U.S. Census Releases Rental Vacancy Rates for Q3 2019: Seattle ranks 10th, Portland 11th Lowest

Greater Seattle has the nation's 6th lowest rental vacancy rate while Portland ties for 11th with two other U.S. metro areas.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the third-quarter 2019 rental vacancy rate for the Portland/ Vancouver/ Hillsboro metro area was 4.7%, an increase of 0.2% from one year earlier. This is close to the recently released Multifamily NW fall survey of nearly 62,000 area apartment units which pegged area vacancies at 4.4%.

Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue's metro area vacancy rate was listed at 4.6%, down 0.7% from a year ago.

The nation's lowest rental vacancy rates, by metro area:

1. Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ - 0.0%
2. Worcester, MA - 1.1%
3. Minneapolis-St Paul - Bloomington, MN-WI - 2.0%
4. Buffalo-Niagra Falls, NY , and Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI - 2.8%
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA - 3.3%
6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA - 3.7%
7. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA - 3.9%
8. Akron, OH - 4.0%
9. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA - and Toledo, OH - 4.3%
10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA - 4.6%
11. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA / Jacksonville, FL / Bridgeport-Norwalk, CT - 4.7%

Average National Rental Vacancy Rate

The average national rental vacancy rate for Q3 2019 was 6.8 percent for multifamily dwellings of five or more units -- down from 7.1% one year earlier, despite continuous delivery of multifamily units throughout the national market.

Year-over-year vacancy rates in the Western U.S. decreased, from 5.1% to 4.8%.

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U.S. Homeownership Rate Falls
After falling to a 26-year low in 2016, the homeownership rate has rebounded and has increased slightly over the past year to 64.8%. Homeownership in the West has also increased from 60.2% in Q3 2018 to 60.6% in September 2019.

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