as many people as we can," Boyd said. "And there just isn't a lot of affordable or government-subsidized housing in Erie."

Erie rent prices are still well below the national average — at $763 in 2022, according to doxoINSIGHTS, a web and mobile bill pay service — but Erie residents pay more for utilities and may lag behind in wages and wage increases.

"Wages just aren't increasing like inflation," Boyd said. "A lot of people are paying high gas prices to get to work to earn minimum wage."

Consumer news: Erie residents pay less for housing, health insurance, but more for utilities

Inflation also is affecting landlords.

"From the landlords' perspective, their costs are also going up," Groner said. "And if they have real estate previously worth $100,000 and were getting $1,000 (monthly) in rent, they may expect to get the same return on property now worth $120,000, or $1,200 in rent."

And landlords, who were prohibited from evicting tenants for non-payment by state and federal moratoriums during the height of the pandemic, now need to recoup their losses, Boyd said.

"Landlords were impacted by people who weren't able to pay their rent," she said.

Still, there were fewer tenant evictions in 2022 than in previous years, according to the most recent data available from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. There were 2,646 landlord-tenant complaints filed in magisterial district courts in Erie County from January through November 2022, compared to an average of 2,830 complaints filed in those same months from 2017-2019.

Also pushing rent prices up is that, even with a significant number of rental properties available, demand is also growing, said Garrett Shames, chief operating officer and general counsel for Glowacki Management Company. The Erie firm manages more than 900 rental units, including the Westwind complex off Zuck Road.

Need help heating your home? Look to LIHEAP

"Interest and demand for rentals is very high, even in winter when that generally slows," Shames said. "We just had eight deposits in one week on rentals coming available next month."

Contributing to the growing demand are people who choose to rent rather than buy a home in uncertain economic times.

"As interest rates go up and banks tighten up on credit, buying a home may not be an option for people," Shames said. "People are continuing to rent hoping to save money or build credit. They ultimately still want the American dream of owning a home, but they're more comfortable in the rental market because of its flexibility, and maybe while they pay off student loans."

An increasing number of apartments and other properties available for rent might ultimately help stabilize costs.

"Costs are still bound by the market, and we have a lot of rental properties," Groner said.

Those properties include more than 100 new apartments recently completed or under construction downtown.

The rental market: Marketing Erie's downtown

Finding tenants for apartments in renovated downtown buildings wasn't as easy as Erie Downtown Development Corp.'s Ryan Hoover first thought it would be.

In 2021, after his career with Disney in Orlando became a casualty of the pandemic, the Harborcreek Township native and Penn State Behrend graduate moved home to Erie and began work as EDDC experience director, leasing and managing 42 apartments in the former DeLuca Building at 429 State St. and above the Flagship City Food Hall and Flagship Market on North Park Row, as well as other residential and commercial properties.

"I thought it was going to be a breeze. Who wouldn't want to live downtown?" Hoover said. "When I lived in Orlando, everyone wanted to live downtown. Then I learned that downtown Erie isn't where a lot of Erieites want to live."

It is where young professionals returning to Erie want to live. All but one of the 42 apartments are now occupied, mostly by people like Hoover.

New apartments downtown: Building them was the first challenge, filling them was another

"We found our market in people much like me. They're roughly the same age as me, were educated in Erie, left and came home after losing their jobs or beginning work remotely," Hoover said. "Some of our tenants are true Erieities born and raised who never left. But most came back or had some connection with Erie and came here."

The appeal of the downtown apartments includes shops, sports, theaters, restaurants and other venues within walking distance. There's also a sense of more to come, Hoover said.

East Side renaissance: Erie group eyes multimillion-dollar upgrades along Parade Street

"Call it Erie's renaissance or Erie's comeback, it's organizations and individuals pouring money into the city. There's an excitement and a vibrancy downtown," Hoover said. "Erie is not the same city that my wife and I left in 2013."

Rents for EDDC's 429 State St. and North Park Row apartments range from about $900 for studios to $1,800 for two-bedroom units. A few apartments, including two with lofts and a large two-story, two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, rent for more.

"In historic buildings, apartments are all different shapes and sizes, and some of the spaces are enormous," Hoover said. "They aren't like traditional apartment buildings where units are copied and pasted."

Hoover is optimistic that two new buildings nearing completion downtown, at West Fifth and State streets and West Fifth and Peach streets, also will appeal to renters. The buildings together will have 66 apartments.

"I have an email list of 300 or 400 people who are interested in existing or future apartments, including a few folks who are just waiting for availability or a price and otherwise are ready to go," Hoover said. "I know there are naysayers out there who say who's going to rent downtown, but I'm optimistic that there are people who are excited about the city and want to live here."

Modern comforts in classic buildings

Historic properties in the city restored by Erie businessman and preservationist Tom Hagen include energy-efficient apartments with amenities such as quartz countertops, outdoor cameras, hardwood floors and state-of-the-art appliances plus original hardwood doors, woodwork and towering ceilings.

The properties include Canalside Townhouse Apartments with 12 units in two three-story brick homes built in 1875 on West Sixth Street, in Erie's onetime Millionaires' Row. The homes were built in the bed of the former Erie Extension Canal and were restored by a team including Erie architect and preservationist Jeff Kidder.

Canalside Townhouses: Modern living in a historic building

"The properties are restored to be as true to their original architecture as possible but also have modern features," said Shames, of Glowacki Management Company, leasing agent for Hagen-restored properties. "They're also very well taken care of and maintained, and there is high demand for them."

Only one unit in some 60 Hagen-restored properties was available for rent in mid-January, he said.

The wider range of rental options

A mid-January check of Erie rental listings in mid-January found a variety of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments available for rent in Erie County, most of them in the city.

Townhomes, duplexes and single-family homes also were listed for rent.

Prices generally ranged from about $550 to $1,300 monthly for an unfurnished one-bedroom apartment, more for apartments with additional bedrooms and baths, furnished apartments, units with utilities included in the rent, and for duplexes and townhomes.

Established buildings include West Ridge Towers at 5040 West Ridge Road in Millcreek, where rent starts at about $675; Lovell Place at 153 E. 13th St., about $660; and Cider Mill Apartments at 5200 Henderson Road in Millcreek, about $760.

Amenities, especially in newer developments such as the Copperleaf complex in Summit Township, can include stainless steel appliances, air conditioning, laundry facilities and parking lots as well as swimming pools and fitness centers. Copperleaf rent starts at $960.

The modern complexes have "the feeling of a village or community," Copperleaf developer Joe Palermo told the Erie Times-News in 2022. Commercial tenants provide shops and other amenities for tenants.

Palermo plans to begin construction of a similar, 178-unit apartment, townhome and commercial complex in Harborcreek this year.

Units in older buildings and homes divided into apartments generally have fewer amenities but rent for less.

Erie has traditionally offered a variety of rental options and prices, said Shames.

"We've always had a good rental pool, I think because of the colleges and universities around us and larger employers who bring people to town who want to rent at least for a time," he said.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Rent is rising in Erie but a range of options and prices remains