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The inventory of rental listings on ARMLS continues to fall. Excluding short term vacation rentals and UCB listings, there were 3,620 active yesterday, compared with 5,069 on the same date last year. That is a 29% reduction in overall supply.

For single family rentals, the count yesterday was 2,549 and one year ago it was 3,671. This is a 31% reduction so slightly greater than for the overall market.

The single family active count has dropped 18% since the end of 2014 and currently represents 37 days of inventory at the current rate of leases being signed. Last year we had 41 days of inventory on February 8. 29% more single family leases were getting signed last year, so there was more rental activity on ARMLS in 2014.

The overall numbers don't tell the whole story because the available rentals have shifted a long way upmarket. The average lease rate for single family active listings has jumped from $1,494 to $1,802 per month over the last 12 months. The average home size has increased from 2,067 to 2,226 sq ft. too. Basically affordable rentals are disappearing from the market while higher end rentals proliferate, at least as far as ARMLS is concerned. The average lease rate for closed single family leases was 68.7c per sq. ft. per month last month. It was 65.4c at this time last year. We are therefore seeing evidence of a 5% rise in rental rates for single family homes.

Condo rental listing supply has also declined. On February 8, 2014 the active listing count (excluding UCB and vacation rentals) was 1,367. Today is is 1,051, a drop of 23%. The average lease rate is 94.6c per sq. ft. per month. Last year it was 87.5c. This is an increase of 8%, considerably more than for single family homes. This probably goes some way to explaining why investors are currently buying 26% of all condos sold but only 15% of single family homes sold.