Study Forecasts Falling Apartment Rents

[IMGCAP(1)]LOS ANGELES-The recession is depressing rents throughout the Southland, except for San Diego County, and the trend will continue, according to the Seventh Annual Casden Multifamily Conference-Emerging Opportunities in Public-Private Partnerships. Speakers at the event, which was conducted by the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, explained the factors behind the declining rents and presented their outlooks for the Southern California and US multifamily markets in a series of panel discussions Wednesday.

Against a backdrop of statistics showing that rents fell in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in 2008 while rising in San Diego County, Casden forecast director Delores Conway said that multifamily demand should continue to decline with rising unemployment in Southern California this year, except for San Diego, where a 1% increase in rents is expected. She said that rents should begin stabilizing in 2010.

[IMGCAP(2)]Conway was part of a leadoff panel, called “MarketWatch-Multifamily Outlook and 2009 Casden Multifamily Forecast,” that was moderated by Michael Gottlieb, editor of the California Real Estate Journal. Other panel members included chief economist Nancy Sidhu of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., and Greg Willett, vice president of M/PF YieldStar.