Foreclosures have washed several thousand local families out of their homes in the last two years, but the resulting flood of empty houses has also brought the best prices in years, not only for buyers, but also for renters.

Rental bargains abound, both among houses and apartments. In a fight against vacancies, landlords are throwing in incentives and, in some cases, agreeing to lower monthly rents.

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Monthly rents in single-family homes have fallen by 5 to 10 percent, based on interviews with landlords and property managers. Tenants who shop around can get bargains that weren't available a couple of years ago.

Lynn Hogan and her husband put their house in Bonsall up for rent last month. It's nearly 2,900 square feet, sits on top of a hill next to a horse ranch, and has sweeping views of the surrounding hills. A couple of years ago, they might have asked $2,500, Hogan said. In fact, they're asking $2,100 and might go lower, Hogan said.

"People want a lot more for their money," Hogan said.

To be sure, the recent discounts in the rental market are small in percentage terms compared with the 30 to 50 percent declines in home prices since the peak of the bubble three years ago. The phrase "affordability" came back into sales pitches last year.

"Why do you want to pay someone else's mortgage?" asked Sean O'Sullivan, owner of Oceanside Sales & Rentals.

Even so, O'Sullivan estimates that monthly rents on new leases have fallen by about $100 in the last six months.

O'Sullivan and other real estate professionals estimate that monthly rent costs are 10 to 40 percent less than monthly mortgage payments for comparable houses. And for families whose savings or credit scores have shrunk in the recession, renting may be the only choice. Renting also still makes sense for people who know they're going to stay put for less than a couple of years.

"There are a lot of houses (for sale) that are really low right now, but some people might not want to make that commitment," Hogan said.

Renting a house is sometimes an attractive option for those who don't want to undergo apartment complexes' credit checks, which have traditionally penalized foreclosures and short sales. Jared Hazelaar, owner of Dedicated Credit Repair in Temecula, said the sheer numbers of foreclosures have made many property managers more forgiving as long as the applicant's credit report is otherwise clean.

Apartment managers are dealing with a more immediate issue: Average vacancy has risen past 6 percent in San Diego County and past 8 percent in Riverside County.

To bring in tenants, landlords have halted increases in monthly rents in San Diego County in the last year and have cut rents by an average of 5 percent in Riverside County. More important, complexes find they're having to sweeten the deal with one or even two months free or extra amenities.

Danny Savant, whose SDL Real Estate in Temecula rents and manages about 300 houses for owners, said some owners occasionally are willing to offer a free month on a lease of a year or longer or, more often, to shave $50 off the monthly rent. But that's because tenants are often in financial hardship, not because of a lack of tenants. Foreclosure rates in southwest Riverside County are significantly higher than in north San Diego County.

"We're renting them about as fast as we get them," Savant said.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at 760-740-5444. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com.