Market Reports

Orange County’s well-diversified and growing economy, coupled with its high quality of life, attract residents nationally and internationally to the region. Prohibitive home pricing also intensifies the high barrier to home ownership, further supporting overall apartment fundamentals in the Orange County market. Developers are targeting urban centers where they can transform the areas with Class A rentals. Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle, the Disney Resort, Convention Center Complex and surrounding area are undergoing an infusion of more than $5 billion that is redefining the area as a highly urbanized residential, entertainment and business hub. A similar transformation is happening at the Irvine Business Complex (IBC). In addition to these clusters, about 19,000 units are scheduled to come online over the next few years, particularly in the Class A product category. Rents in Orange County rose 4.8 percent year-over-year through January, outpacing the 4.6 percent national growth rate. Renter demand remains elevated, fueled by a rapidly expanding economy and population gains. Large companies and startups alike are drawn to the market’s highly educated workforce as nearly 25 percent of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree. This reinforces the foundation for the multifamily sector’s rent growth in both “renter by necessity” (students/young professionals/blue-collar/subsidized …

Los Angeles County is facing a significant lack of housing product — an issue that can’t be resolved any time soon. With the fight to limit new development, it is a very uphill and challenging battle that is unfortunate for the economy, business and, most of all, residents. An influx of about 160,000 new residents moved to the county from 2010 through 2015, but we have only seen upwards of 25,000 new housing units built during that same time frame. The demand drivers are extremely significant for new housing, but supply constraints like zoning and regulations are preventing an adequate supply. Additionally, with an unemployment rate currently at a historical low of about 4 percent, projections for housing demand over the next decade all point to a severe shortage in this growing region. Despite all the news about companies moving out of state to enjoy less expensive business costs as well as more affordable housing for their employees, this region, along with California as a whole, continues to see a population increase. Even with all this being said, the multifamily sector has and will continue to be the darling of the commercial real estate industry as it’s fueled by a …

The Inland Empire multifamily market will retain its solid foundation of positivity this year as the economy again provides a healthy supply of new jobs and freshly formed households seek apartments to rent. The number of new multifamily units scheduled for delivery is a fraction of what it was last year, and this will place downward pressure on vacancy. Tightening vacancy will support another year of above-trend rent growth. Strong job growth in wholesale trade, government and transportation and warehousing positions has drawn many new employees to the Inland Empire in recent years. The number of 20- to 34-year-olds, who typically favor rental housing, has steadily increased. Growth in wholesale trade, government and warehousing will continue to attract Millennials in 2017, and the region’s employers are expected to add 27,500 new jobs overall. The Inland Empire’s employment boom has led to an increase in household formation, which has stimulated new multifamily construction. Developers fruitfully delivered 2,600 new units to the market in 2016. This exuberance, however, may well have been the peak for the current real estate cycle. This year, the projected number of apartment completions is just 500. This much more measured level of development will be quickly absorbed …

Rent an apartment or buy a home? That is the question now posed to many Millennials as they face the facts about the high barriers to homeownership that generations before them, at the same stage of life, could easily overcome. But since the Great Recession and the loose homeownership qualifications that helped spawn it, banks and other home-lending institutions have been under the tight-fisted control of government regulators who have demanded, rightly or wrongly, that prospective homeowners meet strict and often daunting qualifications to buy a house. While that’s bad news for a generation that was raised by families who owned homes and where a home was the primary financial asset for inheritance, it’s good news for multifamily investors, developers and contractors. The demand for apartments has risen to levels eclipsing demand for homeownership in one of the few times in modern history. This is especially true in Orange County where home prices have always been among the highest in the nation. In fact, demand among multifamily investors is so strong that nearly every recent offering for well-located apartment properties has garnered multiple offers, creating a perfect-storm situation for the sellers. One sale that involved an investment portfolio of four …