Apartment occupancy stable, rents on rise

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The nation’s apartment vacancy rate is expected to be 5.5% at the end of the year and hold at that rate through 2012, a real estate brokerage said.

“Apartment demand is benefiting from slight job growth as well as an expanding pool of potential renters,” said Gleb Nechayev, a senior economist for CBRE Group Inc.

Vacancy is down slightly from a year ago and off nearly 2 percentage points from the 2009 peak, the brokerage report said.

Conditions are generally good for landlords but vary from market to market with rents flat or down slightly in some and rising by almost 15% from a year ago in others, Nechayev said.

Over the next two years, metropolitan areas such as San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, Denver and Seattle are expected to see the highest rent growth.

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-- Roger Vincent