Willamette Valley Oregon Rental Market

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting where Dolf De Vos of IPMG property management was the speaker. He was asked to give his assessment of the rental market in the Mid Willamette Valley. It was great timing as he had just published his quarterly newsletter, Valley RE-View and there was a very good piece on vacancies for the towns on our area.

As suspected Corvallis, OR  has and will continue to be a strong market for rentals. Given it is a smaller community and has seen little if any growth in the inventory of rental units vacancies have dropped from a little less than 5% to under 3%. Eugene, OR also being a university town, has consistently seen those rates below 5% as well.

Somewhat surprising, though it I guess it shouldn't be given the hype and excitement over the coming medical campus, is Lebanon. That town's vacancy rate has dropped from a little over 7% last year to less than 2% this year. Lebanon seems to have some things going for it, some good, some bad. The impending influx of people for the new medical college and VA center are certainly good so Lebanon can hopefully break free from its' timber based roots. The flip side is that the foreclosure problem has hit this town, along with the rest of Linn County very hard. Unfortunately, when people lose their homes they become renters.

Both of these events present a potential investor with opportunities in that area. Lebanon has historically shown to have lower home prices than the surrounding communities. This coupled with low interest rates in my mind puts Lebanon at the top of the list in the mid valley for investment real estate.

It is interesting to note that in the run up in RE from 2004 to 2007 the market was flooded with would be investors looking to cash in. Some were taking the chance to "turn and burn" because values were moving so quickly. It's time for those individuals interested in making a long term investment in RE to get off the fence and take advantage of the current environment. Because interest rates are so low month to month cash flow is a reality in many homes available.