Fed delivers large interest rate cut
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met this week and, in an unusual pre-election move, decided to lower their target interest rate by 0.5 percentage point. In addition, their projections now indicate that they will...
Multifamily completions surge in August
The Census Bureau’s new residential construction report stated that multifamily completions leapt to a multiyear high in August. However, multifamily starts fell despite higher multifamily permit issuance. The number of multifamily units under construction...
Construction materials prices reported higher in August
The producer price index (PPI) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that construction materials prices were up 0.2 percent month-over-month in August on a seasonally adjusted basis. However, the change in...
Multifamily CMBS special servicing rate rises in August
Trepp reported that special servicing rate for multifamily commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans moved higher in August, climbing 60 basis points. The overall CMBS special servicing rate on commercial property continued to rise, as...
Residential construction shows weakness in latest employment report
The Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall employment growth rose in August from the gain initially reported for last month. However, last month’s employment level was revised lower...
Rent growth turns negative in August
Yardi Matrix reported that national average apartment asking rent was down $1 in August compared to the revised level of the month before at $1,741 per month. The national average year-over-year apartment asking rent growth...
Multifamily employment grows despite lower overall openings
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that the number of job openings in July was 7.67 million. This was reported to be down 237,000...
Multifamily CMBS delinquency rate continues to move higher
Trepp reported that the delinquency rate for multifamily commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans moved higher again in August, rising 67 basis points. This is by far the highest monthly increase in the delinquency rate...
Multifamily construction spending slides in July
The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in July was down 0.04 percent from the revised level of the month before. Spending on...
Multifamily property prices decline in July
CoStar reported that its value-weighted index of multifamily property prices fell 0.6 percent month-over-month in July after three months of gains. This index was down 9.2 percent year-over-year. The value-weighted index of non-multifamily commercial property...
Rent growth turns negative in August
The latest rent report from Apartment List shows that the national median monthly rent growth in August was -0.1 percent. Year-over-year rent growth was -0.74 percent. Rents have fallen on a year-over-year basis since...
Housing goals set and actions defined for GSEs
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has proposed 2025-2027 housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for lending on both single-family and multifamily housing. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also announced how...
Analyzing office to residential conversion potential
A new report from CommercialEdge, a Yardi company, takes a standardized look at the characteristics of office properties to assess their potential for conversion to residential uses. It finds that 2.7 percent of existing...
SFR rent growth rate lower in June
CoreLogic reported that their single-family rent index (SFRI) for June rose 2.9 percent from its year-earlier level. This is down 0.3 percentage points from last month’s reported year-over-year single-family rent growth rate and is...
DOJ sues RealPage over revenue management
On August 23, the U.S. Department of Justice, along with the Attorneys General of several states*, file an antitrust lawsuit against property management software maker RealPage. The suit alleges that the revenue management software...
