Apartment life attracts more families scaling back

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published May 18, 2008

Thurston County apartment rents are up and units are hard to find, a pattern experts blame on potential home buyers being squeezed out of the housing market.

In April, Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors of Seattle released its spring Puget Sound survey, which shows that apartment vacancy rates remained low in the county in spring 2008 compared with spring 2007.

That's a result of tougher mortgage-lending standards and homeowners' defaulting on subprime mortgages, forcing more people to live in apartments, building owners and other experts say.

"There are a certain number of people who have turned their (house) keys in," Tumwater apartment developer Ron Niemi said.

Niemi is co-developing Hearthstone Plaza, a 125-unit mixed-use development in Tumwater. Because of "pent-up demand" for apartment living, apartments at Hearthstone are renting quickly, he said.

Other factors contributing to demand are renters concerned about falling home values, those seeking a simpler lifestyle and a lack of multifamily home construction, experts say.

Kristal and Erik Hanberg of Tumwater sold their home and recently downsized into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.

A lower-maintenance lifestyle appealed to the couple, although Kristal Hanberg acknowledged that rents are much higher now than when they last lived in an apartment.

Five years ago, the Hanbergs rented a one-bedroom apartment for $650 a month. Today, they are paying about $1,200 a month for their two-bedroom apartment, Kristal Hanberg said.

The Dupre + Scott survey shows that vacancy rates for two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments in Tumwater are a little higher than the overall vacancy rate in Tumwater at 4.2 percent, and average rent is $868.

The Hanbergs are living at Tabula Rasa, a new, 118-unit apartment complex being developed by Envizage Development Group of Puyallup, asset manager Sarah Laidler said.

The project is expected to be complete in July and has rented 20 percent of its units, she said. In Pierce County, the company's 350 units are 100 percent occupied, and prospective renters are being added to waiting lists, Laidler said.