DC-Area Apartment Rents Rise, Vacancy Second Lowest in the Country

• October 3, 2011
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by Mark Wellborn

According to Delta Associates’ third quarter report, rents in the DC area for Class A and B apartments have risen 3.6 percent over the past twelve months while vacancy rates sit at 2.8 percent, the lowest for any metro area in the country except for New York City.

DC Area Vacancy Rate from 2004 to 2014. Courtesy of Delta Associates.

While the vacancy rate for the Metro area is indeed low, it is most pronounced among Class A buildings in the District where just 1.6 percent of apartments are vacant. Class A rents in the city in the third quarter averaged $2,582/month, up from $2,448/month in September 2010. For Class B buildings, the situation for renters in the city looked a little better; the vacancy rate sat at 2.2 percent (up from 1.8 percent last year), but rents also increased to $1,886/month from $1,793/month in September 2010.

From the report:

“…while all submarkets are chronically low [in the area], there is notable vacancy variance among District submarkets. The Upper Northwest submarket posted the lowest stabilized vacancy at 0.5%, while Columbia Heights/Shaw posted a stabilized vacancy of 2.4%.”

Delta Associates vice president Grant Montgomery predicted the trajectory of vacancy and rental rates this past summer. In July, he told UrbanTurf that vacancy rates would continue to decline and rents would continue to increase in the DC area for the remainder of 2011. He also noted that the area will see a bump in deliveries of new projects in the second and third quarter of next year.

Definitions:

• Class A apartments are typically large buildings built after 1991, with full amenity packages. Class B buildings were generally built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with more limited amenity packages.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-area_apartment_rents_rise_vacancy_second_lowest_in_the_country/4279

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