Apartment vacancies near historic high

[Eric L.]

According to Reuters. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090708/us_nm/us_realestate_usapartments

A couple interesting things in this article:

"The national vacancy rate rose to 7.5 percent, the highest since 1987 and an increase of 1.4 percentage points from last year, according to a report Reis released on Wednesday. The record high was 7.8 percent in 1986."

I have been using 7% in all my calculations when I puchase property.

"the apartment buildings sector has led all commercial real estate categories on loan defaults."

I didn't know that.

It seems that most people on this board are reporting low vacancies. Is anyone having high vacancies right now? I would think that the lowering of housing prices would mean more renters and less homebuyers trying to get rich quick.