Overall the market in Los Angeles County is balanced, but the rental vacancy rate continued to decline in 2000 to approximately 5 percent. Both the San Diego and Orange County markets remained tight, with rental vacancy rates of 4 and 3.5 percent, respectively. The rental market in both Ventura County and southern Santa Barbara County are tight, with vacancy rates of less than 4 percent. However, the rapid growth in new households is absorbing the vacant units. The rental market in Las Vegas is very competitive.
Rents are flat, and concessions are widespread in a number of areas.
The 27-percent drop in multifamily building permit activity in 2000 is expected to keep the market relatively stable. In Phoenix, the rental market is balanced with a 7-percent vacancy rate, approximately 1 percent higher than in 1999. The rate is as high as 9 percent, and conditions are competitive in the more active submarkets. Multifamily permit activity totaled 10,981 units, a 15-percent increase over 1999. The unemployment rate as of November was 2.6 percent, the lowest in the past 30 years.