Apartment vacancies in the US, which reached a record high of 7.4% in 2009, will fall this year as job losses stabilise and fewer new rental homes enter the market, CB Richard Ellis Group said.

The vacancy rate will decline to 6.8% in 2010, the property broker said in a report today. Effective rents, or what tenants pay after concessions, will end the year less than 1% down from the fourth quarter of 2009. Rents fell 4.7% in the final quarter of last year from a year earlier.

bloomberg.com