"The multi housing market here basically has more supply than what is taken by the market," Shiawee Yang, a senior economic consultant at Torto Wheaton and an associate professor of finance at Northeastern University, tells GlobeSt.com.

The vacancy rates for the multi housing market here jumped from 2.7% last year to 3.8% at the end of this year and Torto is forecasting that that number will climb to 4.4% by the end of 2002. "That is a big jump," notes Yang. "It takes us back to the mid 1990s." According to Yang, a number of Boston suburbs are already seeing very significant jumps in their vacancy rates, among them Brookline, Watertown and Waltham as well as suburbs west of the city. "For 2001 the vacancy rates forecast were definitely realized in those towns and some of these towns will see even higher vacancy rates than what we're forecasting," says Yang. The anecdotal evidence is demonstrated in a story Yang tells of a broker she knows in Brookline. "In the summer she had almost zero units vacant, and now she has vacant units in the 100s."

Rents are getting softer but those numbers also reflect the increasing costs of managing property. For 2000, the average rent per unit in the area was $866.70. By the end of this year that number will be $901.54, which, says Yang, reflects the outgoing market through the summer. Torto is forecasting that by the end of 2002 the average rent will be $932.79. "That is averaged out," says Yang, "but there's also all the vacant space." Yang points out that many landlords are also giving concessions, which, she says, "we haven't heard of in years."