Multifamily

Capital One’s survey conducted at the National Multifamily Housing Council’s annual conference earlier this year offered a lot of food for thought regarding the outlook for the multifamily sector in 2019. The vast majority of respondents — 70 percent — believe that we’re nearing the end of the current economic cycle. But despite that notion and despite the 70 percent who are concerned about either rising costs or interest rates, plenty of optimism remains. To this point, 37 percent cited strong fundamentals and 29 percent pointed to an abundance of capital to deploy as drivers of another strong year in this all-important segment this year. Indeed, Freddie Mac predicts multifamily origination volume will grow to $317 billion this year, driven by solid market fundamentals and strong investor demand for properties. The 2019 figure will exceed by 3.9 percent the $305 billion in originations that had been estimated for 2018. Nowhere is this trend more visible than in the New York multifamily market, where demand continues to boom. We see this pattern play out in places like Long Island’s Nassau County, where there’s a definite lack of multifamily inventory in locations like Garden City and New Hyde Park, and where new …