Utah Real Estate News Clips - Utah Real Estate

Wasatch Front rental costs on the rise
April 24, 2008

As many would-be home buyers remain on the fence about becoming homeowners, demand for rental space across the country continues to increase — and so do the prices.

Along the Wasatch Front, renters are particularly feeling the squeeze. Over the past year, the average apartment rent price in Salt Lake rose nearly 10 percent to $803, the largest increase among 19 major Western markets surveyed by RealFacts. Rents soared by 15.9 percent in the Provo-Orem area to $829 and rose 6.8 percent in Ogden-Clearfield to $688, said the March RealFacts report released April 17.

Not only are rental prices rising across the Wasatch Front, but apartments are becoming harder to find in this tight rental market. At 2.1 percent, Salt Lake City has the fourth-lowest multi-family vacancy rate in the U.S., according to the Commercial Real Estate Forecast from the National Association of Realtors. Typically, a vacancy rate under 5 percent is a landlord’s market, a situation characterized by fewer concessions and higher rental rates, says the NAR report.

The National Association of Realtors projects rental prices across the U.S. will rise 5.3 percent this year, up from a 3.1 percent increase in 2007

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