President Trump reveals commitment to decentralizing housing aid
President Donald Trump is demonstrating his commitment to decentralizing housing aid. On May 2, 2025, he released his Fiscal Year 2026 "skinny budget," outlining the administration’s broad spending goals. While presidential budget...
MRF’s rising
In the 2010’s, if you attended an industry conference, you saw the latest amenity for residents on the expo floor: package lockers. These magnificent banks of lockers allowed companies like Amazon to deliver resident...
Lifestyle property rent growth underperforms in April
Yardi Matrix reported that the national average asking apartment rent was up $5 in March compared to the revised level of the month before at $1,736 per month. The national average year-over-year asking apartment rent...
Multifamily starts forecast higher despite worse projections for the economy
Revisions to Fannie Mae’s housing forecast in April call for more multifamily starts across the entire forecast horizon than in last month’s forecast. Fannie Mae is now predicting 359,000 starts in 2025 with 390,000...
Multifamily employment higher in April
The Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that employment growth continued at a steady pace in April. Property manager employment was higher but construction employment was lower than the...
Job creation still fuels apartment demand—but not everywhere
Job creation has long been considered a strong indicator of apartment demand in the U.S., and while that relationship has weakened overall, it remains intact in several key markets. Factors like remote...
Multifamily construction spending lower again in March
The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in March was effectively unchanged from the downwardly revised level of the month before. Spending on...
Turn down the heat: Slash energy costs in your multifamily building with water conservation
Early in my career I got very proficient at capturing rebates and free equipment for reducing energy usage. “I love FREE STUFF!” I used to chant. Surprising to most people was my focus on...
Multifamily delinquencies lead CMBS delinquency rate higher
Trepp reported that the delinquency rate for multifamily commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans surged higher again in April on a few large loans becoming delinquent. The overall CMBS delinquency rate also rose, gaining 38...
Construction jobs lower despite overall gains
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that the number of total non-farm job openings in March was down to 7.19 million, continuing a 3-year...
CoStar: multifamily property prices slide on low sales volume
CoStar reported that its value-weighted index of multifamily property prices fell 0.15 percent month-over-month in March, slightly less than last month’s reported decline. This index was up 5.8 percent year-over-year.
By contrast, MSCI Real Capital...
Renters dominate household growth in Q1 despite vacancy rate rise
The Census Bureau’s quarterly report on home ownership and occupancy for Q1 2025 stated that the rental housing vacancy rate was 7.1 percent, up 0.2 percentage points since last quarter’s report. The report found...
Understanding the housing burden: why California is so expensive, but not always the most...
When it comes to housing burden and costs in the United States, California often dominates headlines—and for good reason. According to a new RAND Corporation report, building multifamily housing in California is...
Making the grade on recycling
One of my coworkers had to take time off work for a parent-teacher conference. When he returned, a smile rested on his face as he was pleased with the results for his child. I,...
MSCI: Multifamily property price recovery stalls
The latest commercial property price report from MSCI Real Capital Analytics said that multifamily property prices were down 0.04 percent month-over-month in March compared to the revised level of the month before. Prices were...
