Wednesday, December 16, 2009

More Places To Rent; Cost Up

It's getting easier to find a rental accommodation in Vernon. The city's apartment vacancy rate increased from 1.1 percent a year ago October, to 3.3 percent. Paul Fabri from Canada Mortgage and Housing says its a trend seen around most of BC. "There's a number of reasons why we've seen vacancy rates go up over the past year. The economy has been growing at a slower pace, there's fewer job opportunities which means fewer people moving into the area. That translates into less demand for rental housing." He says the rental market has also faced competiton from the home ownership market with prices of homes going down. The annual survey also shows the average cost to rent a two bedroom apartment in the city has gone up $15 ---from 765 to 780. Rent for a one bedroom unit has actually gone down ($647 to $628). By comparison, a two bedroom apartment rents for $690 in Prince George and for $827 in Kamloops.

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