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REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

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August 27, 2015

REAL ESTATE RESEARCH
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Real Estate Research provided
analysis of topical research and
current issues in the fields of housing

The Multifamily Market: Is a Hot Market Overheating?

and real estate economics. Authors
for the blog included the Atlanta Fed's

Moody's/RCA National commercial property price index, which is based on
repeat-sales transactions, has risen 36 percent over the past two years. Such

RECENT POSTS

Jessica Dill, Kristopher Gerardi, Carl
Hudson, and analysts, as well as the

increases in commercial real estate (CRE) prices have raised concerns that the
market is overheating (see here). Multifamily is one CRE property type that for a

Assessing the Size and Spread of
Vulnerable Renter Households in

Boston Fed's Christopher Foote and
Paul Willen.

couple of years has been attracting a great deal of lender interest and thus
growing concern regarding potential overheating (see here).

the Southeast
What's Being Done to Help Renters

In December 2020, content from Real
Estate Research became part of

Looking around Midtown Atlanta, it is easy to wonder if multifamily housing

during the Pandemic?
An Update on Forbearance Trends

Policy Hub. Future articles will be
released in Policy Hub: Macroblog.

construction is getting ahead of itself. According to the Midtown Alliance, within
just a 0.5-square-mile portion of Midtown Atlanta, 981 units have been recently

Examining the Effects of COVID-19
on the Southeast Housing Market

Disclaimer

delivered, 3,392 units are under construction and 4,732 are in various stages of
planning. Dodge Pipeline reports that the entire Midtown/Five Points submarket

Southeast Housing Market and
COVID-19

has 4,865 units under way. For reference, peak activity in the Midtown/Five
Points area from 2003 to 2007 was 4,636 units under construction with a total of

Update on Lot Availability and
Construction Lending

10,831 units completed. The question arises as to what extent are happenings in
Midtown indicative of the broader market trend.

Tax Reform's Effect on Low-Income
Housing

Yield spreads—the capitalization rate on recent apartment transactions (current

Housing Headwinds
Where Is the Housing Sector

rental income divided by sales price) minus the yield on Treasury bonds—serve
as one indicator of optimism in a market. A narrow spread is consistent with

Headed?
Did Harvey Influence the Housing

reduced pricing for risk, which is associated with “frothiness.” According to Real
Capital Analytics, apartment yield spreads in the second quarter of 2015 stood at

Market?
CATEGORIES

366 basis points (bps), which is around 250 bps higher than prerecession lows
and in line with 2003–04 levels (see chart 1). So by this measure, apartment

Affordable housing goals

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activity does not appear too frothy on a nationwide market basis.

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Credit conditions
Expansion of mortgage credit
Federal Housing Authority
Financial crisis

In addition, no off-topic remarks or
spam is permitted.

Foreclosure contagion
Foreclosure laws
Governmentsponsored enterprises
GSE
Homebuyer tax credit
Homeownership
House price indexes
Household formations
Housing boom
Housing crisis
Housing demand
Housing prices
Income segregation
Individual Development Account
Loan modifications
Monetary policy
Mortgage crisis
Mortgage default
Mortgage interest tax deduction
Mortgage supply
Multifamily housing
Negative equity
Positive demand shock
Positive externalities
Of course, yield spreads vary significantly by market area and by property type.

Rental homes
Securitization

Breaking the U.S. market into six major markets (Boston; New York; Washington,
D.C.; Chicago; San Francisco; and Los Angeles) and all others reveals that the

Subprime MBS
Subprime mortgages

major markets have seen yield spreads fall relative to all other markets. (The
major markets account for 36 percent of transaction dollars with New York and

Supply elasticity
Uncategorized

San Francisco alone accounting for 20 percent of the U.S. total.) Though
shrinking during the last several quarters, the current 150 bps gap between the

Upward mobility
Urban growth

major and non-major markets is wider than at any time since 2002. One possible
explanation is that the anticipated rent growth of the projects sold in the major
markets is higher than in nonmajor markets.

So what to make of this? While multifamily markets have been active during the
postrecession period, this activity is not necessarily unjustified. Given that the
population of 20- to-34-year-olds will continue to grow, demographics point to
greater demand for rental property (see chart 2). Supply has not yet shown signs
of deteriorating fundamentals since vacancy rates have remained low as new
product has been delivered, and rent growth has held steady (see chart 3).

How long will preferences for renting persist? How long can real rents continue
to grow? How is this new activity being financed? If new projects are penciled
out using unrealistic rent growth assumptions and demand falls, rent growth
expectations won't be met and the projects may look overdone in retrospect.
Regardless of whether current activity indicates overheating, it seems important
to keep a close eye on demand.
By Carl Hudson, director for the Center for Real Estate Analytics in the
Atlanta Fed's research department
August 27, 2015 in Housing boom, Housing demand | Permalink