Market Intel

By Ash Shah The rental housing industry saw an overall slowing of investment growth in 2022 due to rising inflation, interest rates and various global events. Interest rates were driven higher by the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise the target federal funds rate by 25 basis points in February, bringing the target range to 4.50%-4.75%. This increase in the cost of borrowing negatively affected the market, as it became more expensive for investors to buy

By Erik Sherman Famous robber Willie Sutton said he never provided the famous answer to the question of why he robbed banks: “That’s where the money is.” Some reporter apparently made it up. Still, a great line. At its heart there is a pithy explanation of an economic truth: supply will often chase demand. But people in CRE don’t need an official explanation of why developers will often work in the same hot areas. That’s

By Ali Wolf Homeownership has traditionally been considered a key component of the “American dream.” In fact, 98% of millennials want to become a homeowner at some point if they aren’t already, according to Zonda’s 6th annual millennial survey of more than 1,000 respondents across the country. Millennials are the largest living generation in the U.S., and their decision to buy (or not) is the biggest potential tailwind (or headwind) to housing demand over the

By Bob Pinnegar The rental housing industry has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the past few years. As we settle into 2023, property managers, owners, developers and stakeholders should continue preparing for what may come through the remainder of the year. Following the unprecedented growth of 2021, the rental housing industry embarked on a path back toward normalcy in 2022. The year ended with conditions cooling in many, but not all,

By Reade Pickert (Bloomberg)—New US home construction increased in February for the first time in six months, led by a surge in starts of multifamily projects and suggesting the housing market may be starting to stabilize. Residential starts rose 9.8% last month to a 1.45 million annualized rate, the fastest in five months, according to government data released Thursday. The pace of starts exceeded all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had a

AZ Business Magazine Economists and housing experts polled in the latest Zillow Home Price Expectation (ZHPE) survey expect home prices to fall 1.6% through Dec. 2023. Affordability challenges are still dragging down demand for homes – lower mortgage costs in January translated into sales that tracked pre-pandemic trends, but higher rates in February have since dampened buyers’ enthusiasm.  Starting next year, however, the panel foresees price growth picking back up, at an average clip of 3.5% per year

Karlin Conklin Aggressive rent hikes have dominated our news feeds for years. And what a story it’s been. Average national rents in 2021 posted a new record at 15 percent year-over-year, with 2022 coming in second at over 6 percent, according to Yardi Matrix. With rents projected to trend flat-to-slightly-increasing this year, investors and operators need to shift to a new paradigm. We’ve left the “double-digit rent growth” chapter and entered the era of expense

By Wall Street Journal More high-earning Americans are opting to rent than in the past, with the number of renter households earning $150,000 or more a year rising 87% between 2016 and 2021. This amounts to more than 3 million households, according to five-year estimates from the Census Bureau. Will Parker, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, examines what is driving the demand for multifamily and single-family rental communities. No city saw a bigger

Richard Lawson Record growth in apartment rents in some of the biggest U.S. metropolitan areas coincided with more short-term rental listings, renewing concerns about housing affordability as more property owners cater to travelers rather than long-term tenants. Before the pandemic, cities around the country had put tougher regulations in place to control where short-term rentals could exist to limit disruptions from vacationing tenants. Those regulatory efforts have been gaining new life in the past two

By Kelsi Maree Borland The single-family housing rental (SFR) market quickly became a commercial real estate investment darling over the last few years. And as housing costs increased more than 13% last year, and mortgage rates are now keeping more potential buyers in rentals, demand from growing millennial families looking for spacious homes in quality neighborhoods is feeding the attention. But with the added attention has come some misconceptions as well, among them whether the