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Home / Market Report / PSBJ: Rents Up 5.5%, Vacancy at 6 Year Low

PSBJ: Rents Up 5.5%, Vacancy at 6 Year Low

By April 5, 2013

Market Report

PSBJ, Puget Sound renters still paying more.

In Seattle, the vacancy rate is just under 3 percent. But add in the 2,300 recently completed units in projects that are still being leased, and vacancy climbs to 8 percent.

One dark cloud for landlords is this: Mortgage payments for owners of midrange condos are 39 percent lower than rents for similar apartments. That’s the widest gap Dupre + Scott has ever seen.

We should probably see if we can find some examples of this gap in ownership versus renting costs. I don’t think it is much of a cloud over landlords though because there is so little condo inventory for sale. In fact it is at the lowest point since we started looking at it. So even if it is cheaper to buy there’s nothing to buy. And as the inventory shortage continues, prices will rise narrowing the gap.

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