HOUSING IS A MAIN SQUEEZE

Orange County’s residential vacancy rate has been edging downward during the last 5 years, having dropped more than half a percentage point since 1984. Costa Mesa and Villa Park have the lowest vacancy rates, Laguna Beach and San Juan Capistrano the highest. Here’s the city-by-city trend:

City 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 Anaheim 1.40% 1.24% 1.50% 1.34% 2.08% Brea 7.70 7.39 7.36 6.87 8.03 Buena Park 1.60 1.68 2.07 2.01 1.85 Costa Mesa 2.86 2.82 2.19 1.48 1.00 Cypress 1.84 1.70 1.43 1.54 1.51 Fountain Valley 1.51 0.81 0.81 0.96 1.33 Fullerton 3.76 3.73 3.53 3.50 3.60 Garden Grove 1.74 1.68 1.34 1.63 1.63 Huntington Beach 3.02 3.41 3.21 2.67 2.54 Irvine 2.17 2.18 1.75 1.75 1.50 Laguna Beach 9.29 8.87 9.41 9.35 11.57 La Habra 3.03 3.42 2.60 2.64 2.76 La Palma 1.51 1.60 1.52 1.43 1.37 Los Alamitos 2.04 2.74 1.96 1.82 1.81 Newport Beach 10.38 9.86 9.57 9.41 8.51 Orange 3.20 3.35 3.08 2.88 2.50 Placentia 3.91 3.83 4.59 3.98 3.74 San Clemente 9.65 9.93 8.98 7.74 6.16 San Juan Capistrano 10.09 10.26 9.88 9.51 9.68 Santa Ana 4.49 4.30 3.82 3.73 3.27 Seal Beach 4.65 3.38 3.11 3.35 3.46 Stanton 2.80 1.15 1.27 1.98 1.55 Tustin 3.68 3.45 3.08 3.09 4.20 Villa Park 1.43 0.90 1.17 0.85 1.16 Westminster 2.97 2.99 2.52 3.61 2.78 Yorba Linda 3.29 3.78 3.63 4.16 4.84 Total Incorporated 3.61 3.52 3.31 3.19 3.21 Unincorporated 5.75 5.38 4.89 4.63 3.81 TOTAL COUNTY 3.91 3.79 3.54 3.41 3.31

Source: California Department of Finance, Population Research Unit