Vacancy rate is the percentage of units in a property or submarket that are unoccupied. LA multifamily vacancy ran 5.7% in Q4 2025 — the highest since Q2 2020.
For a single property: vacant units divided by total units. For a submarket or metro: same calculation aggregated across all measured properties.
Vacancy affects valuation in two ways: directly reduces effective gross income, and signals demand strength (or weakness) to buyers. Persistent high vacancy suggests either pricing issues or submarket demand softness.
LA multifamily vacancy rate by submarket varies meaningfully. Westside premium runs 6-7% on stabilized (higher on Class A luxury at ~13% per Santa Monica data). Valley submarkets run 5-7%. Koreatown ~6%. Building-specific vacancy matters more than submarket averages for individual sale pricing.
From the Sterman LA Multifamily Glossary — defined the way a broker with $1.41 billion across 254 closed transactions actually uses these terms.
Michael Sterman, Senior Managing Director Investments, Marcus & Millichap.
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