NAR: It’s a landlord’s market

Multifamily rentals are still booming, according to the Wall Street Journal's blog, with apartment landlords among the only commercial property owners able to sign new tenants amid the sluggish economy.

But the strength of the multifamily sector is itself related to the troubled economy. There has been an “abnormal slowdown in household formation in recent years,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), says in a new report. “Many young people, who normally would have struck out on their own from 2008 to 2010, had been doubling up with roommates or moving back into their parents’ homes.”

NAR expects vacancy rates in multifamily housing will drop from 5.5 percent to 4.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Vacancies below 5 percent generally are considered a landlord’s market, the trade group noted.

Minneapolis has the lowest multifamily vacancy rate at 2.5 percent followed by 2.8 percent in New York City and 2.9 percent in Portland, Ore.

For more information: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/08/25/coming-next-the-landlords-rental-market/?mod=google_news_blog