Socal rents expected to flatten out

More folks figure that homes have become affordable, which should lower demand, according to a study by USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate. Also, there's a lot of supply out there. From the LAT:

Mia Melle, president at RentToday.us, a company that manages rental homes for investors throughout Southern California, said that the rental market had been saturated with investor-owned properties and that prices of these homes continued to decline, particularly in low-income areas. "A company or a hedge fund that just bought 100 houses, they have the ability to offer more affordable rents, which lowers the rental market as a whole," she said. "The bigger guys are not going to haggle. They just want to get them rented."

In L.A. County, average rents grew 0.9 percent in 2010, to $1,501. Occupancy rates were barely up, to 94.1 percent. By the end of 2012, vacancy rates are expected to fall less than 0.5 percentage points, while rents are expected to decline 3.2 percent.