Jan

16

The downtrodden real estate market, along with general fears of recession in the coming year have conspired to move a lot of currently owned single family homes into the rental pool. With all this excess rental inventory coming onto the market, it’s not suprising that competition for tenants is — in some places — driving down rents and increase owner concessions.

The Wall Street Journal has just published a good article on this trend…

Jan

2

Marcus & Millichap have just released their 2008 National Apartment Report, detailing their forecasts for the U.S. apartment market by major metropolitan area.

If you’re an aspiring real estate investor interested in multi-unit properties, I highly recommend you check out the report, which details the economic and demographic trends for each major apartment market in the U.S., along with a ranking of the major 43 markets based on a set of 12-month forward-looking supply and demand indicators.

San Francisco, Seattle, and New York top the list as the best markets for apartment investors in 2008, followed by San Jose, Oakland and Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, a number of Florida cities (Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando) dropped significantly due to the large number of SFH rentals coming onto the market in those cities hard-hit by the sub-prime crisis. At the bottom of the list are St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Detroit.