I just got a stat of 10% for the 1st quarter of 2008 from Pierce Eislen....so I don't need any more help.
Pam

There is no norms for vacancy. Some calculate a vacancy rate for the metro area in general but it really is worthless for individual owners. Also, it depends on the property class type, A,B or C and sub-market; single family homes, small multifamily or larger multifamily.
What ever someone tells you as a vacancy rate for single family homes take it with a grain of salt, becaue it's really difficult to track this with any accuracy. The better way would be to drive a neighborhood and see what is for rent and how long the sign has been up.
In Greater Phoenix residential multifamily is at 11.5% vacancy. Central Phoenix is at 7.75%. 3.5% is a natural vacancy rate.
Keep in mind there are also 2 different types of vacancy; physical vacancy and economic vacancy.

Hi Pam,

Vacancy rates for single property rental homes and/or condos are very difficult to determine, as we don't have a system that could capture that information that is in use by real estate professionals. Apartment complexes have that statistic for their own property, and certain companies do aggregate that info up to a city wide stat for apartment vacancies, with a brute force approach, by calling the apartment managers and asking what their vacancy is right now.

There are some serious challenges to finding an accurate vacancy rate for single family homes. First, not all homes that are rentals are indicated as such in the tax records. So, we don't have an accurate count of the total inventory. Next, we don't have a system that shows every rental property that is currently available. MLS has maybe half of them...probably less actually. I'd estimate craigslist has about 75% of the rentals, maybe more, but we have no way to gather realistic statistics from craigslist. Various property management companies and individual owners have the rest and have them listed with for rent signs in the yard, or in the newspaper, or on some other rental web site.

My personal metric is that vacancy rates for Phoenix residential rentals is pretty low, but not scarce. Rental homes that are priced correctly rent quickly for me. I find tenants on average in 14 days, from the day I start a listing, to the day I have a signed lease. Other rental agents don't market properly, and have horrible days on market stats. I was just on the phone with a prospective client and found homes in her neighborhood that leased in 14 days and 150 days for the same floor plan and roughly the same price. The difference was assuredly the marketing approach.