About 7 percent, and maybe as much as 10 percent, of rentals in Davis are currently vacant, says Davis real estate broker and manager Kit Boschken on this week’s Davisville. That's highly unusual for Davis, especially in August. The rate was under 1 percent a few years ago.

Why is the rate this high now? Kit lists several reasons on today’s program, where she’s joined by her husband Steve and their son James Boschken — they are a family of real estate professionals in Davis — to discuss Davis’ current real estate market. We also talk about home sales — prices and inventory are up from last year — the local impact of interest rates, the effect of the Trump administration’s cuts in research on demand for rentals and commercial space, the increase in student housing this decade, and even the allure of living in midtown Sacramento for Davis upper-division students who only need to be on the UC Davis campus a couple of days per week.

Kit Boschken believes rents will come down in Davis next year. She said she doesn’t know how much. “I think it’ll be a slow progression downward to a point. I don’t think we’re going to go from $1,000 a bedroom to $700 a bedroom. It’s not going to be that big of a drop,” she said. “But owners are going to have to be more realistic on what they want for rent, and are going to have to put some money into the properties.”