How Will The Iowa Caucus Affect Downtown Housing?
With the amount of contacts that I’ve had with people looking for housing downtown I started to wonder about how the rental market will be affected by the end of the caucus. The first week of January will see thousands of people leave town and head either to other cities to assist their candidates, or back home and out of Iowa.
How many units right now are filled with people that may have been here for a long time but will only be here for a few more weeks?
First, for those of you with very thin skin, I’m not saying that the rental market is going to crash, or that the market is in a woe-is-me state. Everyone knows that the downtown rental market has been white hot. I want to know what kind effect the caucus will have on that, and what kind of openings will be available when it’s over.
Will full buildings like The Kirkwood suddenly have an opening or two? Will properties with lots of workers in them suddenly be quite empty?
What do you think? Will the end of the biggest event to hit Iowa every 4 years have any effect at all on the downtown rental market?
Trina Braafhart Says:
I went through this 4 years ago with the Woodland Ave Brickstone in Sherman Hill. Most properties may have only 2 to 3 apartments rented by caucus people - so it is really not too much of a hit. Most of the leases will expire at the end of January - opening that unit up for a potential February or March 1st move in date - not too bad either. Many of the rental properties already have a waiting list, such as the Kirkwood, so I do not predict it being too much of a problem at all.
Posted on November 19th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Josh Says:
Thanks! I suppose if there’s one person that would know this………
Posted on November 19th, 2007 at 2:13 pm