Minneapolis Landlords Get Good News

Apartment vacancy rates in the Twin Cities just dropped to a two-year low of 4.2 percent, according to GVA Marquette Advisors.

According to GVA’a “Apartment Trends” market report, this is a considerable improvement over the 6.4 percent for the third quarter last year, and better still than the figure at the end of 2009, which was 7.3 percent.

The report studies 57 geographic submarkets across the Twin Cities. Of those, the urban markets are reporting the best statistics. The city of Minneapolis reports a vacancy rate of just 3 percent, whereas St Paul’s stands at 4.2 percent.

Suburban markets like Minnetonka and Maple Grove, on the other hand, have vacancy rates ranging from 5.5 – 5.9 percent.

GVA reports that the lowest vacancy rates are found in units that rent between $900-1000 per month. Conversely, apartments charging more than $1500 per month are incurring a 4.7 percent vacancy rate.

Overall, the average rent in the Twin Cities has not yet increased dramatically. The current %905/month average is down from last year, but up $3/month from the average in the second quarter of the year.

This is good news for landlords who have endured high vacancy rates and reduced rents for several years.