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Queen City Townes
Build-to-RentConference CoverageDevelopmentFeaturesMultifamilyNorth CarolinaSingle-Family RentalSouth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Speed to Market is ‘Almost the Only Priority’ for Multifamily Developers Looking to Avoid Cost Risks, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Multifamily developers are pushing their chips in and aggressively looking for new development deals, especially for sites in and around high-growth markets in the Southeast. Michael Tubridy, senior managing director of Crescent Communities, said his firm isn’t leaving anything to chance and is looking to move quickly on development opportunities. “We’re trying to get as many units on the ground today as possible, because tomorrow will be more expensive,” said Tubridy. “I like the chances of today’s cost environment a lot better than I like the unknown of where we’ll be a year from now or two years from now. Putting a premium on speed to market is something that we are much more focused on; it’s almost the only priority right now.” Tubridy’s comments came during the development panel at InterFace Carolinas Multifamily 2022. The half-day event was held on April 14 at the Hilton Uptown Charlotte hotel and attracted more than 260 attendees from all facets of the multifamily industry in North Carolina and South Carolina. Michael Saclarides, director of Cushman & Wakefield’s Multifamily Advisory Group, moderated the discussion. Crescent Communities is far from the only multifamily developer pursuing ground-up construction opportunities in earnest. In …

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Hub Atlanta
CaliforniaFeaturesStudent HousingWesternWestern Feature Archive

Yardi: Student Housing Shows Healthy Rent Growth, Preleasing Levels for Fall 2022

by John Nelson

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — The student housing industry continued to show strong fundamentals in the first quarter of this year, with preleasing levels off to a robust start and annual rent growth exceeding pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest installment of Yardi’s National Student Housing Report. As of March, preleasing for fall 2022 was reported at 63.8 percent — a number that is 13.5 percent higher than the same time last year and 9.9 percent higher than March 2019 — and the average rent per-bedroom for fall 2022 is $777. These figures are based on the company’s “Yardi 200” markets, which include the top 200 investment-grade universities across all major collegiate conferences, including the Power 5 conferences and Carnegie R1 and R2 universities (research universities in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education). A handful of university markets were almost fully preleased as of March, with Purdue University (99.9 percent preleased), the University of Pittsburgh (99.8 percent preleased) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (98.3 percent preleased) topping the list. Few universities are struggling with fall 2022 preleasing so far, but those that are tend to have higher acceptance rates, according to the report. The University of Houston had the …

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Emergency Rental Assistance Program graph
Affordable HousingArbor Realty TrustContent PartnerDevelopmentFeaturesMidwestMultifamilyNortheastSoutheastTexasWestern

As Affordability Crisis Deepens, Policies and Market Shift to Assist the Underserved

by Sarah Daniels

By Omar Eltorai, Arbor Realty Trust To understand the affordable housing market in spring 2022, one needs to first assess how this sector weathered the pandemic and then assess the current state of housing affordability across the country. In-depth findings on these trends are included in the Arbor Realty Trust-Chandan Economics Affordable Housing Trends Report, from which this article is excerpted. Weathering the Pandemic When it comes to the pandemic response, federal policymakers proved effective at defusing a large-scale increase in homelessness from financially insecure households. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, while unpopular among industry advocates, prevented an estimated 1.6 million evictions, according to an analysis by Eviction Lab. After the Supreme Court struck down the federal moratorium in August 2021[1], the wave of evictions that many were forecasting did not immediately materialize. Nationally, tracked eviction filings ticked up but remained well below their pre-pandemic averages, according to Eviction Lab. A key reason why many at-risk renters have remained in their homes is the deployment of funds allocated in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERA) — a funding pool designed to assist households that are unable to pay rent or utilities. The ERA Program was …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesMultifamilyNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Multifamily Operators Battle Fraud, Labor Shortages on the Front Lines, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Property managers are navigating a minefield of issues in today’s apartment market. Analyzing renter applications for fraud, collecting overdue rent and turning over units from freeloading tenants are all in a day’s work for savvy apartment operators. Amanda Kitts, senior vice president of property management at Northwood Ravin, a multifamily owner and operator based in North Carolina, said that part of the role of an operations professional today entails poring over documents like check stubs, IDs and employment records to make sure the prospective resident is creditworthy. She said that fraud is more prevalent in some markets than others, so it’s imperative that property managers are adequately trained. “Charlotte still is a very big market for fraud, but Durham not so much. Chapel Hill is squeaky clean; nobody does anything wrong in Chapel Hill,” joked Kitts. “We have these applications and check stubs, and maybe one could be off, and you have to investigate and Google. We’re almost mini-FBI investigators.” Kitts’ comments came during the leasing and operations panel at France Media’s InterFace Carolinas Multifamily, which took place April 14 at the Hilton Uptown Charlotte. The networking and information conference drew more than 260 attendees from all facets …

