How are negative population markets for finding tenants

[Sean Dezoysa]

I've read up on the Ohio markets. Other than Youngstown it sounds like investors appreciate them (Dayton, Toledo, Cincinnati, Colombus etc) as solid cash flow markets. 

I thought when a city loses 5-10% of it's population continuously for decades, landlords would be fighting over tenants and in a gloomy state in general.

Is this wrong? Does population loss not affect landlords as much as one might guess? 

Any clarification on how this really pans out would help a lot, thanks.