Rental Property Investor · Dallas, TX · Member since 2017 · 16 posts · 11 votes
Hello fellow Texans!
Native Dallas-inian here. Having a looksie at a couple multi-family properties in San Antonio.
Vacancy rates have me a bit worried. Looks a bit like a rollercoaster. Anyone with boots on the ground able to share some insight? Attaching picture from DoN.
Hey Josh - I suggest you dive to the next level of detail: zip codes. While many areas are above 10% in SATX, quality zip codes within this metro are ~3%. Anecdotally, I’ve been a landlord here since 2009 and I’ve never had a vacancy at market rates for more than 25 days, and typically I’m closer to 3-5 days.
Investor · United States · Member since 2015 · 415 posts · 487 votes
7y
Looks like a kiddie-coaster at best.
That bumping up and down within a 2% range is probably just noise; the only trend I can see in the graph for San Antonio is that vacancy went up a few percent in the recession and has been steady since then. Run your numbers to see if you could withstand 11% vacancy for a few years in a recession, but expect 7% or so in a healthier market.
Hey Josh - I suggest you dive to the next level of detail: zip codes. While many areas are above 10% in SATX, quality zip codes within this metro are ~3%. Anecdotally, I’ve been a landlord here since 2009 and I’ve never had a vacancy at market rates for more than 25 days, and typically I’m closer to 3-5 days.
Realtor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 70 posts · 50 votes
7y
Hi Josh, @Account Closed has a great point about zip codes. San Antonio is massive and certain areas move slower than others. Some other factors that play into the vacancy rate are the price per month and size of the unit. All rentals we own were rented by long term renters before we closed on the properties so I haven't had any experience with long vacant periods.
San Antonio, TX · Member since 2016 · 240 posts · 163 votes
7y
@Josh Thomas I have only a small sampling but of the 10 vacancies I have filled in the past 17 months, not one took longer to fill than 30 days. Tanya Lechner is a great resource for this data and definitely knows the city and rent trends. Thirty days would be 8 percent vacancy in a year's time, but I don't really understand how those statistics are gathered and calculated.