Free lodging a rental lure in South
| San Francisco
Rent-free living is one of the enticements giving the rental market in the South a boost. Reacting to a slowdown in home sales caused by higher mortgage rates, more and more rental agents have been offering unusual concessions to fill up units.
Many come-ons consist of such lures as three months' free rent or the application of rental fees to an eventual purchase price. Often, the security deposit is allowed as a deduction from the regular selling price. Six to eight months' rental payments often set up enough credit for a down payment on condominiums and cooperatives.
The most active areas in this accelerating rental market are Atlanta, Denver, Fort Worth-Dallas, and Florida's sunshine counties. The study was done by Fromberg, Roth, Gross, Cohen, Shore & Berke, in Coral Gables, Fla.
