The Inland Empire: A Rare 2020 Apartment Sector Success Story

Someone once remarked that eighty percent of success in life is just showing up. Human experience verifies that being in the right place at the right time often is the intangible ingredient that leads to triumph. The strong performance this year of the Inland Empire multifamily market is a variation on this theme. During the pandemic, many renters sought refuge from the high density and high costs associated with big city life, and the work-from-home phenomenon made this objective feasible. For …

September 15, 2020California, Content Partner, Multifamily, RED Capital Group, Western, Western Feature Archive

Coming Attraction: The Great Los Angeles Multifamily Recovery

Reducing the Los Angeles economy to the entertainment industry would be a serious mistake. In fact, the L.A. labor market is highly diversified with world-class healthcare, professional services, biotech and technology clusters providing co-sector leadership — no one-trick pony is this.Nonetheless, the entertainment industry is the single element that separates this metro economy from all others, and its tentacles are long. In its absence, the metro’s financial and professional …

September 9, 2020California, Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, RED Capital Group, Western, Western Feature Archive

Multifamily Developers in Houston Focus on Affordability

With a historic drop in oil prices amid a global pandemic, fate dealt Houston a bad hand in 2020, to put it mildly. But this is not the first time the city has seen bleak conditions — and faced them down.In 2015-2016, the metropolitan area was throttled by a double whammy of an oil bust and the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods, decimating a full 10 percent of its multifamily housing stock. Yet, by 2020, the city’s job growth exceeded the national rate for the 25th consecutive month, and …

September 2, 2020Content Partner, Multifamily, Texas, Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive, Walker & Dunlop

The Triangle’s Office Sector Slows but Life Sciences, Laboratory Sector Shows Resilience

As companies extend their work-from-home policies for many traditional office jobs, office leasing in general is undergoing re-evaluation and leasing is slowing. But one sector of office space continues growing as space remains essential: life sciences office, laboratory and manufacturing space. Nowhere does this hold truer than in the Research Triangle in North Carolina.The Triangle occupies a position of power as one of the top five major life sciences centers in the United States. …

August 31, 2020Content Partner, Features, Industrial, Lee & Associates, North Carolina, Office, Southeast

Pandemic Sends Commercial Real Estate on a Roller Coaster Ride

While summer fairs and carnivals are mostly on hold, 2020 has taken us on a wild ride as the COVID-19 pandemic whipsawed the global economy in the first half of the year. The U.S. economy crashed downward in March as shelter-in-place rules drove unemployment to record numbers, surpassing peak levels of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in just one month.U.S. unemployment reached 14.7 percent in April, well above the 10.9 percent peak of the GFC. Including part-time workers who wish to …

August 26, 2020Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, Walker & Dunlop

Rumors of the Death of Silicon Valley’s Apartment Market are Greatly Exaggerated

Some stories are just too good not to be true. This may explain in part the outpouring of reports regarding population outflows from the San Francisco Bay Area. Multiple mid-August articles in national newspapers took up the ongoing Silicon Valley exodus. These articles make a convincing case that the COVID-19 pandemic and increased opportunities to work remotely — particularly in the high-tech industry — are prompting many Bay Area residents to consider relocating to more affordable areas, …

August 24, 2020California, Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, RED Capital Group, Western, Western Feature Archive

San Francisco Multifamily Trends: The Downside of Demand Inelasticity

In economics, the sensitivity of aggregate demand for a product or service to changes in price is defined as its “elasticity.” The elasticity of demand for nonessential goods or goods with a number of ready substitutes is high. Even a small increase in price will produce a large decrease in demand. Conversely, a relatively large price change in the cost of an essential or prized luxury good for which few substitutes exist may have little effect on demand for it.San Francisco real estate …

August 13, 2020California, Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, RED Capital Group, Western, Western Feature Archive

Coronavirus & Capital Markets: Opportunity in the Midst of Caution

Lenders and investors may be a little wary when approaching deals under the shadow of COVID-19, but opportunities to employ capital strategically when market prices are low can make for long-term opportunities. Many in commercial real estate hope to lay significant groundwork, strengthening their economic trajectories whenever the market recovery begins.Keith Kurland, senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop, serves as co-head of the company’s New York Capital Markets practice and …

August 3, 2020Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, Northeast Feature Archive, Walker & Dunlop

Portland, Oregon Multifamily Fundamentals Wobble, but Remain Healthy Overall in June

Five months into the pandemic, fissures are beginning to form in the foundation of the multifamily market. Through the spring leasing season, liquidity from enhanced unemployment insurance benefits and a yearning for stability in uncertain times were enough to maintain occupancy near pre-coronavirus levels and to provide something of a buttress for rents. As spring turned to summer, however, winds seemed to change direction, tenant patience began to fray and property performance waned.West …

July 30, 2020Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, Oregon, RED Capital Group, Western

Seattle Could Provide Template for National Multifamily Recovery

In the realm of apartment market research, Seattle represents a bellwether of sorts these days, where broader trends and themes can be parsed. Seattle’s economy, population and real estate landscape have grown at rates previously considered impossible in a primary market. The city stands at the veritable intersection of technological and generational change — the corner of Large Cap Tech Boulevard and Millennial Street — and it has developed into the avatar of the infill, wood-frame …

July 21, 2020Content Partner, Features, Multifamily, RED Capital Group, Washington, Western