While metro Washington, DC seems to rank at the top of the list of just about everyone's favorite apartment markets, current performance stats actually are a little stronger in adjacent Baltimore.

June's occupancy rate in Baltimore's base of about 190,000 apartments stood at an even 96 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from the late 2009 figure and 0.7 points ahead of occupancy in Washington, DC. Neighborhood-level occupancy was right around the 95 percent mark in even the weakest of Baltimore's individual submarkets, and the rate was 97 percent or better in Ellicott City/Columbia and the Towson area.

Effective rents in metro Baltimore jumped by 4.2 percent during 2010's initial six months, measuring change on a same-store basis. Since rents only backtracked a very tiny bit previously, growth during the first half of this year has already more than made up the ground that had been lost. Baltimore's current average monthly rent of $1,107, then, is an all-time high.

Let’s face it, the only one really responsible for your safety is you.  It is up to you whether or not you lock your door and windows and if you have your face in your blackberry rather than watching the guy who is following you from your car, just a short distance away.  Here are some of my favorite tips about keeping you safe and sound, and of course always call the property management office and the local police if you see anyone lurking around that shouldn’t be there.

10 Important Safety tips for Apartment Living

        1.       Make sure all windows and doors are locked, all the time.

Just like pretty much every other metro across the country, Jacksonville has seen its apartment market generate some performance momentum so far during 2010. However, this locale took one of the nation's worst beatings during the down portion of the market cycle, so it remains far from reaching healthy status once again.

Apartment absorption in Jacksonville registered at some 2,900 units during 2010's initial six months, far surpassing completions limited to around 500 apartments. Occupancy, then, has made big strides, rising 3 full percentage points since late 2009. Even with that upturn, however, the June occupancy figure was only 89.3 percent. That's the third worst reading across the 64 metros that form the core of MPF Research's national apartment analysis, coming in just ahead of the rates in Houston and Fort Myers.

With overall occupancy so low, it's not surprising that even the top-performing neighborhoods and product niches are struggling. The metro's best neighborhood-level result in submarkets with sizable apartment inventories is the 92.8 percent occupancy in the Mandarin area. Across the various product categories, 1990s-era properties are doing the best with occupancy at 92.5 percent.

Yesterday, there was lots of media coverage highlighting results of a survey that indicates quite a few of today's renters don't expect to ever become home buyers. Specifically, a Harris Interactive poll of about 2,000 folks conducted for real estate search site Trulia.com found that 27 percent of current renters don't anticipate that they'll eventually make the leap to home purchase.

Looking a little more closely at the survey info provided on Trulia's website, only 663 of the 2,000 people surveyed actually are renters, and there's no info provided on what type of housing (apartments, single-family homes, or something else) the renters are leasing. That seems like a pretty small sample to use when making broad-brush statements about a large and diverse group of renters, but let's go ahead and assume that the survey results are accurate. Do they, in fact, mean anything?

The Census Bureau reports that 66.9 percent of American households are homeowners, meaning that 33.1 percent rent. If 27 percent of those renters don't expect to buy at some point, the total pool of all households excluded forever from purchase is just 9 percent.

While 2nd quarter 2010's 1.2 percent jump in U.S. apartment rents was the first meaningful increase in pricing power seen during the current market cycle, the boost was encouraging widespread. It wasn't just a handful of areas getting back on track ... at least minor upticks occurred almost everywhere.

Across the 64 metros that form the core of MPF Research's apartment market analysis, 56 of them realized effective rent improvement during 2nd quarter, measuring change on a same-store basis. One city (Memphis) registered identical rents in March and June, leaving just seven metros suffering further declines. Quarterly losses of more than 1 percent were limited to Tucson, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

The strong quarterly showing pushed annual rent change into positive territory for a total of 25 metros as of June, up from just seven as of 1st quarter. The nation's top 10 performers for rent growth proved to be an incredibly mixed bunch in terms of general characteristics. They stretched from the East Coast to the West Coast. Some were large, others small. A few maintained their momentum after doing reasonably well during the national downturn, whereas others regained considerable ground that was lost during 2008-2009.

Increase apartment rental rates in a recession? Preposterous, you say! Yes, it is - IF you have not been keeping up with the maintenance needs of your tenants and over all customer service. If your property management company has not been responding to the everyday ebb and flow of maintenance and upkeep of your investment property, than you can rest assured that when you post that 30 or 60 day "Change of Rental Terms" notice, that a series of "30 Day Notices" from your tenants will soon follow.

What is the answer to raising rents in a tough apartment market such as Los Angeles? Responding to maintenance requests. The residents of your investment properties will always appreciate quick turn around of their maintenance requests and will remember such service when the it comes time to keep rents up to market. I am not talking about a super significant raise here folks - just a gentle increase to help you, the landlord, keep your NOI through these trying time. In my experience here at First Light Property Light Property Management, Los Angeles, a resident seldom moves out of a building for a subtle increase of 3% to 5%. Early on we did, however, find that if we as a property management team happened to have overlooked a resident's maintenance request, that this overlooked request was the FIRST thing they brought up when the rate increase letters went out. The outstanding issue was promptly resolved, but it would have been much easier on to have handled it within the first 24 hours and exceeded the expectations of the renter.

Is it good business practice to raise rents in a bad economy? My opinion is yes, but only if your property management has kept a very tight ship with customer service to tenants and have kept up with their maintenance needs. If your investment is providing superior service to your tenants then it deserves to be compensated. What do you guys think: raise or sustain? What are you doing in your communities?

While almost every apartment market across the country has posted notably improved overall fundamentals during 2010, few can match the turnaround seen in Portland. The metro's stats looks good for both occupancy and rent change. And, perhaps most impressive of all, recovery is apparent in every single product niche across every single neighborhood.

Portland's apartment occupancy rate stood at 95.8 percent as of June. That's still a little below the peak readings seen in 2006-2007, when occupancy hovered around the 97 percent mark. But, it's important to realize that 2006-2007 wasn't a normal period for the metro. Today's occupancy performance, in fact, is a full percentage point over the norm logged during the past decade as a whole.

It was just visiting weekend at my son's overnight camp in Maine, and since I have more energy than brains, we stayed at a resort in New Hampshire that is two hours from both the Manchester Airport and my son's camp.

New Hampshire's motto is “Live Free or Die,” a sentiment I personally subscribe to—although I know there are always exceptions to the rule. When it comes to debates some of us are having about social media guidelines, even with my leanings toward the Granite State's slogan, I think the average multifamily industry company will benefit from clearly defining and articulating its social media standards in an official policy.

I didn't always feel this way, but I recently changed my mind after hearing a good reason why one of our clients wasn't interested in maintaining a Facebook page. It turns out that they did have one, but decided to pull the plug after reviewing photos the staff had posted which were, in management's opinion, inappropriate. My guess is that the staff wasn't doing anything intentionally wrong, and that management is very conservative, but that is beside the point. The damage was done because unwritten, unknowable rules were broken.

"Forget about fictional, glitter-skinned teen vampires. You’re far more likely to have your blood sucked by bed bugs." So says Lynn Bruno, of MSNBC.com.

CHEEZ'N'RICE!

The story captured my attention when I was listening to the news this morning, and my interest was piqued because I've chuckled every time I've seen  a reference to "BedBugs" in property management. I know this is not my usual topic, but wow...Victoria's Secret has bedbugs? That's just freaky and thought it would spark some interesting chatter on the matter..