Market Reports Archives

The Westcott in Swampscott, Massachusetts

Boston Investors in Holding Pattern

by Channing Hamilton March 25, 2024

Boston is a famously difficult place to build or buy new apartments. Developers often spend years searching for a suitable site and gaining approvals from municipalities prior to construction. In the development boom that peaked in 2022, just on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic, developers started construction on hundreds of thousands of new apartments across the country — the largest amount of new construction in decades. In Boston, developers started tens of thousands of new apartments. It’s a lot of new construction, but it’s still less than Boston developers …

March 25, 2024

Development Finance Illinois Investment Sales Market Reports Midwest

Chicago Rent Growth Outpaces Nation

by Channing Hamilton March 12, 2024

Chicago can’t match the number of construction cranes crowding the skylines in high-growth markets such as Nashville, Austin or Atlanta. But now there’s at least one high-profile symbol of growth in downtown Chicago as construction gets under way at 400 Lake Shore, a massive two-tower apartment development. Developer Related Midwest recently secured more than $500 million in construction financing for the project located on the last vacant waterfront site where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan. The first phase, already under construction, includes a 72-story building with 635 new apartments, …

March 12, 2024

Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports Midwest Missouri

Developers Bullish on Northwest Suburbs of St. Louis

by Channing Hamilton February 23, 2024

The combination of sustained job and population growth has put St. Charles County in the “Show-Me State” on the map and served as a catalyst for multifamily development. Buoyed by the presence of several multinational companies such as Amazon, General Motors and MasterCard, the county is home to several thriving suburbs northwest of St. Louis and posted a nearly 15 percent increase in population from 2010 to 2022. The number of residents rose from 360,485 to an estimated 413,803 during that period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. St. Charles …

February 23, 2024

Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports Texas

Dallas Feels Repercussions of Development Wave

by Channing Hamilton February 5, 2024

The average effective rent in the Dallas-Fort Worth apartment market declined by 0.5 percent between the third quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of this year, the first drop in rent since late 2021, according to Newmark. Whether this is a blip on the radar screen or an inflection point remains to be seen. Oversupply is contributing to the drop in rents. Newmark reports that developers opened 25,386 new units in the past 12 months as of the third quarter of 2023, compared with 8,742 units absorbed during the …

February 5, 2024

Affordable Housing Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports New York Northeast

NYC Investors Hunt for Distressed Deals

by Channing Hamilton January 15, 2024

Across the United States, real estate markets are in a recession for dealmakers. The run-up in interest rates over an 18-month period has choked off transactions. Potential buyers and sellers are deadlocked over price. Vulture investors are waiting for owners who paid too much for properties during boom years to be forced to sell. New York City reflects all those trends — only more so. Many investors spent billions of dollars to buy rent-stabilized buildings in the city with plans to eventually raise the rents. But in 2019, lawmakers made …

January 15, 2024

Development Finance Georgia Investment Sales Market Reports Southeast

Atlanta’s Supply Surge Coming to a Halt

by Channing Hamilton January 2, 2024

Atlanta has experienced a dip in rents amid a surge of supply. The number of deliveries in the third quarter of this year increased 63 percent compared with the same period in 2022. Most data sources indicate about 15,000 units have been delivered so far this year, but only about 5,000 have been absorbed. In short, new supply is greatly outpacing tenant demand, and effective rents fell on a year-over-year basis as of the third quarter. Still, industry experts say this is likely only a temporary condition with developers struggling …

January 2, 2024

Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports Texas

San Antonio Adjusts to New Supply

by Channing Hamilton November 27, 2023

The apartment market in San Antonio today is a mixed bag. Like most Sun Belt metros, supply exceeds demand in Alamo City. While property managers are struggling to lease up their communities, investors are sitting on the sidelines until interest rates stabilize and the market starts absorbing units developed during the post-COVID building boom. On the plus side, population growth, a metric apartment investors prize because it feeds renter demand, is solid in San Antonio. In May, the U.S. Census Bureau ranked San Antonio the third fastest-growing city in the …

November 27, 2023

Metronome at MidCity in Huntsville, Alabama

Alabama Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports Southeast

Alabama: A Tale of Two Markets

by Channing Hamilton November 20, 2023

As secondary markets, the Huntsville, Birmingham and the Gulf Coast areas can’t lay claim to the dramatic population growth and major corporate relocations that have driven apartment demand in many neighboring Sun Belt cities. That, however, has not prevented some developers from rushing into Huntsville. As a result, that market, like many others, is adjusting to what is arguably too much new supply. Meanwhile, Birmingham is growing at a more measured pace. Those who invest in Alabama multifamily say the state may be close to attracting institutional investors’ attention because …

November 20, 2023

Development Finance Illinois Investment Sales Leasing & Marketing Market Reports Midwest

Chicago’s Apartment Managers Adjust to New Realities

by Channing Hamilton November 13, 2023

With the official end of the health emergency in May, it would be natural to assume that multifamily assets are operating in a much-improved environment versus three years ago, when policy responses to the pandemic locked down the economy, curtailed new applications, restricted tours and halted evictions. That’s especially true because once shutdowns loosened, robust renter demand for apartments drove double-digit rent increases in late 2021 and early 2022. But it could be argued that multifamily property managers face as tough an operating environment today as they did in 2020 …

November 13, 2023

Arizona Development Finance Investment Sales Market Reports Western

Is Phoenix Overbuilt Or Underbuilt?

by Channing Hamilton November 6, 2023

There is one U.S. county that has largely outpaced all the rest before, during and after COVID-19. It’s Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The county was home to about 4.2 million residents in 2012. Today, that number stands at more than 5 million, per the U.S. Census Bureau. Prior to COVID-19, much of that migration was tied to job growth, notes Christian Garner, president and CEO of Avanti Residential. “Phoenix over the past 10 years has greatly diversified through industries like education, medical and technology,” …

November 6, 2023