Greg Willett, vice president of research with MPF/YieldStar inCarrollton, TX says that, while some of the construction waslaunched before the housing crisis hit, "we had eight propertiesstarting construction just in the past quarter." As a result,"occupancy is down three points for the market overall in the pastyear," he notes, adding that the area should continue to expectmore of the same well into 2009.

MPF/YieldStar's raw data showed a 90% occupancy during Q2 2008,which Willett says is down two basis points from the first quarter,and down three basis points from the same time last year.RealFacts' Market Overview for Q2 2008 shows overall occupancy at88.9%, a decrease of 3.4% from the year before. The report posts aninventory of 182,732 units, of all classes, among propertiesbetween 100 units and 1,222 units.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the increase in units has meant a netrent loss. Willett tells GlobeSt.com that the first-quarter rentchange was a negative 1.4%. The RealFacts report actually shows avery slight increase from the year before of .5%.