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Good news if you want an apartment

Apartment vacancies are at a 23-year high and rents are dropping. Why? John Dimsdale reports.

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Bill Radke: Some good news this morning if you want to rent a home. Apartment vacancies are at a 23-year high and rents are dropping. Marketplace’s John Dimsdale tells us more.


John Dimsdale: Apartments are plentiful and cheap, thanks to a glut of availability and low demand. This recession has been particularly hard on workers under 35-years-old — the group most likely to rent. They’re doubling up into fewer apartments, or moving back in with their parents. And condo developers, who had been hoping to sell are instead having to ride out the recession by renting their properties, creating even more supply.

In a report of the latest quarterly numbers from the real estate firm Reis — apartment vacancies are at 7.8 percent nationwide, the highest since 1986. And the projections are the vacancy rate will peak well above 8 percent by the middle of next year.

In Washington I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.

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