Census: Portland/Vancouver Metro Has Nation's Lowest Apartment Vacancy Rate

The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that the rental vacancy rate for the Portland/Vancouver /Beaverton area was 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015 and the lowest vacancy in the nation.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA ranked 26th with a Q1 2015 vacancy estimate of 5.0 percent, up 0.7 percent from the prior quarter.

The nation's 10 lowest vacancy rates were as follows:

• Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR/WA - 2.7%
• Cape Coral-Ft Myers, FL - 3.1%  (tie)
• New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA - 3.1 (tie)
• North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL - 3.3%
• Akron, OH - 3.5% (tie)
• Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ -3.5% (tie)
• Providence-Warwick, RI-MA - 3.5 (tie)
• San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA - 3.6%
• Denver-Aurora, CO - 3.8%(tie)
• Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA - 3.8% (tie)
• Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN - 3.8% (tie)
•  Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT - 4.0% (tie)
• Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL - 4.0% (tie)
• Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH - 4.1 (tie)
• Cleveland-Elyria, OH - 4.1% (tie)
• Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA - 4.3%
• Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT - 4.4%
• Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI - 4.4%

The average national rental vacancy rate for Q4 2014 was 7.5% for multifamily dwellings of five or more units, and was 1.9 percent lower than a year earlier.  The U.S. rental vacancy rate has been falling since 2009. It is at its lowest level since 1993 and far below the 11 percent average vacancy rate of 2009.

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Homeownership rates, meanwhile, have fallen from 65.1 percent at the end of 2013 to an estimated 63.6 percent in Q1 2015, its lowest level in 22 years.

In the Western U.S., homeownership is at 58.5 percent—its lowest level since 1991 (24 years).

[Note: The US Census vacancy estimate is 0.39% lower than the vacancy rate of 3.09% reported by MultifamilyNW in its Spring, 2015 Apartment Report.]