According to Reis, the U.S. apartment market national vacancy rate has hit a 23 year high, rising to 7.8%, regardless of landlords efforts to keep their tenants!

Reis predicts the apartment vacancy rate to reach beyond the 8% mark no later than next year, which would mark the highest rate in nearly 30 years. The earliest that a turnaround is expected is the 2nd quarter of 2010 and it is not expected to be noticeable.

Victor Calanog, Director of Research for Reis, states "Vacancy could be worse if landlords didn't realize fairly early on that this end game was not going to end well and lowered rents really quickly."