Apartment Vacancy Rate at 22 Year High

The vacancy rate for U.S. apartments reached its highest level in more than 20 years.

The national vacancy rate rose to 7.5 percent.

The record high was 7.8 percent in 1986.

Effective rent was down 1.9 percent from the prior year and 0.9 percent from the first quarter to $975.

With general expectations of an economic recovery pushed back to early 2010 at the earliest, it seems likely that apartments will have to endure a few more quarters of distress, lower rents and higher vacancies.