For a few years, I’ve been contemplating getting out of New York City. Perhaps I could take advantage of the high rents in my Brooklyn neighborhood to rent out my co-op, move somewhere cheaper, and pocket a bit of cash.
The first area I began looking into was Lancaster, PA, which recently came in at No. 14 on the Realtor.com Hottest Markets list.
I visit a friend there often and fell in love with its rolling green and gold landscape, its rustic farmland and historic buildings, and the quaint aesthetic of regularly seeing Amish horses and buggies on the road.
Also, it has to be cheaper than NYC, right?
Is it cheaper to rent? Not if you have pets
As I searched around rental sites, things seemed promising—at first. Rents in Lancaster were a median of $1,600. Compare that to Brooklyn’s median of $3,800!
I was happy to see that all of the newer buildings had plenty of amenities (decks, pools, gyms) and were described as being “pet friendly.” Which was a necessity because I’m the proud servant to three cats.
But a deeper dive revealed that this supposed pet friendliness came with a price tag—and a steep one at that: All the rental buildings I looked at required a nonrefundable pet fee of $350 to $500, and they also required that I pay monthly “pet rent.”
What is pet rent?
“Pet Rent is an additional monthly fee charged by the landlord on top of the regular rent,” says Property Club’s pet rental fee guide for 2024. “It is meant to cover the increased wear and tear and potential damages caused by pets over time… pet rent is non-refundable, as it is considered part of the monthly rent payment. It’s an additional cost that many apartment complexes are charging their tenants more and more often.”
The average pet rent per pet can be as low as $25 a month and as high as $100 a month for more upscale buildings, according to Property Club.
Two complexes I looked at in downtown Lancaster, 202 Queen and The Foundry, charged $35 and $50 respectively per pet, per month, and that was on top of a nonrefundable pet fee of $300 for one pet and $500 for two pets. (All the buildings I looked at had a two-pet limit. Dogs were often more expensive than cats.)
The high cost of pet ownership leads to pet surrender
Beyond the monetary costs, there is the larger societal cost of such expensive pet policies. Pets are being dumped on the streets at alarming rates. I know, because I’m a longtime volunteer for animal rescue groups and often rescue abandoned pets on my own.
For the past year, I haven’t gone a single month without finding a friendly former pet who is desperately trying to live outside— ridden with parasites and fleas, sometimes ill or injured, and usually emaciated.
Often a cat will be dumped by a former owner who moved, leaving the animal behind to fend for itself. Dogs are found tied to trees or fences, a note attached saying the pooch can no longer be cared for.
Then there is shelter overcrowding. Nationwide, animal shelters are in crisis. In 2023, according to National Animal Welfare Statistics, 6.5 million animals entered shelters, and the number of animals waiting to get out of shelters increased by 177,000 in one year.
With home ownership costs prohibitively high, Americans are increasingly forced to rent. And with high pet rental fees, it stands to reason that these additional costs are contributing to a pet abandonment crisis.
“Most of us consider our pets to be part of the family; but sadly, these bonds are being tested by the constrained housing market,” says Susan Riggs, senior director of housing policy for the ASPCA. “While most renters feel the pinch of rising rental rates, lower-income renters are particularly burdened when life circumstances force a move, as the combination of moving costs, increased rents, and deposits leave pet-owning families with few viable options in the market. When landlords do allow pets, they often charge additional fees, deposits, and/or pet rent, forcing tenants to make the difficult choice between keeping a roof over their head or giving up a beloved family member.”
A small animal rescue group in Brooklyn often feels the burden of these policies.
“The most common reasons we get for people giving up their pets are the high cost and moving,” says Sean Casey, founder of Sean Casey Animal Rescue. “Pet rent combines both things at once. A one-time pet deposit should be enough to cover potential damage by a pet. Having pet rent on top of that seems excessive.”
These unfriendly pet policies not only put a financial burden on renters—especially low-income renters—but will discourage or make it impossible for people to foster homeless pets. That makes it difficult for rescues to take them in, which increases the likelihood of pets being dumped on the street.
At least one state is hoping to mitigate some of the damage. Colorado recently passed a law that caps the amount a landlord can charge for pets to a refundable $300 deposit and $35 per month—per unit not per pet—or 1.5% of the rent, whichever is greater.
Goodbye, rental
I abandoned the search for a Lancaster apartment pretty quickly.
My cats are family, and there is no way I’m rehoming one of them because most rental buildings have a two-pet limit. (Renters aren’t the only ones being told how many pets they can have. Increasingly, HOAs are mandating pet limits, too.)
Even if a building allowed for three felines, having to cough up $500 upfront, in addition to paying an $1,800 a year just to keep my cats, is not an expense I’m willing to pay.
