Good news for renters! (Los Angeles: 2009, apartments, renter)

[SandyCo]

The vacancy rate is 5.3% in L.A. County, so landlords are more willing to make deals and lower rents.

Vacancies give renters room to negotiate - Los Angeles Times

[dybionr]

yeah some landlords are pretty desperate based on my search last month. They were like "what kinda deals do we have to give you to get you to rent our place?" Unfortunately for them, the places they were renting out looked nice on the inside and not so well on the outside.

[user_id]

When I moved back to the LA area 2 years ago are so it was rather clear that rents were inflated by a good 15~20%. The apartments that were around $1000/month 10 years ago were like $1700/month now, yet the inflation adjust price is only around $1250/month.

People that get paid anything less than $15/hour are not even able to afford an apartment in a decent area.

Anyhow, I've noticed more empty apartments in my complex over the last year. From walking around the complex I'd estimate the vacancy rate to be around 8%. 1-bedrooms seem to sit empty for a long time, where as the 2 bed/2 baths usually find a new renter within a mouth or so. But the renters of the 2/2 are usually 3~5 person families or people sharing an apartment (not couples, but roommate situations). Its interesting seeing how things change.