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FeaturesMultifamily

Amid Increased Demand, Many Multifamily Owners Turn to Third-Party Operators

by Jeff Shaw

In 2020, the multifamily marketplace took an unprecedented hit thanks to the global pandemic. Unemployment and layoffs were rife, rent moratoriums were put in place to safeguard against mass evictions, and multifamily investment and new builds took a nosedive. However, as the country has started to emerge from the throes of COVID-19, the marketplace has entered a banner period of growth with forecasts indicating that the number of apartments nationwide will grow by an additional 4.5 million by 2030.   This period of unprecedented growth shows no signs of slowing, either. According to Richardson, Texas-based RealPage, a provider of data analytics and property management software, during the first quarter of 2022 there was a total of 18.59 million apartment units in the U.S., a nearly 75,000 unit increase from the fourth quarter of 2021.  But that modest growth in supply is being greatly eclipsed by robust demand, says Carl Whitaker, director of research and analysis at RealPage. “In fact, the only thing holding absorption rates back is the fact that occupancy is approaching 98 percent, so there’s just not much available inventory to even be absorbed.” As the rental market continues to rapidly grow, developers and owners are faced with …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesRetail

Retail Concepts Have to Reinvent Themselves to Stand Out, Say EEE Panelists

by Jeff Shaw

LOS ANGELES — After a two-year slog through COVID-19, consumer demand for shopping, dining and entertainment experiences has become a cresting tidal wave ready to descend upon the shore. The term “pent-up” is frequently used to describe this mentality, but industry professionals know that cliché doesn’t really do justice to the degree of concentrated demand for just about any form of dining out, barhopping, gaming and fraternizing. To this end, the National Retail Federation (NRF) projects that total retail sales across both digital and brick-and-mortar forums will grow between 6 to 8 percent year over year in 2022. And yet, to invoke another nautical metaphor, this scenario is not necessarily a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats phenomenon — at least not in the long run. The reality for developers and operators of shopping, dining and entertainment properties is that in order to win customer loyalty in the long haul and infuse a center with true cross-shopping potential and destinational status, they have to create a legitimately unique draw. This notion, while not necessarily revelatory and Earth-shattering in the current brick-and-mortar retail market, has only been more deeply ingrained by the events of the last 24 months. At the seventh-annual Entertainment Experience Evolution conference that …

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Historic Core Los Angeles
Content PartnerFeaturesIndustrialLeasing ActivityLee & AssociatesMarket ReportsMidwestMultifamilyNortheastOfficeRetailSoutheastTexasWestern

