Multifamily

By Ryan Kirby, Village Green In the understatement of all understatements, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a few things in the housing market. Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and the astronomical rise in the price of lumber have all exacerbated the steady decline in new home construction. For more than a year, home prices have been on the rise, making purchasing a home a challenge — or even an impossibility — for many. As a result, the rental market is booming, but that’s not entirely due to COVID. In fact, the rise in rentals began taking shape long before COVID made its impact on the world. Then, new challenges and norms created by the pandemic accelerated these existing trends. Ultimately, more Americans are choosing to rent due to generational, financial and practical factors, not just situational factors related to COVID. That said, the pandemic has fundamentally changed what renters are looking for in a rental unit, and these preferences are likely to continue long after the coronavirus is a distant memory. For property managers, this means playing into the trends of what today’s renters are looking for. Keeping these renter preferences in mind won’t just make your properties more attractive …

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By Jon Krebbs, managing director, The Multifamily Group The COVID-19 crisis has certainly had a heavy impact on many sectors of the economy; however, the multifamily sector still has had a triumphant year. The Dallas apartment sector has maintained healthy occupancy in 2021, and the investment side of the market is picking up due to buyers having constrained capital during the height of the public health crisis in 2020. Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) has benefited from major corporate relocations since the 1980s. Over the last decade, corporate interest has expanded and that brought multiple Fortune 500 companies’ headquarters to the region due to its pro-business conditions.  It is no wonder why the market is on the radar of C-suite leaders and governing boards — its favorable workforce, affordable cost of housing, lack of state income tax and steady supply of new apartment buildings are all factors. Simply put, apartment investors regard DFW as an opportunity for growth.  Between 2019 to 2020, approximately 120,000 people from outside the metroplex have been added to the local population. This number has substantially increased over the last two years due to COVID-19. Market Overview The Dallas multifamily market has been hot for the last seven …

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By Andrew Dickson, managing director, Newmark Almost daily, Newmark’s Central Texas multifamily capital markets group speaks with investors looking to enter the Austin multifamily market. With headlines aplenty about corporate relocations to the city, investors are often looking to trade tax-burdensome environments for business-friendly ones like Texas. What is driving the interest, and what is it actually like buying multifamily assets in Central Texas today? Economic Synopsis According to data from Opportunity Austin, the economic initiative of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, more than 100 companies have made relocation or expansion announcements in Austin, resulting in over 15,000 jobs pledged through June 2021. Opportunity Austin tracked 22,114 new jobs announced in 2020 — a record-breaking year — and the city is presumably on its way to another record-setting year in 2021. It is worth noting that many of the jobs announced in 2019 and 2020 are still forthcoming. Like many industries, tech firms often cluster together. Whether relocation announcements are due to existing synergies with other firms or cost-reduction strategies, we anticipate the trend of tech or tech-adjacent companies moving to Central Texas to continue. Due to these local shifts, as well as macroeconomic housing impacts, the single-family housing …

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By Jason Krug, Berkadia Sunbelt states are top of mind for multifamily investors these days, as COVID-19 has accelerated the trend of renters leaving major cities in search of more space and a better cost of living. Of course, the allure of sunshine and warm weather is hard to compete with, but cities across the Midwest are also seeing a spike in interest from renters and investors and chief among them is Detroit. There has been overwhelming interest in multifamily opportunities in and around the city, as investors looking for yield move beyond core and core-plus markets in search of real value deals, which Detroit has aplenty. So, what’s driving this interest, and why should more investors be paying attention to Detroit? There are a few key reasons. Solid fundamentals Limited supply of new units being delivered across the state will continue to drive organic rent growth. As is the case across the country, there is a shortage of housing throughout Detroit and the metro area. Although Detroit’s population growth is smaller compared to the South and Southeast, the region has a fraction of the units coming out of the ground as the South and Southeast, paving the way for …

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By Justin Wybenga, vice president of asset services, GMH Communities Every day, we see the world constantly changing. Whether it’s advancements in technology, culture, arts or sciences, there are many things to look forward to as life and business return to normal. One sector of commercial real estate that continues to experience breakthroughs is life sciences. Case in point: Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYC Economic Development Corp. announced that the organization would double its investment to $1 billion to establish New York City as the global leader in life sciences. With the increasing demand for research and lab space comes an emerging need for innovative housing that supports the rapidly growing population of researchers, professors, graduate students and third-shift workers. Historically, amenities and services for this group have been an afterthought. We saw a void in this space and recently launched a completely new vertical called “Innovative Living.” Innovative Living takes best practices from conventional multifamily and student housing, including cutting-edge technology and best-in-class amenities and services, and tailors those features to accommodate the specific needs of professionals and graduate and postgraduate students working or learning in major innovation hubs. Understand Residents’ Needs Fostering a collaborative living environment …

