AvalonBay Resuming Apartment Construction

After nearly a year of halting new construction, AvalonBay has resumed apartment construction. The company has plans to construct some $400M of new apartment product as the company and others begin to wager that jobs will return and apartment vacancy rates will plummet.
AvalonBay, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is putting shovels in the ground when 8 [...]

Silicon Valley Apartment Rents Fall 11.5%

Now at a 3-year low, Silicon Valley apartment rents have come down 11.5% from Q4 of 2008. The numbers are derived from an analysis of 426 complexes comprised of more than 78K units.
Large complexes in Santa Clara County were 94.7 percent occupied last quarter, up slightly from 94.5 percent in the third quarter and down [...]

Apartment Vacancy At 30-Year High; San Jose Leads Rent Declines

REIS put out data yesterday which pegs the vacancy rate for US apartments at a 30-year high. The vacancy rates now stand at roughly 8% according to REIS data.
Rents fell 3% last year, according to Reis, led by declines in San Jose, Calif., Seattle, San Francisco and other cities that had brisk growth until the [...]

BAAQMD Seeking To Require Developers to Study Air Quality

The Mercury News reported yesterday on a proposal by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District that could require some housing developers to go study air quality as part of their entitlement process. According to the article, developments within 1,000 feet of major transportation corridors seem to be those affected.
The air district already has a [...]

Tribeca Forecloses on Lembi Buildings

The saga continues….Lembi subsidiary Trophy Properties has given several more properties back to Tribeca. Trophy Properties has lost a few more properties in the city and the peninsula. Some of the properties foreclosed on today as part of a loan originally made by UBS include:

San Francisco

2642 Gough Street – 6 Units
2011 Sacramento – 6 Units
121 [...]

Fairfield Files Chapter 11; San Jose Projects In Limbo

One of the largest developer and owners of apartment communities, Fairfield filed for Chapter 11 on Sunday. Two of Fairfield’s biggest lenders were Wells Fargo and Capmark.
Fairfield has two development projects in San Jose it had been working on, but no word on what the outcome will be following the BK. The two SJ projects [...]

Lembi Fallout Hitting Tamalpais Bank Hard

San Francisco magazine is out with a detailed update on the Lembi apartment fiasco in SF, replete with attachments and all.
Tamalpais Bank made most of the Lembi loans between December 2007 and April 2008. In spring 2008, the bank’s parent company announced record earnings and assets, propelled in part by expansion of its commercial real-estate [...]

Manhattan Rents Decline 6-9% Year-Over-Year

Weakness in the job market continued to put pressure on apartment rents in Manhattan, driving them down 6 (3 bedroom)-9% (studio) year-over-year.
Manhattan apartment rents fell as much as 9 percent in October from a year earlier as unemployment cut demand and landlords lowered rates, according to Citi- Habitats Inc.
Average rents dropped for all apartment sizes [...]

Weakness In Apartments; San Jose Rent Falls Most

With unemployment at record numbers, it is no mystery that rents and vacancy rates would weaken in apartments. Especially hit hard are high priced areas such as San Jose, New York, and San Francisco, places where tenants typically leave if they remain jobless.
What is also fueling the decline in vacancy rates is the home buyer tax credits [...]

Silicon Valley Apartment Rents Down

So says RealFacts.
On rents…

Rents on apartments in Santa Clara County dove by 10 percent in Santa Clara County in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, a report said Wednesday.
RealFacts said rents asked at large complexes fell to a two-year low of $1,536, down from $1,708 last year and $1,522 in the second quarter [...]