Here’s How Much You’re Paying For Those Apartment Amenities You Never Use

Authored by Priceonomics via RentHop
Many details about an apartment can impact monthly rent, other than the amount of space and location. For example, units that seem similar could be priced differently if one has a balcony. This price differential could be even greater in newer luxury apartments which offer things like concierge service, furnished rooftops, and fitness centers.
So what kinds of features could increase your rent? And by how much? Using thousands of apartment listings across major US cities with details including, monthly rent, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the presence of different amenities, we attempt to find out using data from Priceonomics customer RentHop, an apartment listing site.
We identified 10 features across the 10 largest metropolitan areas to investigate. These included:
Is the apartment furnished? Does it allow pets? Does it have a washer and dryer in the unit? Does it have a common laundry room in the building? Does it have a private outdoor space (i.e. balcony)? Does it have a common outdoor space (i.e. shared rooftop)? Is there a doorman? Is there an elevator? Is a designated parking spot included with rent? Is there a fitness center? Ultimately, we found that as expected, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms (highly correlated with square footage) are the biggest drivers of price. The amenities that were most associated with higher rent were having an elevator, having doorman, parking included and laundry in the unit, with each city having some variation.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Apr 4, 2017.