2012 promises to take multifamily’s drivers on one hell of a ride via Multifamily Executive Magazine

Ron Johnsey is contrarian by ­nature. When it’s popular to zig, he zags.

In three decades working in and ­studying multifamily, Johnsey, president of Dallas-based research firm Axiometrics, has developed a bias toward an outlier’s view of what’s happening and what’s coming next. This time, though, it’s different. Strangely, he’s finding no counterpoint position to argue.

“Everything is just ripe for a robust apartment market,” Johnsey says. “I’m always looking for problems. But these numbers are just some of the strongest I’ve seen.”

Johnsey has company aplenty. Market researchers, Wall Street analysts, REIT executives, big multifamily players, and small alike can scarcely quell optimism over practically a sure bet for a bountiful 2012. For multifamily enterprises’ most basic building block, rents, is going up. A heady crossroads of undersupply and swelling demand suggests almost assuredly energized net operating incomes, fresh infusions of yield-starved investment, a stream of new construction, and even greater profit in the near term.

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