...The University of Southern California (USC) Lusk Center for Real Estate's Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast for 2008 supports this conclusion, reporting that occupancy rates in Southern California will remain tight at 96 percent to 97 percent this year, while rents will rise an average of 2 percent to 3 percent.
"Renting remains attractive when mortgages are harder to obtain for high-priced homes," Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast, stated in a press release summarizing the report's findings. "Although the national economy is skating close to a recession, the region's apartment market is supported by demand for trade, regional economic strength and higher-paying jobs in health-care and professional services," she said...