Apartment Frenzy Spurs Concerns of a Bubble

Stephen Ryan was quoted in a Feb. 15, 2013 Daily Journal article about industry concerns of a rental housing bubble given the uptick in apartment prices and how lawyers say they are proceeding cautiously when making deals. According to the article, the nationwide apartment vacancy rate fell to 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to 4.7 percent the previous quarter.

Ryan told the paper that it would be a misnomer to call the current apartment uptick a bubble, explaining that the single-family housing bubble in 2007 and 2008 was different in that incomes didn't justify the amounts homebuyers were paying.

"It was unsupportable in the sense that people buying those homes didn't qualify income-wise," he said

Ryan predicted that a combination of more young people moving out of their parents' homes and low interest rates could make for a stable housing market for the next 15 years.