Why rents so high?

[LUC]

cheapseats,

I am seeing a similar situation at the apt complex where I rent in Magnolia. They have been advertising reduced rents and month free move-in specials on craigslist.

[mukoh]

In the last two months I have observed through my relationships with top tier apt owners a decrease in calls/looks and leases signed, Portland and Eugene as well.
They have put a few of their land holdings that can be built right now to the tune of 1200 new apartment units on hold.
Things are slowing down in rentals.

[garth]

In seattle currently there seems to be a lot more demand for one bedrooms and studios than larger apartments / rented condos / small houses. I have a neighbor who just rented a bunch of units and the $1200 one bed units are full, but only one of the the $1600-1800 townhouse like units are rented

[lamont]

neighbor downstairs (small basement unit) moved out and the landlord already found another renter to move in...

there's the first floor apartment which is larger and it'll be interesting to see how fast that one goes since its more expensive...

talked to the owner today though and he's been seeing insane firesales, but most of what he was talking about was large multi-million dollar unfinished developments going for pennies on the dollar, and houses that needed a lot of fixing up... probably being dumped for change because nobody wants to hold the liabilities in them...

[mukoh]

There are definitely fire sales that make my check book burn in my pocket. Some projects are on giveaways. Awesome deals.

[Alan]