Thursday, April 12, 2012

Columbus Dispatch: City’s rental market growing tighter


City’s rental market growing tighter


In some areas, fewer apartments are available and those that are cost more, reports show


By  Jim Weiker
The Columbus Dispatch Thursday April 12, 2012 6:41 AM



Two new reports reinforce what most central Ohio tenants already know: Rents are rising, and rentals are getting harder to find.

The rental market has tightened more in Columbus in the past year than in all but eight U.S. cities, according to commercial real-estate firm Marcus & Millichap. The report concluded that about 7 percent of Columbus apartments are empty, down from nearly 9 percent a year ago.

In a separate report, real-estate listing firm Zillow found that rents for Columbus-area homes and apartments have risen nearly 13 percent over the past year to an average of $984 a month.

Central Ohio experts agree that local rents have risen over the past year but say they are nowhere near that high when looking at conventional apartments.

“We’re not even close to that number,” said Robert Vogt, a partner in the Columbus real-estate research firm Vogt Santer Insights.

Vogt said rents have risen 2 percent to 2.2 percent over the past 12 months throughout central Ohio, though the figure is closer to 5 percent or 6 percent in some high-demand areas such as Downtown, the Short North and around the northern stretch of I-270.

Available apartments in those areas are correspondingly harder to find, with vacancies in the Downtown area particularly rare. Overall, more than 93 percent of central Ohio apartments are occupied, Vogt said.

Vogt said he expects rents to rise about 3 percent this year before possibly tapering off when several new proposed apartment complexes open.

One of the biggest projects on the drawing board is a 300-unit complex recently announced for Columbus Commons park on the site of the former Columbus City Center mall. At least eight more complexes are proposed throughout central Ohio, including several in the Short North area.

jweiker@dispatch.com

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