The National Apartment Association Reports Low National Vacancy and Rising Rents
The following article expresses very well what is occurring in Portland: low vacancies and rising rents. The net result: Portland is a great place to invest in apartments!
Bernie
From the National Apartment Association website, and reposted on www.josephbernard.net.
Apartment owners are continuing to enjoy a boom time. Unlike home prices, recently released Labor Department data shows that rents have been rising, up 2.4 percent
in January from a year earlier. With few new apartment communities erected over the past few years, available rental units are going fast.
Nationwide, Reis Inc. research shows that the apartment vacancy rate is down to 5.2 percent — its lowest level in more than 10 years. Rent hikes have been greatest in such cities as Austin, Texas; Boston; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C.
However, cities such as Chicago and Seattle where house prices are still declining quite sharply have also seen rental increases. To be sure, a few metro areas are experiencing a softer rental market. In Atlanta, for instance, owners of vacant condominiums are slashing rents to attract residents.
Christopher J. Mayer, a professor of real estate at the Columbia University Business School, declares, “We are more
of a renter nation than we have been for a while.” Most economists believe favorable conditions for apartment owners and managers will continue for at least the next year, with the job market gradually improving and multifamily housing construction remaining constrained.
Click here to view the original article posted on the National Apartment Association website. This
article was digested From “In a Depressed Housing Market, Renters Abound” Boston Globe (02/24/12) by Motoko Rich
