First published Nov. 9, 2008
The statewide rental vacancy rate (at least as far as the 18 counties surveyed by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research) is 4.1 percent, less than half the national average of 10.7 percent. The rental market typically is tied to the job market – when major employers are hiring (Microsoft, Boeing) they bring in workers from outside the region, and 
those people have to live somewhere. And with the upheaval we’ve had in the real estate markets, more people are opting to rent.
Given that, “rental prospects are currently strong, with potential buyers remaining on the sidelines to see if home purchase prices might decline, while others find that tougher mortgage lending requirements and higher mortgage rates make homeownership infeasible at the present time,” the report says.
Not all markets are created equal, of course. Cowlitz County – where, as we’ve often discussed the economy is bad shape – saw year-over-year declines in average rents, with average rents falling 5.3 percent, to $534. (The survey found most units are one-bedroom apartments; two-bedroom, one-bath units are the next most common.) Likewise, Clark and Skagit counties, where the economy has been softening, reported rents that were essentially flat. (Clark was unchanged at $721; Skagit was up three bucks to $733.)
Oddly, Yakima County reported a 2 percent drop (to $526) in average rents, even though vacancy rates fell (from 3 percent to 2.7 percent). The first person with a logical explanation for that gets a one-year subscription to the magazine.
But booming counties saw rents rise and vacancies fall. King and Snohomish counties, where job growth has been steady despite the national turmoil, reported rent increases around 9 percent. (King was up 8.5 percent to $1,026, Snohomish was up 9.3 percent to $933.) Spokane also reported a strong market, with average rents up 8.2 percent, to $622.
Rents in the Tri-Cities were up 7.1 percent (to $601), but vacancy rates fell in half, to 4.2 percent from 8.8. Kitsap County also had a sharp decline in vacancies (falling to 4.2 percent from 7.8); rents there were up 4 percent to $815.
Some of the smaller counties that we don’t normally track saw big gains. Walla Walla County saw average rents shot up 13.7 percent year-over-year, going to $582, and Whitman County reported an 8.7 percent gain, to $634, even though vacancy rates increased to 8.2 percent from 5.8.
June 23, 2009 at 6:08 pm |
This week’s newsletter was the last. We pushed it out to subscribers on a Monday; that Wednesday morning we were told that Washington CEO had been sold and the new owners were shutting us down. They gave us one day to clean out our desks and tie up loose ends, and it was over.