More Tampa-St. Petersburg apartments sit vacant, but rents still rise

The average apartment rent in the Tampa Bay area has increased 2 perent to $868, even as vacancies have grown 2.9 percent.

That places us in the middle of the pack among Florida metro areas. Miami has the highest rents. Naples has the worst vacancies.

Here's a pretty thorough report from the firm RealFacts, which keeps track of more than 200 apartment buildings locally: Download RENTS.pdf.

One explanation for growing apartment occupancy is the glut of houses to rent. Most are properties investor/speculators bought but couldn't flip before the housing slump took hold.

Comments

[James]

That is an interesting report. I recently dumped (happily, at a hefty loss) a Clearwater condo that had been purchased as a conversion from apartments. Unfortunately for me, about 80% of the units were purchased by speculators and immediately put back on the market.

Almost three years later, only a handful have sold (including mine) while half of the speculators are renting them out and the other half are still on the market. They have sat vacant this entire time. Adding up interest, prop taxes, maintenance fees and closing costs/commissions, these owners are down about 30-40%.

To make matters worse, potential buyers are appalled when they find out that 20% of the units are owner-occupied, 40% renters and 40% vacant. It looks like a public housing project and was difficult to even rent out.

This report misses these types of stories, but I would think that vacancies of investor-owned properties is even higher, as so many are vacant while sitting on the market.