Apartment Rents Up, Availability Shrinks

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Apartment rents jumped across Southern California last year and vacancy rates continued tightening, in part because of the housing market slump, according to a report that will be released today by the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.


Apartment occupancy rates now top 97 percent in nearly all submarkets of Los Angeles County, including the San Fernando Valley, the report said.


Meanwhile, rents in the county increased an annual 5.6 percent in 2006, the study said. And steady gains in the overall economy continue to improve the fundamentals for the region’s apartment market.


“Stricter lending standards following the subprime mortgage meltdown are causing many potential homebuyers, who now face a larger down payment and higher monthly payments, to find renting more affordable,” said Delores Conway, director of the University of Southern California’s Casden Forecast.


It is also harder to qualify for a mortgage now because lending standards have been tightened.


Conway expects occupancy rates to average 96 percent across the five-county region this year. When a market’s occupancy rate is higher than 95 percent, it is at capacity, she added.


Read the full L.A. Daily News story

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