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Article Last Updated: 1/20/2006 06:53 AM


Rent in Vallejo stays steady, rises in West

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press and, RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN, Times-Herald staff writer
Vallejo Times Herald

Unlike most of the rest of the West and even Solano County, apartment rents in the Vallejo area have remained steady and, in some cases, even dropped slightly, a local industry professional says.
'For the past two or three years, rents in this area were going up gradually but steadily until they reached a peak within the past year,' said La Guan Lea of Lea Pannell Property Management. 'They've pretty much stayed there since.'
A nice two-bedroom, one-bath 2 bedroom/ 1 bath apartment in Vallejo rents for about $1,200 - as it has for the past year, but significantly higher than it would have two or three years ago, he said.
The risingupward-trending rents in the rest of the region may be the latest sign that landlords are slowly regaining some pricing leverage, according to a report released Thursday.
All but two of the 20 major Western markets surveyed by real estate research firm RealFacts Inc. ended 2005 with higher apartment rents than the previous year.
The biggest increases were concentrated in Southern California and southern Nevada, where the regional economies generally have been stronger than other parts of the West.
The San Francisco Bay Area's apartment market began to rebound from four years of steep rent decreases triggered by a technology slump that prompted many renters to move away in search of new jobs. At the same time, many renters with secure jobs bought homes to take advantage of low interest rates.
The average apartment rent in the five-county San Francisco metropolitan market "