Vacancies vex landlords
By Joan Nyland
Of ttf Emmkt
While Eugene's landlords struggle to make
ends meet, students and other renters are having
a field day.
"Two years ago the market was tight. Now
there is a glut. Students should be choosy," says
David Lesser, director of Off Campus Housing.
Lesser predicts students will have an easier
time with landlords. "Landlords would like to have
units filled," he says.
He suggests students are in a stronger posi
tion to bargain for lower deposits, negotiable
leases and lower rent. "Tenants have power in
this community. The best place to look is at the
West University Refinement Plan for an example."
Tbe Committee has been functioning
without a constitution or any workable
guidance document for years, and the new
constitution "sets down on paper what has
long been hearsay,” says RHGC cbairer
Doug Rappaport.
The document, which took effect im
mediately. is the result of "a lot of time and
thought,'' he says, adding that its passage is
one of the major accomplishments of this
year's Committee.
Among major changes from the present
system the document makes are that a
student cannot serve on the committee for
any length of time during two academic
years, allowing more students on the Com
mittee and that Presidential Councils may
review and even recall complex represent
atives at the end of any term
Among other changes are that a complex
representative cannot simultaneously serve
on the RHGC and the complex's Presiden
an adviser to a complex Presidential Coun
The recession's toll on the housing market in
the last two years has resulted in a steady in
crease in Eugene’s vacancy rate. Depending on
who you talk to the vacancy rate is between 6
percent and 20 percent and as much as 30
percent in Springfield. Renters comprise more
than 50 percent of Eugene's population com
pared to 35 percent nationwide.
“Eight percent in a growing area is no prob
lem. Eight percent in a farm community is a
problem. Eugene is a unique circumstance,” says
Tom Johnson, an economist for the Portland-area
department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Personally, I see a great change in Eugene from
a few years ago. Single family units are now being
rented that would have been sold."
“Most people in business hesitate to give out
vacancy rates. They never know who is calling,
the competition or what," says John Bennett, of
the Lane County Home Builders Association.
Greg Byrne of the Eugene department of
Housing and Community Conservation calls this
period of high vacancy a “very unusual time in
Eugene."
In the late 1970s, Byrnes says, vacancy rates
were at 1 percent to 2 percent, and apartments
had waiting lists.
Donna Turring, of the Rental Owners As
sociation of Lane County, estimates vacancy
rates at 15 percent or greater in Eugene and as
much as 55 percent in some apartment houses in
Springfield. The Rental Owners Association, a
group of 150 small (less than five units) rental
investors who, along with a handful of property
management companies, manage most of the
University-area rentals, conducted a survey in
January that revealed 63 of 612 units were vacant.
"Property managers are paid whether they
are rented on or not,” and two companies —
Income Property Management and Associated
Management — have the “lion's share” of the
University housing management, says Jean Tate,
of Jean Tate Real Estate.
“We don't have any investment problems at
all," says Lloyd Billingsley, broker for AM.
Turring predicts rental prices will reach an
all-time low this summer or rental owners will
improve properties to keep rents up.
Tate and Billingsley agree that rents probably
will stay the same through next year.
“Some complexes are giving incentives if we
think someone is going to be there for awhile,”
Billingsley says.
He suggestsrone incentive might be to spread
out deposit payments. Tate and Bennett don’t like
the lowering-of-deposit incentive because it
sometimes results in poor maintenance. Other
incentives are free cable, free first month rent and
gifts.
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