Thursday, July 09, 2009

Apartment vacancies are rising and rents are falling

From BusinessWeek:
Apartment vacancies in the second quarter rose to 7.5% — the highest percentage for that period in 22 years, according to today’s apartment market report from Reis.

It seems that people are moving in with friends and family, or are finding roommates.

Effective rents, which include concessions, fell 1.9% from a year earlier and 0.9% from the previous quarter.

10 comments:

  1. "It seems that people are moving in with friends and family, or are finding roommates."

    or they could just be renting one of the 50 billion empty homes that just wont sell....

    or maybe they are even renting one of the 500 trillion highrise "luxury" condos that wont sell either!

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  2. Falling rents and increasing vacancy rates will start to squeeze infestors - some of whom may have bought up foreclosure properties who had hopes of positive cash flow until prices recovered.

    There are also people who are underwater on their mortgages who want to move - they convince themselves that prices will recover so they decide to rent the place out for a few years. The development where I live has 3 or 4 "for rent" signs on houses (there are 3 more "for sale" signs right now). Boy am I glad that we aren't planning on buying or selling right now..

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  3. "Falling rents and increasing vacancy rates will start to squeeze infestors - some of whom may have bought up foreclosure properties who had hopes of positive cash flow until prices recovered."

    Problem is, even if the rents havent fallen, the snatch up foreclosure mortgages would still be double what they could charge for rent.

    People need to learn basic math skills. If you only get 50 cents for every dollar you spend, thats not a good investment.

    case in point, I rent for $1200 a month here in montgomery county.....if I bought the place I rent, my mortgage, tax and HOA would be over $3000 a month!

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  4. I think you got a good deal on your rent. I am looking in to buying a home in the gaithersburg area to rent to my family because they are currently paying $1600 a month to rent a peice of crap. I have found nicer places in the same location currently selling for around $100k because of the huge drop in prices in some of the areas.

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  5. I sure wish rents would fall here in the immunozone. Up 11% YOY in Arlington? Sheesh!!!

    https://www.nvar.com/Portals/1/marketstats/quarterly/2009_Q1_totals.pdf

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  6. Sorry, if that link is broken. The report for 1Q 2009 has arlington rents +11%, Alexandria rents +0.4%, Fairfax rents -1.1%, YOY

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  7. they could just be renting one of the 50 billion empty homes that just wont sell....

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  8. "I have found nicer places in the same location currently selling for around $100k because of the huge drop in prices in some of the areas."

    What places would that be? Cause the cheapest places in Rockville are about $250K and that's for a run down severely water damaged, and needs new roof/windows/drywall/flooring home on viers mill near wheaton.

    I seen a 1 bedroom 600 square foot condo online in the little mexico area of gaithersburg, it was going for about $90K. Is that what you are talking about??

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  9. One my biggest worries as a renter living in a single family home purchased at the height of the bubble was the landlord going into foreclosure and suddenly finding all my possessions sitting on the front lawn and out two months rent and security deposit. I was relieved to find out that in May Obama signed something called the "Helping Families Save Their Homes Act." I'd heard of some of the provisions before but apparently the protections granted to renters of homes in foreclosure received less coverage in the media. Basically, the law requires that renters' leases be honored in full and in the case of month-to-month leases, occupants are given 90-day notice.

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  10. "but apparently the protections granted to renters of homes in foreclosure received less coverage in the media"

    Never even heard of this. I moved out of the home I was renting out of the same fear and moved into an apartment complex! I feel foolish now.

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