Week Two: Renting in Sonoma County

We are starting week two of our search for a new rental home.

Here is what we are hoping for:

2 or more bedrooms
A bit of yard for gardening and play
A garage or storage space

Here is what I would LOVE to have in addition:
A fireplace
A porch
The possibility to adopt a cat

We don't need anything fancy.  Gary does a lot of work from home so a third bedroom for an office would be lovely.

Here is what we currently have:
4 bedrooms, 2 baths
1400 sq ft
Fenced in yard
Attached 2 car garage
Fireplace
$1900 a month


The fourth bedroom meant that Noodle and I had a workroom where we could create together. It was lovely.

Last week, I called about a small rental home on the west side of town. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath that was a little less than 900 sq ft. It had already rented. At $2100 a month.

This one came up today:

It is a very sweet 2 bedroom, 2 bath home.  A little over 1200 sq ft with garage.  My heart leapt.  Until I saw the rent.

$3000 a month with a $4500 deposit.

My family is not poor. Although we struggle, we have two working adults in the family and we are fine. We both have good jobs. However, even for us it would be difficult to come up with first month's rent AND an almost $5000 deposit.  Yet, this is what we are faced with.  Even if we could figure out how to find the money to rent this place AND beat out the other dozens of applicants, how would we ever afford $3000 a month?  And we would be downsizing yet again.

Then, I think about families who aren't as fortunate as we are.  How can THEY afford to live here? They can't.  Our homeless population is growing every day.

Here is another one:

This little 2 bedroom, 1 bath home is going for $2450 a month.  About 1000 sq ft. No garage.   $3200 deposit.


Over the weekend, I drove by another two bedroom, 1 bath house that was about 900 sq ft going for $2450 a month.

Many people have asked us why we don't buy.  First of all, we would be buying at the top of the market.  Houses for sale are just as bad right now with multiple offers and houses selling for $20,000 to $30,000 over asking.  Also, we don't have a good down payment right now. We are working on paying down debt and improving our credit.  The time isn't right for us to buy. I wish it was.  It would solve a lot of problems.

I am trying to push down fear and anxiety and put one foot in front of the other.  There is still time.  While we continue our search, we are dismantling our home of almost four years and packing boxes.