Real estate agent Lloyd Fox: Where did you get your information from? The Arizona Republic recently profiled a 21% vacancy rate in the Phoenix rental market, with prices dropping 3% from last year. Another story recently stated that population growth has stagnated, with expected declines of 1-2% in 2010.

Marty

The residential real estate market is quickly trending under 5% for vacancy and rents continue to increase. More people are putting off buying and more people are also being forced out of their homes and into rentals after foreclosure. All this combined with the exuberant condo conversion phenomenon which lost our market over 10,000 rentable units in a short couple of years is really skewing supply and demand. Our population growth is really continuing to happen, yet our current market is absorbing the majority of these people as tenants rather than buyers. I would expect a 5+% increase in most rents around the Valley this year. As a matter of fact I have upped rents at every recent renewal this year for my investor clients, including myself. Expect incentives and lucrative offers to new tenants to really diminish as the demand is high and many of these people are coming out of or are currently in a credit crunch and/or low FICO score profile.