Texas Market Reports

As a multifamily investment sales brokerage firm, Greysteel has transacted close to 2,000 units in El Paso over the last 12 months. To say the El Paso multifamily market has been hot would be an understatement.  But with a sudden pandemic causing economic chaos, jobs are at risk and multifamily owners are facing ever-increasing pressure. First, let’s talk about how El Paso has recently performed. Demand for multifamily product in El Paso has been particularly strong lately, and we’ve been able to bring new in-state and out-of-state investors into the market at cap rates never before seen in El Paso. Many of these investors are surprised to learn that El Paso is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 18th-largest city in the country.  As cap rates on multifamily properties have compressed across the United States, El Paso has offered a safe haven for higher yields that can be elusive in major markets with high levels of competition. El Paso also has a diverse public/private sector that barely felt the pain of the 2008 recession — cumulative job losses totaled less than 3 percent of the total employment base. Job growth has expanded steadily, and employment was approximately 13 …

Multifamily developers across the country know that these are unprecedented and uncertain times for nearly everyone due to COVID-19. Houstonians making up our workforce, which many consider “the essential class,” include professionals like teachers, police officers, nurses and firefighters who invest in other peoples’ betterment every day. These are the people who are working day in and day out to provide us with various fundamental needs during this time of mandated quarantine. Many of these individuals are tenants of workforce housing properties, and to the relief of developers, are most essential to the world right now. However, not all jobs can be kept, and with over 3 million people in the United States having lost their jobs in just a week’s time, necessary processes and procedures about how to work with residents who might be in a financial bind due to COVID-19 have become a requirement. In early March, developers including our firm began to work with both the National Apartment Association and the Houston Apartment Association for recommended guidelines to effectively help our tenants who need it most. Additionally, several landlords came together to better understand what other complexes are doing on the ground to best serve our residents. …

The U.S. economy’s continued expansion, combined with the migration of people from high-tax states in the Northeast and California, bodes well for multifamily real estate investment in metros across the Southeast and Texas. Many cities in the so-called “Sun Belt” will continue to experience strong demand for apartments thanks to the low cost of living and new jobs stemming from corporate investment across the region. The Fort Worth market has been a beneficiary of all of these dynamics, and there are a plethora of compelling reasons why multifamily investors are eager to invest in the Panther City. Population Boom Fort Worth’s population has seen considerable expansion over the past decade, serving as a catalyst for Texas to become a leader in this key fundamental. U.S. Census Bureau data shows that from 2010 to 2018, Texas led the nation in population growth with over 3.5 million new residents, 1 million of which moved to the DFW area between 2010 and 2019. Just this past year alone, Texas continued to be a national leader in population growth, with Tarrant County coming in at No. 3 for total new out-of-state residents, according to the Texas Association of Realtors®. In terms of how this …

Multifamily developers in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex in 2020 expect to see a slightly slower pace of rent growth brought on by record levels of new supply in recent years. This trend, paired with higher costs of adding features that distinguish properties from their competition, could lead to slightly more modest profit margins for multifamily developers. According to the latest data from CoStar Group, the average rate of multifamily rent growth in DFW between 2015 and 2019 was roughly 3.5 percent, skewed in part by a massive annual gain of 6.1 percent in 2015 and 3.9 percent in 2016. The citywide vacancy rate compressed below 7 percent in those two years, leading to an even more pronounced building boom. Since then, annual rent growth has maintained the current projection of 2 to 3 percent, with gains in the Class B space outpacing those of Class A product, a classification that captures virtually all new construction outside of purpose-built affordable housing. During the five-year period ending in 2019, nearly 110,000 new units were delivered in DFW, with annual supply growth as a percentage of total inventory topping 10 percent in some years. The new year purports to be the first …