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By Noah Juran, NorthMarq Cincinnati remains a highly sought-after market for multifamily investors as the U.S. emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cincinnati area’s apartment market fundamentals, including rent growth, rent collections and occupancy levels, are holding up well.  Significant amounts of capital — including local, out-of-state and international — are aggressively seeking to be deployed into multifamily assets, which continues to drive up pricing. Multifamily has outperformed many other commercial real estate sectors during COVID, as many investors consider it a safe-haven investment. However, a lack of inventory for sale is slowing transaction activity. COVID-19 impact While delinquencies increased in 2020 due to pandemic-related layoffs and furloughs, many apartment owners in Cincinnati recorded strong rent performance, especially those properties that are well-managed and efficiently screen tenants. There was an eviction moratorium in Ohio, but it had a minimal impact. Workforce housing properties with lower-income tenants experienced the most negative effects during the pandemic. Many operators in Cincinnati and throughout the Midwest recorded collections at or above 90 percent, which is typical. Owners may have had a couple of tenants who requested rent relief or deferred payments, but after the dust settled, most borrowers, owners and operators did not experience …

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By Ryan Mueller and Mitch Faccio, vice presidents of acquisitions, MLG Capital There’s no end in sight for the rising competition among multifamily investors in the desirable Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) market. These days, it’s common for a fully marketed multifamily property in the DFW metroplex to receive upwards of 50 offers during the first round of the sale process alone. This sheer competitiveness in acquisitions has forced sellers to pursue several rounds of bidding and buyers to differentiate themselves through pricing and terms. In addition, the level of competition has made it difficult for new buyers to participate in the market at all. The metroplex has been, and continues to be, the top transactional market in the country for multifamily. In the last 12 months, sales volume across Texas has exceeded $19.2 billion, with DFW accounting for $9.6 billion, or approximately 50 percent of the Lone Star State’s total sales volume. DFW has outpaced both Atlanta and New York City by more than $1 billion in sales volume in the last year, with those markets seeing $8.6 and $8.4 billion in multifamily sales, respectively. At the same time, we are seeing capitalization rates compress across the metroplex. In the last …

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By Taylor Williams In an era in which land and construction costs are perpetually on the rise, developers of affordable housing must be able to navigate a complex web of federal, state and local programs in order to secure gap financing — the capital that covers the delta between total development costs and those covered by tax credit equity, municipal bonds or other types of subsidies. Understanding and effectively utilizing the various initiatives and incentives — density bonuses, private activity bonds, tax increment reinvestment zones, energy efficiency compliance — is no easy task. Time and manpower aside, this process is further complicated by the fact that state and municipalities have their own laws and regulations when it comes to these programs. But successfully navigating them is key to eliminating development costs not covered by tax credits — the critical piece of financing that lies at the heart of virtually every affordable housing project in Texas. For without these subsidies, the economics of paying market-rate land prices and record-high construction costs to develop housing in which rent levels are capped simply doesn’t work. “As developers that want to build high-quality affordable housing that’s basically indistinguishable from market-rate product, what we need …

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By Bobby Weinberg, senior vice president of debt and equity, NorthMarq Employment growth is providing a powerful tailwind for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) commercial real estate market. And while Dallas may be the headline name that is attracting employers and investment capital to the metroplex, Fort Worth is commanding attention as a formidable market in its own right. DFW embodies a classic story of a high tide raising all boats. The metro has been one a national leader in terms of employment growth for several years, and the region is expected to add another 150,000 jobs this year. Employers that are looking to tap into that workforce are finding that Fort Worth checks all the right boxes. It has an educated labor pool with colleges and universities that include Texas Christian University and the nearby University of Texas-Arlington, among others. Furthermore, the city has a business-friendly government. An important third leg to that stool involves the affordable cost of living for workers. Fort Worth offers a multitude of workforce housing options — both in its single-family residential and its growing multifamily sector — that provide lifestyle choices for workers that employers like. Investors are discovering that there is not a …

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By Simon Butler, vice chairman, CBRE; Biria St. John, vice chairman, CBRE; John McLaughlin, senior vice president, CBRE; and Colleen Pentland Lally, vice president, CBRE As we emerge from pandemic-era lockdowns and restrictions, Boston’s multifamily market is proving once again to be extremely resilient. With businesses, offices, restaurants and leisure activities rapidly returning to normal, both the overall economy and multifamily fundamentals are rebounding with a velocity that has far outpaced industry expectations to date. Throughout the winter and spring of 2021, job recovery has been swift in the metro Boston region, with employment levels now over 92 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The positive momentum is translating into remarkable near-term recovery and growth within the multifamily market. The overall health, stability and resiliency of the greater Boston region is a direct result of the highly skilled and educated labor force, which continues to attract high-paying jobs across the technology, medical, pharmaceutical and educational sectors, among others. Metro Boston is also home to the largest life sciences cluster in the nation, where the local economy has benefited and will continue to benefit from the stability and growth in this industry. In fact, according …

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