Orange County Q4 Multifamily Market Report: Investors Close a Wave of Deals to End 2020

Highlights:

  • The Orange County multifamily market delivered a mixed performance in 2020. Asking rents registered their first decline since 2009, while vacancy was stable as apartment demand stayed resilient.
  • The local vacancy rate was steady throughout the year, finishing 2020 at 3.7 percent, unchanged from 2019.
  • After briefly surpassing $2,000 per month in the first quarter, rents dipped during the remainder of the year. During 2020, apartment rents contracted 2.3 percent to $1,954 per month; most of the decline occurred in the third quarter.
  • The investment market in Orange County was limited for the majority of 2020 by COVID-19. Things shifted at the end of the year, and the fourth quarter was the most active period since the first quarter of 2017. Sales prices and cap rates held relatively consistent to figures from 2019.

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