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Apartment vacancies are edging up in many areas of the country as frustrated sellers instead try to rent out their homes and condos in once red-hot housing markets. And that is making it harder for landlords to raise rents. In the toughest markets, apartment owners are even offering lease incentives to snag renters. Renters may be the biggest winners in the current housing slump, especially in places like Florida, Las Vegas and Southern California, which have thousands of vacant for-sale and foreclosed homes and condos on the market.

Hessam Nadji, managing director at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, which analyzed the data for The Associated Press, said that "What's different now is the degree of excess homes and condos being put on the rental market. The sheer volume is creating more competition for traditional rental markets." The vacancy rate is expected to rise by a half-percent this year to 6.1 percent as the market absorbs about 3.3 million more rental home and condo units. After staying relatively flat last year, apartment vacancies bumped up in the first quarter from the end of last year, the research showed. Nadji also predicts rent growth nationwide will slow to 3.5 percent from 4.6 percent.

Areas that experienced explosive condo development and conversions of apartments into condos for sale are finding those units unloaded onto the rental market because developers can't sell them. The national trend, however, belies what's happening in the country's most beleaguered housing markets.
In Jacksonville, for example, rental vacancies spiked to more than 10 percent in the first quarter, up from 5.8 percent in the prior year. Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale had the next biggest gains in vacancies. Sharp increases in vacancy rates plague most Florida markets where condo development was rampant

Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors Inc. in Miami said, "As the sale activity for condos and single-family homes declined over the last 24 months, investors decided to rent them instead of trying to sell them at reduced prices."
Since the beginning of the year, the number of rentals on the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale markets combined has risen more than 11 percent to 10,000 from 9,000. "Our rental activity is about three times what it was three years ago," Shuffield said. "Today, for the first time ever for the firm, we're renting more properties than we're selling."

Jron Magcale
http://miamirealestatesearch.org/

Thursday, May 22 2008 @ 05:09 AM Central Daylight Time

Purchasing a home is a stressful process for people since it is the largest purchase of your life. Here are some mistakes that you can avoid in order to eliminate stress.

In order for you to avoid the mistakes that can hinder you in successfully buying a home in Sarasota real estate, you must know what are the mistakes you need to avoid, read on to gain ideas.

One of the biggest mistakes that you would avoid doing is buying more expensive home, home that is more expensive than what you can afford. Do not go with over priced home, you might be having a hard time getting the mortgage loan that you need. If you will go with overpriced home, lenders will refuse you lend you money.

Another mistake is seeking for home without assuring yourself that you got approved for a mortgage. The right thing to do is apply for a mortgage first and wait until you got pre-approved before seeking for home in the market.

In shopping for a mortgage, you must work with a mortgage broker in order to assure that you’ll gain the best loan that you need. The broker will provide you with plenty of options which you ca study for a while in order to come up with the one that can work best for you. Allocate a little of your time in choosing the right options for you. If you do not understand something, feel free to ask your broker some questions. A good broker will be willing to explain to you things that you do not understand.

Never go with want a lender suggest you, since they are working for their own good and not for yours. If the lender suggests sometime, never immediately stick to it, you need to gain information about it first and understand it in order to assure that it can work for you. Make sure that you will go with a loan that you can afford to pay monthly.

Never work with a real estate agent that you are not comfortable with. So, you need to seek for the right agent, one that has the proper expertise and experience and that you will be comfortable with the person. Interview few in order to get the right one.

The right agent will seek for homes in the market that match your criteria. Take time in viewing few homes in order to gain the right that suits you. Allocate time in viewing few homes to see and find your dream home.

Never ever buy a home without conducting home inspection. You need to hire a home inspector who can help you in making sure that the home that you about to buy is in good condition. If the inspector finds something wrong, tell the seller and ask the seller to fix it, if he/she insists, feel free to move away.

In avoiding the mistakes that others have done before, you can successfully find your ideal home in Sarasota real estate without stress and hassle.

Eliza Maledevic Ayson
http://www.siestakeyrealestate.com