By STEVE HERI and PETER GILLIN
Things couldn’t be better for apartment owners in North Orange County.
Low vacancies, a stable economy, limited construction and rising rents make now a great time to own apartments.
Working in landlords’ favor: still-high housing prices.
More would-be homebuyers now are forced to rent because the housing affordability index is hovering around 10%, shutting the vast majority of residents here out of the housing market.
Many North County landlords we regularly talk with report full buildings and waiting lists of prospective tenants.
Buena Park is a city of about 79,000 in between Anaheim and the Los Angeles County line. The appeal for residents is its location between job centers in Los Angeles and Anaheim and Irvine to the south.
The city also is home to Knott’s Berry Farm and isn’t far from the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
The biggest project under way in Buena Park is the conversion of a former Nabisco factory along the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway. Seligman Western Enterprises Ltd. of San Francisco is looking to redevelop the 24-acre site with stores and possibly auto dealerships. The site is near Buena Park’s hub of auto dealers alongside the freeway.
Apartment rent growth also has been steady and is projected to be 6% in 2006.
In Buena Park, where we recently brokered the sale of three buildings, some landlords are getting rents in excess of $1,000 a month for one-bedroom, one-bath apartments.
Unless there is a major downturn in the economy or home prices fall enough to make them affordable to more people, landlords should expect these ideal conditions to remain in place.
Heri is first vice president in the Anaheim office of CB Richard Ellis. Gillin is an associate in the Anaheim office of CB Richard Ellis.
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