U.S. Census Reports Q3 Portland/Vancouver/Beaverton Multifamily Vacancy at 2.1 Percent - Nation's 3rd Lowest

The U.S. Census Bureau reported today the Portland/Vancouver/Beaverton vacancy rate remained flat at 2.1 percent in the third quarter, the nation's third lowest among the top 75 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA ranked #9 with a Q3 2013 vacancy estimate of 4.4 percent, up from 4.0 percent from the prior quarter.

MSA's with the lowest vacancy rates were as follows:
 

• Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA - 1.8
• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA\34 - 2.0
• Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA\25 - 2.1
• Springfield, MA - 2.1
• Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, TN\21 -3.2
• San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA\33 - 3.2
• Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA \19 - 3.8
• Denver-Aurora, CO\12 - 4.1
• El Paso, TX -4.1
• Tulsa, OK -4.2

The MSA's with the five highest vacancy rates were as follows:

• Richmond, VA - 13.5
• Syracuse, NY - 13.7
• Las Vegas-Paradise, NV - 14.3
• Memphis, TN-AR-MS - 14.6
• Columbia, SC - 15.1
• Orlando, FL - 17.4

Average national vacancy rate for Q3 2013 was at 8.3 percent for rental housing and flat at 1.9 percent for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate was 0.3 percentage points lower than last quarter.

The nation's homeownership rate ticked up slightly to 65.3 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from Q2.

Download the Census Bureau table here.