Living with the trends

There comes a time when a person must take action and incur expense, not just to save money, but to not live in denial of cultural trends or at the hands of those who deny them.

Reports abound about how rent prices are dropping in major cities all over the country.

Within a 3-mile radius of Amazon's new HQ2 in “National Landing,” rent prices are apparently doing no such thing. My building was in denial about this a couple months ago and demanded either another lease or a rent increase.

Nope. No way am I accepting an increase when I'm reading repeatedly about how rent prices are decreasing. If I move two miles down the road, the savings are substantial, especially if I stay there as long as I've lived where I live now.

There were a few years a while back when my rent didn't increase at all. Those days are long gone. Management has become much more disciplined about regularly increasing rent each year, and in the the last couple years the pace has noticeably accelerated.

I asked my building's management if they would be willing to lower the price of my rent to get closer to a nearby competitor, and they said they cannot.

OK. They may not be willing to lower my rent, but I am. Notice of intent to vacate sent today.