Thursday, April 19, 2007

"Amid a Sea of Vacancies"

From the Sacramento Bee:

Paying the rent remained a largely unchanged chore for Sacramento-area residents during the first quarter of 2007 as apartment owners kept rent stable amid a sea of vacancies.

Average rent in the region's large apartment communities was $949 early this year, nearly unchanged from the last quarter of 2006 -- and up only 2 percent from the same time a year ago, according to Novato-based RealFacts, which tracks apartment industry trends. The rise was one of the state's lowest increases and compared with a 12 percent annual hike in San Jose and 7 percent in the Los Angeles region.
...
Occupancy rates also remained largely unchanged from a year ago. An estimated 92.8 percent of the region's 346 larger rental communities and 77,000 apartments surveyed were occupied in January, February and March, according to RealFacts. Low occupancy rates are a critical ingredient for stable rents. Rents typically rise faster when occupancy reaches 95 percent and creates more competition for units.

Analysts say renters will continue to rule the market in the near term even as few new apartments are built. Some say the rental supply is increasing as several former condo conversions return to the market as rentals and more people rent out their empty homes while trying to sell them.

8 comments:

patient renter said...

Not sure why they didn't talk about vacant houses effecting future rental inventory.

Cmyst said...

Using links supplied by people here, I checked out my landlord's tax payments. I was a little nervous, but they're current.
I keep urging my 2 "apartment kids" to look into renting houses. There are tons of listings at the property management place that I used to find this rental. I prefer using a property management company because if I pay the deposit and rent to them, vs the landlord, it gives me a little insurance that I'll get those back if I need to. Plus, by establishing myself as a good tenant, I can move to another property easily if need be.

Wadin' In said...

Sippn,

I tracked homes for rent on Craig's List in 4 areas: Rancho Cordova, Roseville, Rocklin & Lincoln.

4/14/07 total is 389
4/19/07 total is 459

18% increase in 5 days. Something tells me all these homes aren't coming on the market because the owners would rather rent than sell.

You know 5 days does not make a trend, so I will keep you informed as the weeks go by. For sellers, the weeks are not going buy fast enough.

If you own apartment REIT stock, sell it. If you want a good play, short it (more on that later).

patient renter said...

Cymst: What's the site to check on tax payments?

Casey said...

http://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.net/website/assessor/custom/SearchMain.aspx?tb=1

http://www.eproptax.saccounty.net/parcellookup.asp

BFB said...

PS,
Answering for cmyst, I use:

http://www.eproptax.saccounty.net/

You just need the parcel number, which I get from zillow. Not sure about the other local counties. Ooh, I just saw casey's comment as I type this; I didn't know about the parcel viewer.

It amazes me how much info you can get if you're willing to look. For example, realtytrac.com will show you preforclosure, REOs, etc., but no details without paying. But use their map to get approximate location and square feet, then use zillow to find it. Neato.

BFB said...

Oops, did I write PS and not PR? Sorry. . . . You're both cool though.

patient renter said...

Thanks for the links guys. Just wanted to make sure all is well in my lovely rental house. All is well.