Historic Low Rental Inventory OKC Metro

[Rhett Tullis]

While by no means an "old timer" yet, (give me a few more years) I am seeing far fewer rentals listed in the OKC Metro than I have seen in many years.  Generally this time of year we see around 1500 rentals listed on zillow,  in the summer I have seen it balloon up to over 3k.  Right now there are only 875 rentals on zillow in the OKC metro.  There are many factors that may be causing this.  Here are the things I suspect.

Folks not listing on Zillow - there is now a fee to list so this may be the case but I can say that the majority of our leads come from the zillow network.  There may be more of a move to craiglist or facebook but the amount of scammers on there make that a bit scary.

Landlords selling - prices are at historic highs here (nothing compared to bigger cities still) but many investors are taking this chance to get out and not deal with another potential eviction moratorium.  This of course reduces our inventory.

Increase in population - the most recent reports I have seen show a large influx of families to okc and I know that anecdotally i have heard from a lot of people moving here as we have tended to be more "open" than other cities during the pandemic (for better or worse).  

Slow construction/lack of inventory - there are many that feel we do not have enough inventory to keep pace with our growth as a city in the housing sector.  we have also seen construction slow due to many factors during the pandemic.

Tenants not moving - many families are still staying in place and not moving.  this decreases our inventory and makes it harder on those that are moving and those that are new to town.  It can be hard to apply for a job if you are getting covid assistance and do not have a stable job.  We have seen historic numbers in leasing to date (we rented out almost 40 homes last month and are on pace to lease out almost 500 homes this year)

What investors are doing and what we might do

selling - i already covered this above but it may be a good time to sell, especially with the rumors of changes to capitol gains laws.

buy - a few clients of mine think things will just get worse and prices will go higher and are buying all they can now before it goes even crazier

wait - i am in this group.  while ready to buy when a good deal comes along I find myself waiting to see if the other shoe will drop.

build - there is no one I am aware of doing any substantial construction of single family rental communities here in OKC.  It might be an option and a good plan for the right investor.

Just some things to consider and dwell on as you look to invest in OKC.