apartment demand | Ashworth Partners

Multifamily Marketing; What can you learn from the big players?

“Not all residents want the same thing,” Conway says. “Listening to what our consumers want and wrapping them in a brand is going to help us grow.” AvalonBay hopes to attract younger consumers to its metropolitan “AVA” buildings… designed to be more youthful than other high-end AvalonBay buildings because they’re targeted to Gen Y residents, many of whom live with roommates in smaller, urban-style apartments.

Are your properties targeting specific demographics? Could you attract more tenants by marketing to a specific lifestyle? See the whole MFE article here: AvalonBay Launches Brands for Gen Yers, Suburbanites

Multifamily Buildings to Lead U.S. Construction Gains-

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Construction of multifamily units will lead the U.S. building industry again this year, allowing housing to contribute to growth for the first time in seven years, according to economists Michelle Meyer and Celia Chen.

Work will begin on about 260k apartment buildings and townhouse developments in 2012, up 45% from last year and the most since ’08, according to Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. Chen, an economist at Moody’s projects a record 74% jump to 310k.

Homeownership rates, which have declined to the lowest levels since ’98, may keep dropping as the foreclosure crisis turns more Americans into renters. In addition, household formation will probably accelerate as an improving economy and growing employment embolden more people to stop sharing residences and strike out on their own.

“Given the ongoing shift from owning to renting, there is increasing demand for multifamily construction,” Meyer said in an interview. See the whole Bloomberg piece here: Foreclosures are transitioning people out of ownership

Why it’s good news that more Americans are renting rather than buying homes. Via Slate. Good for #Multifamily

Exec Sum:

The American economy is making a significant shift from buying to renting, and that may ultimately be good news. According to a USA Today analysis of Census data released this weekend, since 2006, the number of households that rent has grown by about 700,000 a year, while the number of households that own has fallen by about 200,000 a year.

[R]enting is better than owning for many Americans. Indeed, dozens of recent studies have shown that, excepting the go-go bubble years, houses tend not to make very good investments at all: A prospective homebuyer would have made more money taking her down payment, parking it in inflation-adjusted Treasury bonds, and renting.

But it is conclusive: Not everyone should own a home. The recession has helped erode the stigma against renting, with about 70 percent of Americans now admitting that it has advantages over buying a house. If people are making unsentimental decisions about whether homeownership is really worth it for them, that is at least one small benefit of the housing bubble bursting.

See the whole article with links to reports and surveys here: The Rent Isn’t Too Damn High

Seattle Area Multifamily Report now posted on Reis Reports- Caps flat, rents mixed but vacancy down

See the report here: http://bit.ly/xm8uUG

Supply Shortage Continues in Multifamily. Apartment vacacny lowest in 11 years.

From WSJ Developments-

Little new apartment construction and surging demand has created a shortfall of 2.5 million units, the largest the nation has seen in more than a half-century, according to research from Nareit, a trade group for real-estate investment trusts.

As we’ve reported, apartment landlords are seeing vacancy rates decline as more Americans rent by choice or necessity. In the fourth quarter, apartment vacancy fell to the lowest rate since late 2001, with the national rate dropping to 5.2% from 6.6% a year earlier, according to Reis Inc. The vacancy rate had risen as high as 8% in 2009.

Pent-up demand could pull that rate even lower. According to Nareit, the normal rate of household formation is about 1.2% annually. But, with the sour economy in the last four years, the rate plunged to about 0.5%, as people delayed moving out and opted to live with roommates and parents longer. This has created an unmet demand of about 2 million households, “about three times what it has been in previous business cycles,”… See the whole article here

Is Gen Y your target demographic for Multifamily? Here’s why

Gen Y—those between the ages of 16 to 33—represents about 25 percent of the population in the country and is now larger than the baby boomer generation, which is shrinking

The Gen Y group keeps getting larger for a number of reasons, including the fact that immigrants to the United States typically come as young adults—and rent. This group is expected to continue to expand over the next 15 years.

Through 2017, she adds, there are going to be more than 4.3 million people turning 22 each year (though analysts used to use 18 as the age people left home, young people have delayed forming new households). This number is expected to remain above 4 million until 2025. And, of course, fewer people looking to purchase a home also bodes well for the multi-housing industry.

See the whole article at: Gen Y for Multifamily on MHN Online

Find the freight trains in your life and get on them instead of in front of them.- Barry Sternlicht Video via @Michael_MBA

Great advice from Barry Sternlicht plus much, much more on real estate, investment, capital, leadership, opportunity, Europe, China while speaking at the Schack real estate conference. He is one very smart guy while being personable and humble, a rare but valuable combination. Reminds me a bit of my virtual mentor Tom Barrack, and not just because of the haircut! Barry even mentions wanting to learn how to surf, something Tom could definitely help with.

Here’s the link to the video: Barry Sternlicht at Schack RE Conference For more great video from the conference Continue reading Find the freight trains in your life and get on them instead of in front of them.- Barry Sternlicht Video via @Michael_MBA

Multifamily rental construction definitely the brightest sector in housing market.

See the Housing Wire piece here:

Seattle Apartment Building Investment Cycle peaking or just taking a breather?

In his Q4 report on the Seattle multifamily market ARA’s Jim Claeys says:

Vacancies and Concessions UP

Absorption and Rents DOWN

New Construction Pipeline UP 140% from year ago

Also Home and Condo Sales UP 41, 70% respectively

Sounds kind of like the cycle is moving to the next phase doesn’t it? See the whole article here: This may be a good time for developers to reassess their projections

DC Multifamily sales surge to $4.7B in 2011, up 1.1B from 2010.

By Daniel J. Sernovitz Staff Reporter – Washington Business Journal

I believe this quote from the article reflects an important trend in multifamily, indeed all residential development, re-development and infill: “People are paying a premium to be within a one-block radius of a Metro station, and properties within walking distance of Metro stations continue to be a strong lure for investors,”…

One thing the article doesn’t cover is where prices are vis-a-vis replacement cost… makes me wonder where they are in their apartment market cycle-

See the whole article here: DC Multifamily Sales Surge in 2011