New Largest-Ever Apartment Rental Survey Highlights Amenities Renters Can’t Live Without via MultifamilyBiz.com

The rise of apartment living is changing communities, driving new development and raising the expectations for the amenities and services offered to the 38 million people in the U.S. who call an apartment home. From walkable neighborhoods to on-site fitness classes, package pick-up solutions to online rent payments and more, new data from the largest-ever survey of apartment residents gives a detailed picture of what apartment residents want—and even what they’d expect to pay for it.

The National Multifamily Housing Council/Kingsley Associates 2015 Apartment Resident Preferences Survey analyzes data from nearly 120,000 respondents across the country about their priorities for home features, community amenities and more based on a variety of demographic factors. Comprehensive analysis is also available for 44 local markets.

Read more...New Largest-Ever Apartment Rental Survey Highlights Amenities Renters Can’t Live Without | MultifamilyBiz.com

Renters Expect More Amenities via GlobeSt.com

Their rents may be increasing at the fastest pace in almost a decade, yet US apartment renters continue to prefer to renew their leases rather than move elsewhere. “For all the noise about affordability, there isn’t yet any real evidence that market-rate apartment renters are unable or unwilling to renew their leases,” says Jay Parsons, director of analytics for Carrollton, TX-based MPF Research.

That being the case, a new study from the National Multifamily Housing Council finds that renters bring heightened expectations to the table when they sign those leases. “There have been 1.6 million new renter households created in the past five years,” says Rick Haughey, VP of industry technology initiatives with NMHC in Washington, DC. “Many of these new residents are making a lifestyle choice to rent instead of buy and are thus looking for personalized services and amenities. The apartment industry is stepping up to provide those experiences.”

Read more...Renters Expect More Amenities - Daily News Article - GlobeSt.com

Red Hot Apartment Market Sees Higher Rent Growth and Average Occupancy Rates Above 95% via MultifamilyBiz.com

Apartment annual effective rent growth was the strongest of any October since the Great Recession, even though the October 2015 rate moderated to 4.9% from the 5.2% recorded in September, according to Axiometrics, the leader in apartment and student housing market research and analysis.

The national October rate is the lowest monthly rate recorded in 2015; when extended to two decimals, October's annual effective rent growth of 4.88% was 1 basis point (bps) below January's 4.89%.

Read more...Red Hot Apartment Market Sees Higher Rent Growth and Average Occupancy Rates Above 95% | MultifamilyBiz.com

Houston Economic Indicators November 2015 via Dallas Fed

The Houston Business-Cycle index declined an annualized 1.9 percent in September. That is the first drop since April’s 5.1 percent decline. Soft employment and help wanted advertising data last month were met with real estate metrics that suggest the slowdown in energy so far has only modestly affected a still-healthy real estate market. Altogether, the outlook for Houston remains tepid.

Read more...Houston Economic Indicators November 2015 via Dallas Fed

Multifamily Investment via CCIM Institute

By all accounts, the multifamily investment sales market has been on a bull run in recent years. The fact that the sector was the leader in the real estate recovery and continues to produce solid occupancies and rent growth has caught and held investor interest. And despite stiff competition and record sale prices in many metros, buyers’ voracious appetite for apartments has not diminished.

Read more...Multifamily Investment | CCIM Institute

Multifamily Lending Starting to Level Off via National Real Estate Investor

Lenders will keep pouring money into apartment properties over the next two years, originating about the same volume of loans in 2016 and 2017—with slight increases—that they are likely to close in 2015, according to the latest Commercial/Multifamily Real Estate Finance Forecast from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), an industry trade group.

“The forecast anticipates continued strength and growth,” says Jamie Woodwell, vice president for the research and economics group at MBA.

That’s still going to be a big change from the last few years, when business of lending on multifamily real estate didn’t just grow a little, but instead grew incredibly quickly.

Read more...Multifamily Lending Starting to Level Off

Apartment rent, and demand, still rising in Austin via Austin Business Journal

Austin holds the distinction of being the most expensive residential market in the state. While that might be good news for many professionals in the city’s real estate community, it certainly pinches the pocketbook of would-be homeowners.

According to the latest Marcus & Millichap Apartment Research Market Report, while median household income in Austin is high enough to afford a median-priced home in the market, home prices in Austin’s core fall well out of range for potential homebuyers. This has created a sharp demand for apartments near employment and cultural districts in the city.

Read more...Apartment rent, and demand, still rising in Austin - Austin Business Journal

ALN Monthly Newsletter November 2015 via ALN Apartment Data

ALN Data just released their October 2015 stats on occupancy and rents for 23 markets. In Texas, it includes DFW, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene and Corpus Christi. It is a must read from a great provider of apartment data.

Read more...ALN Monthly Newsletter November 2015 via ALN Apartment Data

Is the CRE Market Beginning to Soften? via GlobeSt.com

Auction.com’s first CRE Nowcast, a pricing index that combines the firm’s proprietary transaction database, Google Trends data and investor surveys to forecast CRE pricing trends in real time, shows that October commercial valuations saw the smallest increase in nearly five years. The index also showed that prices declined in two of the five property segments studied.

However, the news is not all gloom and doom. Three property segments saw valuations in the month, with office growing by 50 basis points, industrial by 200 basis points and hotels by 120 basis points, according to the new pricing index. Retail valuations were off slightly, down 20 basis points, while apartments was the weakest of all sectors, down 250 basis points.

