I follow the rental market Downtown San Diego and rents are already dropping. People are asking certain rents but the places are sitting.

Why not “pretend” to be a renter and check around. I found that if you pass up on a rental deal today, there’ll always be a better one tomorrow.

I think that rents are sticky like housing resale. People try to stand firm on the askings but they eventually go lower. If you look around the 92037 zip near UCSD, you’ll see rents and resale prices dropping as well.

Most people are in 1-year rental agreements so it might seem like rents are holding while for sale prices are dropping every day. I bet that people will be negotiating when their leases are up.

http://www.archstoneapartments.com/ is a good site to follow since you can rent online from them. They will play with prices up a little then down a little, but you will see the same/similar units sitting. When will they drop prices to fill the vacant units?

I know that certain sub-markets, like 4S, Del Sur, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Encinitas, etc… are “holding up” but it’s only a matter of time before they fall.