From Lauren Beale at the Los Angeles Times: Vacancies give renters room to negotiate The first quarter saw the largest rent decline in a decade for Los Angeles County, Reis’ [Victor Calanog, director of research] said. Effective rents, those that take concessions into account, fell 1.7% in the first quarter of this year from the fourth quarter of 2008, while asking rents dropped 1%. And vacancy rates are rising: The rate climbed to 5.3% in the first quarter from 3.8% in the first quarter of 2008, said [Reis' Calanog] … In contrast, vacancies had been hovering between 2% and 3% for the last decade. … The last time vacancy rates were this high in Los Angeles County was in the early 1990s, when they hit 5%. Declining rents puts more pressure on house prices … and rents could continue to fall through 2010. Here are some comments from BRE (a REIT) in February: We believe we are looking at a negative rent curve for the next two years

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