With fewer people buying houses and with foreclosures increasing, demand is up for apartments. "When house prices peak and start to turn down, usually it's indicating some sort of softening in the economy," said Delores Conway, director of USC's Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast. "And that softening would encourage people to rent rather than to buy." Housing slump aside, Southern California has always been an attractive place to live -- and that's also keeping the rental market tight, Conway said.
