Are Rents Dropping In The Los Angeles Area?

All signs point to yes.

For the first time in years it appears Los Angeles rental prices seem to be dropping. While in years past we could count on rental prices in the Los Angeles area to steadily increase, due in large part to a 3-5% vacancy factor throughout the city, it now appears even the rent levels of 2008 are in question.

In a recent Los Angeles Times article Mark Verge, owner of the rental listing service Westside Rentals, was quoted as saying he'd seen rents fall faster in the last few months then in anytime since he'd opened his company over 13 years ago. He's also quoted as saying he's seen a huge spike in the number of available rentals on market. There's just a ton of inventory out there folks.

Unless your property management company is aggressively marketing and proactively selling your vacancies you may wake up one day to find that two-bedroom vacancy at your building has now been empty for three-months. You've got to ask yourself - how long is it going to take to recoup those three-months of lost rent?

At Pacific Shore Property Management we strive to have every vacancy rented within 30-days at the most! Many times we're able to turn around your vacancy within a week or two. In today's rental market you've got to be on your A-game to accomplish that. You also have to know a few tricks of the trade which I'm going to share with you in my next post!

Until then, remember to keep an eye out for those pesky 'For Rent' signs in your area, and let me know whats going in your neck of the woods!

Larry Cobar
Property Manager
Pacific Shore Property Management