National Apartment vacancy rate fall below 5% to 4.9%, the lowest level since 2001 while rents rise!

It's no surprise that  the multi-family market is HOT!

The strong performance of the apartment sector has yet to show signs of letting up;national vacancies fell by 30 basis points in the first quarter to 4.9%, a level last observed more than ten years ago, back in 2001. This is only the third time in Reis's 31+ years of history that national vacancies have fallen below 5%. 

National asking and effective rent growth remained healthy, with effective rents increasing at its fastest pace since end-2007.Asking rents grew by 0.5% and effective rents increased by 0.9% in the first quarter. Reis expects effective rent growth to accelerate even more as vacancies tighten within the 4% band; with availability so scarce, landlords have little incentive to offer concessions, and the gap between asking and effective rent levels is narrowing very quickly.
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