San Diego Rental Market–don’t put all of your faith in statistics though

I have been tracking inventory and vacancies for over a decade and doing so on a weekly basis.  I don’t need statistics to tell me that the rental market is strong but the statistics do support the state of the current market.  Rents are up, vacancy times are down, and inventory is down.  In a typical supply and demand model you would see the rents continuing to rise as demand increases and supply remains the same.  However, what I have found is that the rental value to attract a quality tenant is a reasonable amount of time has not changed much over this past year.

Frequently you will see data from news sources that indicates real estate and rental market trends.  Data on real estate sales is collected through the multiple listing service.  Data on apartments is mostly collected from larger multi family (apartment) communities.  This data often is not an accurate portrayal of the market for individually owned houses and condos in the rental market.  In theory you can compare apartments to houses/condos, but in reality they only share general market directions.  Apartment rents rising 5% during a particular year does not mean that an individual house has increased 5% in the same time period.  The reason for this difference is too extensive to write–however, I am happy to discuss the differences that I have found in the 28 years that I have been in the property management business–just give me a call at American Heritage Properties.

When you are evaluating the rental market to make adjustments to your rent, or to property price your property, it is best to accumulate information from a variety of sources and cross reference those with your owner experiences in order to reach a conclusion.  Even then, it is more of an art than a science.

If you ever need advice on what the rental market is doing and how it affects your own rental property then feel free to give me a call.

Bill Ausen

Broker

American Heritage Properties

858-695-9400