Not all of the housing sector is experiencing negative gains as indicated by apartment tracker RealFacts. It appears apartment rents have gained a whopping 5.8% these past 3 months as rental vacancies continue to fall. Rent has been rising over the past two years after it bottomed out in the Fall Quarter of 2009, however the 5.8% increase still comes as a surprise (not really) since it was the biggest increase in 4 1/2 years. This translates to a current  vacancy rate of approximately 4.9% in the Orange County area. My market studies over the past 4-6 months, which I include in all of my real estate appraisals, have indicated vacancy rates of between 5% and 7%. If you have been following the housing market closely then you would know that I have been reporting local sales declines over the past 4 months, which of course can only mean good news for the rental sector. We all need food, clothing and shelter, right?