Rental Housing

As you get ready to move out of Mom and Dad's, some upfront leg work could save you many a headache. In many cities around the country, especially in California, Florida and Arizona, it's a renter's market. Renters have more choices -- from traditional apartments to single-family homes -- and more bargaining power. But they should also be prepared to deal with first-time landlords, who have decided to lease a property they can't sell in the current downturn.

PHOENIX -- So you're having a tough time finding lodging for Super Bowl XLII? Get thee to a nunnery. Or you could have, at least, until the last of the 10 rooms at the Our Lady of Guadalupe monastery was booked this week. "I'm most excited to meet them," said Sister Linda Campbell, one of three Benedictine nuns who have converted their two-acre spiritual retreat into comfortable accommodations for football fans coming to town for the game.

For Southern Californians losing their homes to foreclosure, there's both good news and bad as they enter the rental market. The good news is that there are plenty of rentals available. The bad news is that a foreclosure taints a credit record, making it harder to rent a place. Rental housing is plentiful in the Greater Los Angeles area -- even more so in the Inland Empire and San Diego County, areas hard hit by foreclosures.

With more homes going into foreclosure, many people are entering or reentering the rental market. We spoke with Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, about the effect this will have. Retsinas is editor of the forthcoming book "Revisiting Rental Housing: Policies, Programs, and Priorities." Question: With a significant number of homes going into foreclosure, will there be -- or has there been -- a discernible effect on the rental market?

The San Diego Assn. of Realtors is working with an apartment association and local governments to aid those displaced by the wildfires in finding rental housing. The Realtor group's 12,000 members were asked for help last week in identifying available rental properties. Also, the statewide California Assn. of Realtors announced it would offer grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to its members and their staffs who are fire victims. -- Ann Brenoff

When Riverside County landlord Eloise Figueroa learned that her tenant was about to move out of her four-bedroom home in Perris and into a lower-priced rental house, she sprang into action. "I said, 'Where are you going? What are you paying? OK. That's your new rent,' " said Figueroa, who agreed to cut her renter's $3,000 monthly lease by $150 to keep him.

The best time to buy a family getaway often is during the "off season," when general cleanup chores and less than ideal weather cloud the sellers' wonderful memories. Of course, when that off-season is will vary depending on if you are looking for a place in the mountains, at the beach or in the desert. Take a weekend and revisit your favorite getaway area.

UCLA real estate instructor Eric Sussman stayed in the center of his business school classroom, smiling at his students and trying, for as long as he could, to ignore the picket signs and angry faces just outside. There, under the watchful eyes of UCLA police officers, Debora Barrientos, a 43-year-old single mother, stood with about 35 other tenants who had been bused to the campus from their Echo Park complex.

Re "Disney rift with its city could endure," April 26 The Walt Disney Co.'s view is that rental housing near Disneyland would jeopardize its vision for the area. According to its website, Disney offers "unparalleled entertainment experiences" through "integrated, well-connected businesses that operate in concert to maximize exposure and growth worldwide." The irony is that just as Walt Disney's art and vision have been corporatized, so has the rental housing industry. Today, rental housing is an investment vehicle that provides high-quality units through tax credits to corporations.

African Americans seeking rental housing in the New Orleans metropolitan area face significant discrimination and fewer accommodations to choose from since Hurricane Katrina, a report released Tuesday found. In 6 out of 10 transactions, African Americans faced less favorable treatment than comparably qualified whites, the report said. "For Rent, Unless You're Black," a study by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, surveyed 40 properties in the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St.