It's a Renter's Market in Washington

Mandy Johnson and her roommate thought they were priced out of Virginia Square Towers, a new luxury apartment building across the Potomac River from Washington, where for about $3,000 a month they would enjoy amenities such as a pool, a game room with a pool table, video game consoles, and a golf simulator. Less than 24 hours after declining to sign a lease in June, Johnson got an e-mail from a leasing manager offering two months’ free rent on a 14-month contract. The $450-a-month discount clinched the deal for Johnson, 28, who works at a nonprofit that gives scholarships to military families. “We are able to have this brand-new apartment for the same price as one in older buildings, so we went for the shiny object,” she says.

An oversupply of construction in and around the nation’s capital is giving young professionals such as Johnson the upper hand in negotiations with landlords. Haendel St. Juste, a Morgan Stanley analyst, calls Washington “the weakest apartment market in the country right now.” About three years ago the metro area had one of the lowest vacancy rates in the nation, at 3.4 percent for Class A, or high-end, apartments; the rate stood at 4.1 percent at midyear.