Davis Apartment Vacancy Rate Increases Fourfold –
Davis Apartment Vacancy Rate Increases Fourfold – Last year, the apartment vacancy rate was .8 percent, this year it quadrupled to 3.2 percent. At the same time, rental rates also rose by an average of 1.05%.
Emily Galindo, director of Student Housing said:
“The changes in the vacancy rate and the rental rate this year confirm that a better balance produces a benefit for our students as they seek housing in the Davis community.”
According to the UC Davis survey, the average monthly rent this year for unfurnished two-bedroom apartments — the most abundant type of apartment unit, accounting for 45 percent of units in the survey — rose by $1, from $1,225 to $1,226.
The student housing office surveyed 187 apartment complexes with five or more rental units in October and November; 166 complexes responded. Out of a total of 8,720 units reported, 278 were vacant. The 21 complexes that did not respond to the survey have a total of approximately 245 units.
The study also evaluated campus housing. This year, UC Davis set a record with 32,153 students enrolled for the fall of 2009, up 2.3 percent from last year’s 31,426.
UC Davis has about 4,520 students living in residence halls, and an additional 1,155 students living in privately managed housing on campus, such as Russell Park for student families.
West Village is expected to provide additional housing for roughly 3000 students over to the phase project. West Village Community Partnership, the developer, has broken ground on the first 130-acre phase and plans to have the village square and apartments for 600 students ready for occupancy in fall 2011.
In terms of rental rates, while the overall rate went up, the results varied depending on type.
“Among 12 types of rental units included in the survey, the highest average monthly rent increase was 28.81 percent for 23 furnished studio apartments (from $611 to $787).
Only one type of rental unit — one-bedroom furnished units — saw a rent decrease. Average rent fell from $847 to $746, or 11.92 percent, for the nine one-bedroom furnished units reported in the survey.
The overall average increase in the rental rate is calculated by considering the percentage change for each type of rental unit and the proportion of each type of rental unit among the entire rental inventory.”
One thing that was not include in the release on this year’s survey is a comparison to other communities both in terms of vacancy rate and cost. That is helpful to assess the overall nature of rental housing in Davis.
From our perspective, we believe that part of what will help both students and the city of Davis with the housing issue, is a greater amount of student housing on-campus. Currently the university houses just 17.6% of students on campus, which seems to actually be down from figures presented just a few years ago.
The release projects 600 additional beds at the new student residence halls and 3000 bed at West Village. If enrollment stayed steady that would push the percentage of students living on campus up to 28.9%, which would still be on the low side. And that assumes stable enrollment. Assuming just a 2% growth rate over the next five years, would push that number down to 26.6%.
It is my belief that UC Davis is going to have to offer additional housing, particularly if it intends to continue to expand enrollment. Greater provision of on-campus housing would free up rental units and even homes in town for other residents, it would reduce the vacancy rate and with it, it would reduce rental costs.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
A higher vacancy rate is, of course, good news for renters. Really, it’s good news for everyone* in Davis, save landlords. However, I guess the rate has gone up due to less demand. That is, people are moving out due to job loss or perhaps even some students have dropped out of school. I don’t believe any large new complexes have come on-line to cause a supply side change. Some new dorms are being built right now on campus, but I don’t think any new ones have opened this year.
If demand does not pick up — it should, of course — then there could be for the first time, maybe ever, too much student housing when West Village units start opening. Phase I is planned to have “about 2,000 student housing beds;” and those beds are planned to open in the fall quarter of 2011.
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*Why everyone else? Because if renters don’t have to pay so much in rent, they will have more funds to spend at local stores and restaurants and so on.
Times like these everyone is trying to save a buck or two. So instead of renting a nice big room to yourself maybe you try and fit two people. Or instead of renting a place by yourself you just get a room in a house, or commute from Sacramento where your aunt lives. I know many people foregoing luxuries like this these days in order to keep monthly payments lower.
[quote]So instead of renting a nice big room to yourself maybe you try and fit two people. [/quote] That’s a very good point. When I was a senior at UCSB and very poor, I shared a (very crowded) two bedroom apartment with 5 other guys in Isla Vista. Dividing the rent 6 ways made our cost of living much cheaper.
I thought that was pretty nifty and pretty thrifty, until I met a Mexican dishwasher who worked at the same West Beach seafood restaurant where I was a busboy. He was a young guy — maybe 16 years old — living away from his mother and father, who were in Mexico. He mentioned to me that he was sending ALL of his income home to his parents. I asked him how he afforded to live? He said that he mostly ate (the free food we got) at our restaurant and food from another restaurant where he worked; and that one of his cousins let him sleep on the floor of his apartment, which he shared with 12 other Mexican guys! That put our thrift to shame … I also think it speaks to the hardiness and resourcefulness of most poor immigrants. It would not surprise me if that guy, who must be close to 40 now, owns his own home or maybe two or three homes in Santa Barbara.
Nice anecdote Rich, about how many people can sleep in a confined space, but back to the topic….
So if this rise in the vacancy rate is actually a response to bad economic times, we’re actually making no progress and housing remains a serious issue in Davis.