Read more...Is the CRE Market Beginning to Soften? - Daily News Article - GlobeSt.com

Rent: Natural Vacancy Rates in Major Texas Markets via Real Estate Center at Texas A&M

Like labor markets that include employed and unemployed persons, real estate markets include rented and vacant properties available for rent. Owners and managers of rental properties generally keep an inventory of vacant properties that can be rented on short notice. Because this practice is costly, finding optimal levels of vacant inventories is essential.

An ongoing research project at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University has developed a number of economic models of the relationships between supply and demand for rental properties and their rents in Texas real estate markets. The concept of natural vacancy rate is a useful framework for estimating the relationships between changes in vacancy rates and rents.

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First-time Buyers Continue to Retreat from U.S. Housing Market via WORLD PROPERTY JOURNAL

According to an annual survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the share of first-time buyers declined for the third consecutive year and remained at its lowest point in nearly three decades as the overall strengthening pace of home sales over the past year was driven more by repeat buyers with dual incomes. The survey additionally found that nearly 90 percent of all respondents worked with a real estate agent to buy or sell a home; which pushed for-sale-by-owner transactions to their lowest share ever.

The 2015 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers continues a long-running series of large national NAR surveys evaluating the demographics, preferences, motivations, plans and experiences of recent home buyers and sellers; the series dates back to 1981. Results are representative of owner-occupants and do not include investors or vacation homes.

Read more...First-time Buyers Continue to Retreat from U.S. Housing Market - WORLD PROPERTY JOURNAL Global News Center

Economist Ray Perryman: Dallas shines as ‘economic center of the Sunbelt’ via Dallas Business Journal

The U.S. economic recovery, as lackluster as it may sometimes appear, is not fixing to fizzle out, renowned Texas economist Ray Perryman told Dallas-Fort Worth business leaders Wednesday.

The nation is 68 months into a recovery, and the good news is, “recoveries don’t die of old age,” Perryman said at a Dallas Regional Chamber breakfast at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas.

Read more...Economist Ray Perryman: Dallas shines as ‘economic center of the Sunbelt’ - Dallas Business Journal

Austin Economic Indicators November 2015 via Dallas Fed

Growth in the Austin economy slowed in September. The Austin Business-Cycle Index decelerated but maintained an above-average growth rate, while jobs increased modestly. The unemployment rate ticked up but continued to reflect a tight labor market. Improvement in construction activity and real estate, along with robust growth in high-tech services, suggests continued strength in the Austin economy for the remainder of the year.

The business-cycle index expanded at a 7.7 percent annualized rate in September. Although index growth has tapered off since peaking at 9.9 percent in January, it remains well above its 20-year average of 5.8 percent, indicating above-trend expansion in the local economy.

Read more...Austin Economic Indicators November 2015 via Dallas Fed

CRE Investors Ponder If Now is Best Time To Exit Houston via CoStar Group

Houston remains the major market aberration in the ongoing recovery across the U.S. commercial real estate market. The unexpectedly long duration of lower oil and gas prices has long since curtailed growth in the once market-leading economy, which has made investors in public REITs with exposure to the big Texas energy market nervous.

The oil price plunge that hit a year ago has so far spoiled the performance of industrial, multifamily and hotel segments more so than the office and retail segments. And now publicly held REITs in each property sector are trying to decide whether to pare their exposure to the market, or shift their leasing strategies while they decide whether or not to ride out the latest cycle.

Read more...CRE Investors Ponder If Now is Best Time To Exit Houston - CoStar Group

The Rise of Renters: Housing in the Decade Ahead via National Real Estate Investor

There are now more Americans renting than at any other time in U.S. history. Over the last decade, the share of renter households in the U.S. has increased significantly as homeownership rates have fallen from 69.2 percent in 2004 to 63.4 percent in 2015, the lowest level since 1967, according to a recent joint report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and Enterprise Community Partners. In addition, it is projected that over the next decade, the majority of new household formation will be renters, a reversal from the trend of the past few decades. As such, the demand for rental housing will continue to grow. In addition, renters will be coming from more diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

The net increase in the rental housing inventory has not kept pace with demand and therefore vacancy rates have declined and rents have risen significantly over the past few years. Unfortunately, for most renters, household income tends to be significantly lower than that of homeowners and their wage growth has not kept pace with rent growth.

Read more...The Rise of Renters: Housing in the Decade Ahead

Apartment List report: Nearly half of Houston renters live in unaffordable apartments via Houston Business Journal

Nearly half of Houston renters can’t afford to live in their apartment, according to a new national report.

Apartment List, a San Francisco-based online apartment portal, analyzed U.S. Census data from 50 major cities across the country and ranked them by the share of apartment renters who are considered “cost- or rent-burdened.” Apartment residents who spend more than 30 percent of their household income on rent are considered cost-burdened, according to the government.

Nearly half — 49.7 percent — of Houston apartment dwellers were rent-burdened in 2014, the most recent data available from Apartment List. That’s slightly higher than the Texas average of 48.9 percent, but lower than the national average of 51.8 percent.

Read more...Apartment List report: Nearly half of Houston renters live in unaffordable apartments - Houston Business Journal