U.S. Apartment Vacancies Fall to 2-Year Low, Extending Recovery

Posted by Daniel Jones on Jan 6, 2011 6:00:00 PM
By Hui-yong Yu - Jan 6, 2011

U.S. apartment vacancies fell to a two-year low in the fourth quarter and rents rose, extending a market recovery that began in early 2010, property research firm Reis Inc. said.

The national apartment vacancy rate dropped to 6.6 percent from 8 percent a year earlier and from 7.1 percent in the third quarter, the New York-based company said in a report today. It was the lowest since 2008's third quarter, when the rate was 6.2 percent, according to Reis.

Apartment occupancies have risen as a surge in home foreclosures forced many people to lease apartments. While the 951,000 jobs added to U.S. payrolls from January to November is a fraction of the 8.4 million lost during the recession, "it is far better than the situation in early to mid-2009, when the nation was terminating hundreds of thousands of jobs per month," Reis said.

Effective rents, or what tenants actually pay, rose to an average $986 a month from $964 a year earlier and $981 in the prior quarter, Reis said. Landlords' asking rents also climbed, to $1,042 from $1,026 a year earlier and $1,037 in the third quarter, according to the report...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-06/u-s-apartment-vacancies-fall-to-2-year-low-extending-recovery.html
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