No. 4: Tacoma, Wash.

United Infrastructre Washington/ via Bloomberg News

No. 4: Tacoma, Wash.

Average monthly rent: $840
Annual drop: -12.3%
Q4 2009 drop: -4.7%

Washington’s third-largest city, Tacoma is an important logistics hub, with railway connections and a major North American port that provides a gateway to Asia and Alaska. The government is the largest employer in the Tacoma area and continues to add jobs while the construction, manufacturing, and information industries shrink. By December, unemployment in Tacoma had jumped to 9.5%, from 7.1% a year earlier, according to BLS estimates. The apartment vacancy rate was 8.9% in 2009.