30 Jun Strong San Diego real estate market drives apartment rentals

The market for apartment real estate in San Diego is heating up, yet another strong sign of the area’s resurging housing market.

Apartment vacancies are at a 12-year low in the county – down 2.8 percent. That means that tenants looking for apartments would only find 2.8 percent of units available, according to recently released data from the San Diego County Apartment Association. Generally, a lower apartment vacancy rate means that more tenants are looking for apartments than are available in San Diego real estate.

Overall, the rate was almost double, at 4.5 percent, last year. It’s an unbelievably low vacant rate that hasn’t been seen in the area since 2002. It signals a strong rental housing and real estate market, as well as homes for sale in San Diego. More people are buying single-family home rental homes and renting them out, which has helped improve the real estate in San Diego market and helped buoy it into the country’s most improved housing market year-over-year.

At the same time, more new apartment units are being built. An apartment real estate expert predicts 20,000 units will be built in San Diego in the next three to five years – though not enough to outpace demand. That’s substantial, and is thought to improve the economy with more supporting businesses that cater to new tenants, especially in upscale communities in La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Santaluz and Solana Beach.

There’s more good news for renters: Apartment rents are down overall, even with the lower supply and higher demand. The average rent in San Diego fell to $1,260 a month, down from $1,33o a year ago.