New York has most severe rent burden
A WalletHub study looked into the share of median household income that would be required to pay the median rent plus energy costs. The state-by-state rankings are shown below:
Source: WalletHub
Rank
State
Cost of housing as share...
Student housing demand normalizing
Student housing demand appears to be normalizing to a more sustainable trend after record occupancy rates in Fall 2022 and 2023. This is one of the take-aways from the student housing market...
Multifamily construction activity falls in April
The Census Bureau’s report on new residential construction stated that multifamily permits declined again after last month’s bump. Multifamily starts rose for the third consecutive month. Multifamily completions continued their slide which started last...
HUD proposes criminal records rule changes
HUD issued a notice of proposed rule making to change how criminal records history may be considered in deciding to prohibit individuals from residing in HUD-assisted housing.
According to the proposal, the rule changes would...
Steady growth in multifamily mortgage originations seen in 2024
A report from the Mortgage Bankers’ Association (MBA) says that multifamily mortgage originations were up 69 percent year-over-year in Q4. Originations of all commercial mortgages as a single asset class rose 84 percent year-over-year.
Commercial...
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...
Multifamily construction spending continues to fall in February
The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in February was down 0.03 percent from the revised level of the month before. Spending on...
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...
EPA drops ESPM: prepare for the worst
Many of you have likely seen recent news reports from early May 2025 indicating that the ENERGY STAR program is facing elimination as part of a broader EPA reorganization. The reports are confirmed. This...
Multifamily CMBS delinquency rate lower in May
Trepp reported that the delinquency rate for multifamily commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans decreased in May after two months of sharp gains. However, the overall CMBS delinquency rate rose slightly, gaining 5 basis points...
Move to double lumber tariffs is a gut punch to American home buyers, home...
Chuck Fowke, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Tampa, Fla., issued the following statement after the U.S. Commerce moved forward with an administrative review to double the...
Analysts predict how multifamily will thrive in 2025
As we enter the New Year, analysts are peering into their crystal balls to predict how multifamily will thrive in 2025.
Yardi Matrix sees the multifamily market poised for modest growth, driven by...
CoStar: multifamily property prices continue rise
CoStar reported that its value-weighted index of multifamily property prices rose 1.4 percent month-over-month in November. However, this index was down 5.2 percent year-over-year.
The month-over-month price movement reported by CoStar varies significantly from that...
Construction materials prices move modestly higher
The producer price index (PPI) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that construction materials prices rose 0.2 percent month-over-month in December on a seasonally adjusted basis. The index of components and...
IRR: Cap rates edged higher in 2024
Intergra Realty Resources (IRR) recently released its annual Viewpoint report for 2025. The report discusses the state of the US economy and presents an update on the operating performance data for four commercial property...
