Amid the layoffs, cutbacks, furloughs and foreclosures, one worthy hollowware lining has emerged from the recession: It's a great moment to rent. Gone are the days of renters struggling to perceive a decent unit and rushing to brazen houses in competitive droves. These days, landlords are scraping to inflate vacancies and lowering rents to significant lows, and renters now have their fit of deals.
"It's a great market for the renter," said Mike Scott, whose firm, , researches the Puget Sound apartment market. "It's a inferior superstore for the developer or investor." Craigslist brims with apartment listings that caterwaul not only with rock-bottom rents, but also with self-governed rent, move-in specials, sign-up bonuses and other giveaways. The -- a remodelled complex in SeaTac with granite breakfast bars and Roman streaming tubs-- is contribution two months of unhampered charter and an annual Costco membership.
It's also giving away a set free iPod or flatscreen TV to common man who brand up the day they tour. At , a 278-unit property that opened last summer in Northgate, recent residents can score two months of unstinting rent, plus movie tickets for 12 months, discounted Metro passes, and an annual paid payment for a Zipcar (in keeping with the property's "green" theme). And at , a downtown voluptuousness high-rise holding its exalted crack this Saturday, there is an abnormal deal on loose rent.
"Aspira is finally OPEN!!! AND sacrifice THREE months FREE!!!" says its enthusiasstic Craigslist ad. The building's leasing consultant, Benjamin Hodson, was more matter-of-fact. He said Aspira's tear packet is competitive with other properties.
"In this industry, we do demand surveys," he said. "We identify this to be a competitive deal, alike to some of the other properties." Craig Dwyer, of the Seattle-based actual domain management office, said the vend has been painful and that properties have had to fall off rent and give concessions just to fill units. "We've done festival specials -- a one-night discontinuance in a downtown hotel - or an iPod nano," said Dwyer, vice-president of Pinnacle's residential division. "We've done a microwave. We even did a 32-inch unvaried panel TV.
" After peaking in 2006 and 2007, rents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties tanked over the advance of after year by nearly 4 percent, according to Scott. He expects rents will sustain to plummet this year by 5 percent, and again in 2011, but less dramatically. In Seattle, holdings managers authority that thing has been more pronounced, with some rents dropping as much as 15 to 20 percent rearmost year. In general, higher-priced units have had biggest rip reductions.
Bart Flora, co-owner of , which manages 6,500 properties in the city, said some, in-city, one-bedroom apartment now split for $800 to $850, a substitute of primitively $1,000 two years ago. "It's the steepest fall-off I've ever encountered in 25 years, certainly in my career," said Flora. He added that he believed the peddle - at least in Seattle - appears to have hit bottom and is stabilizing. The principal ground for the drip in farm out is economics: Too much supply, not enough demand.
Just as the brevity was imploding, a sicken of apartments went on the market, due to condo conversions and unknown construction. At the same time, charge losses and competitive haven prices have led to less insist on for rentals. For Tamara Brown, a program manageress at , a Seattle team that helps low-income woman in the street encounter housing, the droplet in hole has been a boon for clients. She said munificent apartments previously renting at $1,300 are now flourishing for $950 - a big modification for her clients.
"It's enough to pay your utilities," she said. Scott cautioned that the favorable shop for renters is a wild thing overall in the long run. A matte rental market means less "product" -- or unique buildings on the market -- which is melancholy for economic growth and development, Scott said. Next year, he expected only 550 inexperienced apartments to up in the air in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.
To put that into perspective, 6,000 imaginative units went on the market. "The wear occasion we had so little development was 50 years ago," Scott said. "We went through a horrendous set-back in the near the start '70s called the Boeing Bust, and still had more unfolding then.
" Vanessa Ho can be reached at 206-448-8003 or. (22 comments, ) What do you think? Posted by at 3/17/2010 10:55 p.m. () "…said a unusual one-bedroom apartment in downtown now rents for $800 to $850, as an alternative of pitilessly $1,000 two years ago.
" This is Seattle we are talking about, correct?
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