SPECIAL FOCUS: AFT’s Top 50
Apartment Markets
APARTMENT FINANCE TODAY • OCTOBER 2007
NO. 12 • RENO:
Reno 4-1-1
By Dana Enfinger
A funny thing happened to the
Reno apartment market on the
way to the No. 12 spot. Actually,
two things happened that had a significant
impact on the multifamily climate
in “the Biggest Little City in the World.”
One involves Nevada’s tobacco settlement,
and the other involves the high
cost of doing business in California.
Intrigued? Don’t hang up yet.
In 1999, the state of Nevada created
the Millennium Scholarship trust fund,
financed by the state’s settlement with
tobacco companies. The fund provides
$10,000 scholarships to state colleges
for Nevada high school students who
graduate with a B average. (Before
2006, it was a C average.) The result is
a booming student population that’s
kept the vacancy rate well below 5 percent
every quarter save one since April
2004, said Floyd Rowley, senior vice
president of Colliers International’s
investment services group in Reno. The
University of Nevada, Reno has recorded
a 15 percent increase in its student
population every year since 2005. The
university witnessed a 20 percent
increase for the 2004-05 academic
year, according to the school’s 2005-
06 strategic plan.
The other factor impacting the market
is the relocation of dozens of businesses
to the Reno area from
California. In 2006, the Reno-Sparks
area recorded 3 million square feet of
new industrial construction, and warehouse
property here experienced the
lowest vacancy in a decade, according
to research from locally based Miller
Industrial Properties.
At press time, about 530 new units—
not including 200 student housing
beds—were planned in Reno, said
Rowley. With low unemployment figures
and a population expected to
increase by 12,000 in 2007, apartment
demand is only expected to grow.
Don’t say we didn’t call you.
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