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Fed Chair Yellen- Maybe we are turning Japanese

Actual and Expected Inflation in Japan — “Here, Japan’s recent history may be instructive: As shown in figure 9, survey measures of longer-term expected inflation in that country remained positive and stable even as that country experienced many years of persistent, mild deflation.” – Janet Yellen Sep. 24, 2015

Was talking about this just last week (again):

As a value guy like you it’s hard to figure out how buying something in the sixes on cap rate works out to be a good deal. But what if the Fed is trapped at the Zero Lower Bound and we are turning Japanese? Their ‘Lost Decade’ is now old enough to graduate with a Master’s degree and we’re following the exact same playbook. I offer last week’s Fed decision as exhibit #1. They would dearly love to raise rates just to prove they can but there’s just thin ice between us and

Continue reading Fed Chair Yellen- Maybe we are turning Japanese

10yr Apartment Building Loan Rate Back On It’s Meds at 4.375%

10 year apartment building investment loan rates — Click on image for full size.

After showing signs of life in June and July the 10yr apartment building investment loan rate we track seems to be fully anesthetized once again and is resting comfortably at 4.375%. Meanwhile the ULI rate seemed to be steadily working its way lower, following the ten year Treasury down which got as low as 2.01%. That all ended with the Chinese stock market melt down and currency devaluation a couple weeks ago and drove the ULI rate up 27bp to 3.82%.

Chinese stock market has only fallen back to where it was in February — Click on image for full size.

Interestingly despite all the panic about the Continue reading 10yr Apartment Building Loan Rate Back On It’s Meds at 4.375%

Aided by falling spread, apartment loan rate fights its way back below 4.5%.

10 year apartment building investment loan rates June 2015 — Click on image for full size.

The apartment building investment loan rate we track moved down from last week’s 4.532% to just under 4.5 at 4.489% aided by the spread to the 10yr Treasury (T10) compressing to 2.142 versus the week earlier 2.185. Meanwhile the T10 and the ULI rate seem determined to raise rates even if the Fed doesn’t act. And Greece is set to Continue reading Aided by falling spread, apartment loan rate fights its way back below 4.5%.

The Great Columbus Day Apartment Loan Rate Massacre and other interesting interest rate stories

What a month it was for apartment building investment loan rates. The week we were all wondering How is Columbus Day Still a Thing? The 10yr rate we track fell to a low of 4.139% with the spread between it and the 10yr Treasury (T10) breaking below 2% to 1.929 (See below for details on both). I have to hand it to the ULI, they’re good. They had just said:

“If you are waiting for someone to ring a bell and say that we have reached the bottom, consider the bell rung. Think twice about ignoring these record-low levels.”

It only lasted a week but the rate stayed below 4.5% through the end of the month:

As you can see, that one week the spread was also well below its six month average while the T10 got as low as 2.15%, territory it hadn’t seen since the middle of June 2013. We finally got some updated numbers on the ULI rate which would have been nice to have in real time as it was stepping down consistently for six weeks starting in the middle of September, foreshadowing the Continue reading The Great Columbus Day Apartment Loan Rate Massacre and other interesting interest rate stories

Apartment Building 10yr Loan Rates: Is 4.5% The Lower Limit?

The apartment building investment loan rate we track was down to the high 4.5s the last couple weeks of August and clocked in today at 4.603%. The spread between it and the 10 year Treasury has been trending above the 120 day average for five weeks and I’ll have more on that below. The ULI <60LTV rate has been noisy and almost looks like it’s fighting to continue lower:

10 Year Treasury versus Apartment Building Loan Rates Sept 8 2014 — Click for full size image.

While the ULI rate works its way south, it seems like 4.5% is the hard boundary for the Continue reading Apartment Building 10yr Loan Rates: Is 4.5% The Lower Limit?

Suburban Apartment Building Development Returns Bringing New Competition

In an Axiometrics piece out today “Multifamily Completions Will Continue to Rise” they had a chart showing apartment building completions versus starts lagged 1 year:

Why lagged 1 year? Because “the Census Bureau’s average length of time from start to completion for projects with 20 or more units was Continue reading Suburban Apartment Building Development Returns Bringing New Competition

10yr Apartment Investment Loan Rate Steady While ULI <60LTV Rate Drifts Lower

The apartment building loan rate we track remains in the 4.6-4.7% range where it’s been since the middle of July. Meanwhile the ULI <60% LTV loan rate has fallen 10 basis points over the same period with its spread to the 10 year Treasury coming in from 1.32% to 1.27%. That’s a very slim margin indicating a very competitive market for those loans. Typically the 10yr apartment loan rate loosely tracks the ULI rate with a lag so we’re hoping to see the rate come in a little more for deals closing in the next few months.

While everyone seems to ‘know’ that rates must be going up influential economist Anatole Kaletsky (the Kal in GaveKal Research) makes a pretty convincing argument that the central bankers in the US, UK and Europe will be following their contemporaries over at the Bank of Japan, keeping rates ‘lower for longer’ in a piece out this week from Evergreen/GaveKal. Note that registration is required but they will only send you the weekly ‘Virtual Advisor’.

About the spread between the T10 and the apartment building rate we track, Continue reading 10yr Apartment Investment Loan Rate Steady While ULI <60LTV Rate Drifts Lower

Apartment Building Investment Still Leads as CRE Prices Up 11% YoY in CoStar’s Repeat Sales Indexes

CoStar is out with their latest Commercial Repeat Sale Indices (CCRSI) showing that:

Commercial Real Estate prices post double-digit annual gains in May
Momentum picks up in the General Commercial segment
Improvements in market fundamentals underpin growth in commercial property pricing
Capital flows remain healthy
Distress levels continue to dissipate
See link for numbers and details-

CoStar has been tracking the indexes of repeat commercial real estate sales since 1996. Note that the Value Weighted index is driven mostly by core properties while the Equal Weighted index is mostly driven by smaller, non-core property sales.

For apartment building investors the good news is that Continue reading Apartment Building Investment Still Leads as CRE Prices Up 11% YoY in CoStar’s Repeat Sales Indexes

Apartment Investment Loan Rates Remain in 4.6-4.7% Range As Spread To Treasury 10yr Holds

The apartment building loan rate we track came in today at 4.765% (see below for loan details), making it 22 straight weeks below the five percent mark. The spread to the 10 year Treasury (T10) also remained in the 2.1 and change range where it’s been since the beginning of March, indicating that the very competitive market for multifamily loans continues on.

For the gold plated ULI less than 60% LTV loan the spread dropped into the 1.2s from the 1.3 range where it had been holding since late February, taking the implied rate for these core institutional apartment loans down to 3.77%.

Speaking of the spread between the T10 and the Continue reading Apartment Investment Loan Rates Remain in 4.6-4.7% Range As Spread To Treasury 10yr Holds

Apartment Building Investment Rocks Q2 across the US (video)

That happy feet sound you hear is coming from apartment building investors as they see their results from the second quarter:

Rents Up
Vacancy Down
New Supply Being Absorbed as soon and it’s built

Here’s the video report from MPF Research:

And it’s not just the usual Continue reading Apartment Building Investment Rocks Q2 across the US (video)