Job Losses Cause Apartment Rent Growth to Decline to 0.8%

Continuing our theme this week of job loss and unemployment (seriously, is there anything more depressing to write about than that right now?) comes an article from multihousingnews.com further verifying the struggle between job loss and apartment vacancy. In explaining reasons for the falling rent numbers we posted a quote below from Ron Johnsey, President, AXIOMETRICS.

“One is that job growth is the primary driver for rent growth and we have had some big job losses in the last few months and the other is that there is a lot of unsold housing inventory which is causing home prices to fall and rents follow home prices down,” explains Johnsey.

The national vacancy rate increased by +0.7 % from a year ago to 6.5 % in 3Q08, which is the highest third quarter vacancy rate since +6.6 % in 3Q03.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. Credit and housing are huge pieces of the puzzle but we cannot forget that job growth and job advancement are big pieces as well. If our industry wants to move forward then we must continue to support job growth initiatives for the long-term survival of our businesses.

Job Losses Cause Apartment Rent Growth to Decline to 0.8% (multihousingnews.com)