Lee & Associates’ First-Quarter 2022 Economic Rundown by Sector

by Sarah Daniels

Lee & Associates’ newly released Q1 2022 North America Market Report scrutinizes first-quarter 2022 industrial, office, retail and multifamily outlooks throughout the United States. This class-by-class review of commercial real estate trends for the first quarter of the year focuses on how real estate is adjusting to long-term post-COVID attitudes. Lee & Associates has made the full market report available here (with further breakdowns of factors like vacancy rates, market rents, inventory square footage and cap rates by city), but the overviews offered below provide sweeping looks at the overall health and obstacles for four major commercial real estate sectors. Industrial: Rents Pushed on Strong Demand Strong demand for industrial space throughout North America continued in the first quarter as vacancies fell to record lows and rent growth hit double digits. First quarter net absorption in the United States totaled 92.8 million square feet, which was up 25 percent year over year but down 35 percent from the 143-million-square feet average of the last three quarters of 2021. Annualized rents rose 10.1 percent in the U.S. and the average vacancy rate fell to 4.1 percent. Part of this trend was due to a pause in new construction starts early in the pandemic. However, …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesIndustrialNorth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Powers Real Estate Activity Along I-85 Industrial Corridor, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Southeast has long been home to automotive giants such as Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, as well as their large network of suppliers. In 2021, BMW led the nation in automotive exports by value, the eighth consecutive year the German automaker held that distinction. BMW produced and exported $10.1 billion worth of cars and SUVs from its mega campus in Spartanburg, S.C., last year, and the company recently announced two new facilities — one on its campus and the other across Interstate 85 — that will total $300 million in investment. Similarly, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, the regional headquarters and only U.S. plant for the South Korean auto giant, announced last week that it planned to invest $300 million to expand and improve its Montgomery plant. The initiative will create 200 jobs and accommodate the manufacturing of the hybrid Santa Fe vehicle line and launch of the first Electrified Genesis GV70 SUV. Hyundai Motor Group said it aims to sell 1.87 million battery electric vehicles (BEVs) annually by 2030 in order to secure a 7 percent global market share of BEVs sold. The automaker announced on April 12 that it plans to invest $7.4 billion in …

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Johnson-James-Popp-Hutcheson
MidwestMultifamilyMultifamily & Affordable Housing Feature ArchiveNortheastSoutheastTexasWestern

How to Dispute Unfair Multifamily Property Assessments in Six Steps

by Jaime Lackey

Property tax systems vary from state to state across the country, with differing procedures in each assessor’s jurisdiction. Complicating things further, the personalities of assessors and their staff influence the way they interact with property owners or their agents. It is the responsibility of the property owner or their agent to learn and adapt to the procedures and behaviors at work in their assessor’s offices. However, there are universal pre-emptive steps that property owners in any jurisdiction can take to combat excessive valuations. These property-specific action items and best practices can significantly increase the chances of a successful valuation protest. 1. Document Property Financial Statements In most appraisal systems, income-producing apartment property will be valued using the income approach. Arguably the most important pieces of information the apartment owner can present in protesting assessed values are the property’s rent rolls and profit-and-loss statements. The timely preparation and completion of these documents prior to a protest is essential to any discussion of fair market value. Key line items such as potential gross income, vacancy and collection loss, and net operating income can assist in negotiating lower assessed values. Market rent, in-place rents and occupancy are key indicators on a rent roll …

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Lument Affordable Housing Multifamily buildings
Affordable HousingContent PartnerDevelopmentFeaturesGeorgiaLumentMidwestMultifamilyNortheastSoutheastTexasVideoWestern

Utilizing Tax Credits to Create Affordable Housing in High-Opportunity Communities

by Sarah Daniels

    The Section 42 Low-Income Housing Credit program has been America’s primary tool in the effort to construct affordable homes for low- and moderate- income households and ease renter cost burdens since 1986. This public-private partnership has created or preserved more than 3.1 million rental units, accounting for over 30 percent of the nation’s affordable housing stock. Congress is considering legislation that would materially expand and strengthen the tax credit program. In addition to several technical changes to tax credit accounting and rules governing the use of private-activity bond financing, the legislation would authorize increases in credit allocation in 2021 and 2022. The impact of these changes would be substantial, catalyzing construction of more than 100,000 additional units per year over a 10-year period, perhaps trimming the number of rent burdened low-income households by half. Building more affordable housing will represent a significant step toward reducing housing instability and economic inequality in America. But are quantitative gains alone enough? Constructing affordable housing in low-poverty, high-opportunity census tracts is challenging. The following discussion explores some ways in which developers, lenders and credit allocating agencies can increase the level of affordable housing construction in low-poverty, high-opportunity areas (LPHOA) and optimize the …

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