For the first time since late 2007, the Atlanta apartment market posted positive quarterly demand, according to MPF Research, an apartment data collection group.
The metro absorbed 2,970 apartments during the April-June time frame, the group's mid-year report said.
Greg Willett, MPF vice president of research, said many are returning to apartment life because condos and homes they were renting ended up being foreclosed upon. He also said others "missed the superior service offered in professionally-managed apartments."
In the Atlanta area, Gwinnett County apartments lost "a notable block of renters" during the second quarter, according to the report. Most neighborhoods across the metro area had small increases in occupancy, the report said.
The quarterly analysis also said while there were few, if any, apartment starts in Atlanta there are approximately 8,200 units that are in various stages of completion.
MPF predicts occupancy will get weaker because absorption will not keep pace with the completion of new construction, the report said.
Occupancy in June remained approximately 5,100 units under the total from mid-2008 and roughly 12,900 units below the peak tally recorded in the fall of 2006, the report said.
"While Atlanta's apartment occupancy rate doesn't seem that far from stabilization, operators still will feel lots of pain from declining rents," Willett said. "Effective pricing seems likely to fall another 6 percent or so through the middle of 2010."
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