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Show Rental prices come down There are numerous empty apartments apart-ments in Ashley Valley. Some landlords are having real difficulties renting their units. Believe it or not, prices are even falling. Last year at this time hardly an apartment could be found. What has caused the turnaround? Local developers seem to think too many people jumped on the bandwagon when industry began to boom in Vernal a couple of years ago. Rent was high, and a landlord could make money on every unit, even with escalating interest rates. The boom ended, and recession set it. Many apartments were under construction construc-tion at that time. People stopped coming in and apartments continued to go up. According to John Slaugh, local businessman and developer, people just overbuilt. Slaugh says some people who came in during the boom have now moved mov-ed out of apartments into houses. Along with the extra units, this has caused quite an overabundance of apartments. Because of this, Slaugh believes apartment apart-ment prices have come way down. He thinks business people will always get what the market will bear, and the market is in charge right now,, not the developer. It was not uncommon a year ago for a two bedroom apartment to go for $500 or even more. That same apartment apart-ment may how go for $400 or perhaps less. Slaugh thinks too many people got in way over their heads. It's easy to make payments when an apartment is rented for $500 or $600, but interest rates don't go down as rent does. "I have no problem renting my units," says Slaugh, "I always keep rent a little below the com- -petition. I can do that because I didn't go out on a limb when I made my . investments." Slaugh would like to see the market stabilize. "I think people should get a fab-return fab-return on their investment, but I'm glad prices have come down a bit. The market was gouging people, and that's just not right." |