Rental vacancies shoot up as students move home - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Many good jobs have been cut as Atlanta’sd unemployment rate climbed to 7.6 percent in December. New construction is threatenede by thecapital drought. And the apartmenft industry is feelingthe pinch. According to the U.S. Departmeng of Commerce, the rental apartmenrt vacancy rate jumpedto 10.8 percent in the fourtnh quarter of 2008 — the highest sinc e the third quarter of 2005. “Like ever y other aspect of the economy, busineses is not doing as well as it had in the prior saidTom Wilkes, president of Post Apartmenft Management. recently announced a net loss attributable to common shareholdersof $15.
3 million for the fourt quarter of last year, compared with net incoms available to common shareholders of $77.3 millionh for fourth-quarter 2007. “If therw was significant job growthgoing on, but mortgages were very difficuly to obtain and single-family [housing] was in shor t supply or under-supply, then we mighy see a higher demand for apartments,” Wilkes said. a more troublesome domino effect isin play. Many college graduates who might have moved into an apartmen t are moving back home withtheir parents, said both Wilkesz and Ron Shelton, chairman of the board of the Nationall Apartment Association.
“In many cases, a new Atlanta resident’a first home is an apartment where they might live for a year priofr to purchasinga home,” Wilkesx said. “When there are job losses, that new absorption neverd occurs.” David Fitch, CEO for , said the crediy and mortgage crises “have all but eliminatexd liquidity inthe market. Because of the lack of the market does not have clearr financial metrics from which to gaugwe aninvestment decision, making it very difficulty to invest.” Post still has about a 94 perceng occupancy rate, Wilkes said. He’s looking forwardr to the latter part of 2010and 2011, when people born in 1990 near primes apartment age.
Keeping customer service at a high leve l is becoming ever more Wilkes added. Post is continuiny to invest in maintaining the qualityy of its apartments and inmakinyg tasks, such as paying rent through its onlin portal or viewing available apartments online, as convenient as “We don’t stop moving forward,” he