It's the other side of a sluggish home-sales market: Apartments are getting harder to come by in the Portland area, already known for its tight rental market.

Renters are snapping up places at rates not seen since 2007, when vacancy rates last dipped into the 3 percent range. The region's residential real estate collapse has left some former homeowners looking for cheaper accommodations, and those with spotty credit are now largely personae non gratae to mortgage lenders.

That's mostly good news for property investors, who have been looking to increase rents to meet rising costs. Not so much for renters, who will have to work harder to find a place to live -- and maybe pay a little more for it, too.

University of Portland student Kelsey Clemens started looking for a place near campus about a month ago.

"You would call, and everything would be taken," said Clemens, who ultimately found a place in St. Johns and signed her lease Thursday. "I would see a post online and I'd call the next day, and they'd already be taken."

The metro vacancy rate has fallen to 3.8 percent, according to the

's

, down from 5.6 percent in 2009.

And Clemens' new building is something of a rarity. There's little new construction on the horizon, and there won't be much added inventory to ease the pressure.

Near the city center, the most popular market, the vacancy rate is approaching 3 percent.

, which manages small, close-in apartment buildings, usually takes only five days to rent out an apartment. In July 2009, the company averaged 13 1/2 days, owner Maureen MacNabb said.

"It's been a very, very aggressive market," she said.

Other Portland markets are strong, too. Cliff Hockley, executive director of

, said leasing agents recently received 23 calls on one apartment in Sellwood.

Suburban markets, like Beaverton and eastern Multnomah County, are a little slower, Hockley said, though they, too, have low vacancy rates.

There's no part of the Portland area with a vacancy rate above 5 percent, said Phillip Barry, an apartment broker with

and contributor to the quarterly Barry Apartment Report.

The demand stems mostly from new renters emerging from the wreckage of the housing crisis.

The national homeownership rate, measured by the

, fell to 65.9 percent this year, the lowest point in 13 years. The peak was 69.2 percent in 2004.

Many of those former homeowners have become renters, joining would-be first-time homeowners who are holding off on buying in an unstable economy and a large cohort of 20- to 35-year-olds -- a demographic with historically high demand for rentals -- attracted to an affordable, West Coast city like Portland.

With more people competing for a dwindling apartment supply, landlords have more leeway to raise rents without fear of being undercut.

Capital has raised rents by 2 to 5 percent on some of its properties when an apartment turns over to a new tenant, MacNabb said.

"I might even be able to push it a little more, but I answer to different clients, each of whom have a different idea of how to manage and how aggressively they want me to push rents," MacNabb said.

With high demand, fewer landlords are offering lease incentives like first-month discounts, and more are billing utilities to tenants in addition to collecting rent. Increases in garbage, water and sewer rates are squeezing landlords, too.

Don't expect to see many new apartment buildings popping up this year, either. Multifamily permits were issued for only 1,100 apartments in 2010, Barry said, compared with an average of 4,000 per year for the last 10 years.

This year, permit numbers are looking stronger, but still slow by historic averages. Barry said he expects the number of units permitted to increase 50 percent in 2012 as the apartment shortage is fully realized.

But a new building can take as long as a year from groundbreaking before it can be rented out.

New construction is also going to be slowed by high costs and difficulty sourcing financing, said Brian Bjornson, managing director at

, a Portland real estate and property management company. Financing now takes significant cash when, in years past, banks would have financed the entire cost of a project.

"I think there's a hesitancy on the part of lenders," he said. "They don't want to get burned."

Impact fees and other ancillary construction costs are also holding up new projects, Bjornson said.

"Those have been just stifling," he said.

So what's a wannabe renter to do? Property professionals say apartment seekers should be ready to pounce when they find an apartment they like and can afford.

"It's very difficult, and I think it's very frustrating for the prospective tenant," MacNabb said. "They have to be extremely aggressive."

She said prospective tenants viewing an apartment should be ready to apply on the spot. They should have their references lined up, pay stubs with them to substantiate income and employment, and be ready to pay an application fee.

"A person can go out and find an apartment, but they might have to put some money up, and when there's an opportunity, you have to jump on them," Bjornson said. "You have to look around in the market, and be aggressive about it."

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