Apt building has high turnover (Pasadena: apartment, rental, houses)

[robertpasa]

I live in a good area of Pasadena in an building with about 40 units. I moved in Feb.

Ever since then, about 50% of the tenants have moved out. Would you expect that high of a rate?

A few of the tenants have been college kids but it's not that many. The management and maintenance here are pretty good. The rent is about average for a 1-bedroom. The apts are filled pretty quickly also. Maybe something creepy is going on, but I don't know what it might be.

[SandyCo]

The economy here still isn't great; maybe several tenants lost their jobs? Also, you're talking about a 50% turnover in a period of eight months. If twenty units became vacant in eight months, that's an average of only 2.5 per month. That doesn't seem like a lot to me. That's not even 10% in any given month.

[bhcompy]

Pasadena is expensive. Some neighboring areas not so much. Sounds like the economy to me.

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree with Sandy. I wouldn't put it down to creepy, especially if you are happy living there and can't point to any particular problem. The job idea makes sense; it's also possible that people who lost their job earlier (since the economy has been so lousy for awhile now) managed to hold on until their leases were up, and then split for cheaper rent. Or, perhaps those who a couple of years ago wanted something different but settled for that apartment are now finding themselves the beneficiaries of being in a renters' market, and are upgrading to something else. (when we looked for small rental houses in Pasadena several years ago, for example, the open houses were filled with crowds of people all filling out applications for the same place; I'm assuming that's not the case today) If you're happy then I wouldn't be concerned, and just be happy that you've found somewhere that you enjoy!

[bigdumbgod]

Maybe they found out about a PGE gas pipe running under the building?

[BluSpark]

A 50% renewal rate is very standard in professionally managed apartment buildings. That is, about 1 in 2 households will NOT renew when their lease is up.