MFE Apartment Trends posted an Axiometrics chart of the top US cities for job growth and apartment revenue growth for 2013:
Tag: job creation
What’s not to like about the Seattle and Portland Apartment Building Investment Markets?
“Even compared to a healthy and expanding nationwide market, multifamily in the Pacific Northwest is seeing exceptionally strong gains. A growing renter population and accelerating job growth have helped solidify cities like Portland and Seattle as cornerstones of the apartment industry, and the positive trends show no sign of letting up.” So begins a glowing report in the latest digital edition of MHN Magazine (On page 22). What’s not to like about an article like that, especially one with a cover shot as beautiful as the one in this article? Below is just a portion of it and Photoshopped or not it is something to behold.
The glowing words and photos are accompanied with a pretty good looking chart too, showing the declining vacancy and rising rents in those two markets as well: Continue reading What’s not to like about the Seattle and Portland Apartment Building Investment Markets?
UPDATE: Top 10 US Submarkets for new apartment building units in the pipeline.
In May we posted an article Top 10 US Cities for new apartment building permits where Seattle came in sixth in new apartment building units permitted. Now a new list is out from Axiometrics with a breakdown by submarket and Seattle’s Downtown/Capitol Hill/Queen Anne submarket lands at number two with almost 4,000 units due to come on line in the near future.
And that’s on top of nearly 6,000 units (3,500 in the last two years) that have already been delivered downtown since 2005. Plus there are several other hot neighborhoods such as Belltown and South Lake Union that Continue reading UPDATE: Top 10 US Submarkets for new apartment building units in the pipeline.
Even in Slow Jobs Climate Apartment Buildings Leasing Well- National Occupancy now over 94%
Just got an email from Jay Denton, Research VP at AXIOMetrics saying the national apartment building occupancy is 94.3%, a level not seen since 2006. Class A occupancy is at 95.5%, class B is 94.8% and class C is 92%. Also many submarkets around the country will see the first new supply of units this summer. Even so properties in Lease Up are doing well, averaging more than 20 move-ins a month. Further strength in the market is reflected by the fact that concessions are down to only 2-3 weeks in many markets.
Jay also shared an interesting idea for a leading indicator of Continue reading Even in Slow Jobs Climate Apartment Buildings Leasing Well- National Occupancy now over 94%
Portland OR one of top US cities for job growth- Good for apartment building investments
Portland’s recovery in jobs driven by the return of tech and the lure of its funky coolness (see Portlandia) is noted in Kiplinger’s slide show on the 8 Cities with Surprising Job Growth where they’re expecting 130,000 new jobs in the next five years:
“After devastating job losses in the recession, Portland has made a spectacular recovery, fueled by the tech mini-boom and the area’s attractiveness to young people. Anchored by Intel and its 16,000 employees, Portland will maintain its moniker as the Silicon Forest for its more than 1,200 high-tech firms, most of them small to medium-size.
High tech will continue to be the fastest-growing sector, but Continue reading Portland OR one of top US cities for job growth- Good for apartment building investments
US Employment Growth by State; month, 1,3,5 yr. How is your state doing?
Apartment building owners benefit from prime renter group ‘unbundling’, driving rents and occupancy.
The recovery from the ‘Great Recession’ has been anything but slow for apartment building investment. During the recession many of the prime renters (age 20 t0 34) were hit hard by unemployment and m0ved back in with their parents. Others ‘bundled up’ by moving in with their friends.
“Sometime between 2010 and 2011 the number of doubled-up households started to decrease. This reversal released a great deal of pent-up demand for apartments. A greater number of people sharing multi-bedroom apartment units, as well as a greater number of young adults living at home, were able to move out and rent their own units. Moreover, these young adults largely did not purchase homes.”
After being hit hard by the recession, younger workers have benefited more than others from the recovery in hiring. Since the bottom in late 2009/10, the prime age cohort for rental apartments (ages of 20 and 34) has a net gain of more than 1.5 million jobs. This has enabled many of these young workers to move into their own apartments.
But will it continue?
“The 2010 decennial census estimates that roughly Continue reading Apartment building owners benefit from prime renter group ‘unbundling’, driving rents and occupancy.
This recovery is “basically normal if not a bit better than expected” historically speaking says Hassam Nadji in GlobeSt.com
“History reminds us that a recovery from the simultaneous shocks of a financial crisis and a major recession require significantly more time and stimulus than a cyclical contraction, a process that could extend five to eight years compared to the more typical two- to three-year span following a cyclical recession. The pattern observed thus far since the recovery began is basically normal if not a bit better than expected.”
Remember that 2.5 million of the jobs lost were in construction and financial services (including mortgage origination mills and RMBS/CDO/CDS manufacture) so that returning to the same level of employment in those sectors would imply another bubble formation.
Now on the other handif job creation continues to fall off… See the whole GlobeSt. piece here: Weak Jobs Report Another Bump in Road to Recovery
Denver Job Growth catching up with Apartment Building occupancy and rent gains.
Is a Gold Standard the Answer to Our Monetary Crack-Up?
My brother Tom shared an article from the Cato Institute entitled: “Why Gold-Defined Money Is the Answer to Our Monetary Crack-Up”. 
I agree with the writer in theory but as Yogi Berra said: In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. A couple points:
With a fixed currency like a gold standard innovation and value creation that grows the economy will be constrained and what growth does occur will cause prices to fall, hurting the producers of goods and limiting real returns to their investors. There has to be some mechanism to grow money supply at the approximate rate of real growth in the economy.
The real problems we’re facing around the world are from excess leverage and at the end of every debt binge the unwinding happens in three ways. Debt creation can be reduced and austerity can be imposed to make room for Continue reading Is a Gold Standard the Answer to Our Monetary Crack-Up?