In this video, REIS Chief Economist and Senior Vice President Victor Calanog provides a quick update on first quarter 2017 multifamily property/apartment building market fundamentals and trends. Highlights include:
- National vacancy rate for multifamily properties ending the first quarter of 2017 at 4.3%, down 10 basis points from the end of the prior quarter
- Vacancy reate is unchanged versus a year prior
- Market participants are paying a lot of attention to the 250,000 units expected to come on line in 2017
- Asking rents grew a meager 0.3% in the quarter, with effective rent growth even lower at 0.2%
- Effective rent growth is the weakest since the recovery began in the first quarter of 2010
- Concessions are increasing as the market becomes more competitive for owners
- Vacancy remains in the low 4s (%)
- Some increase in multifamily vacancy is expected as new units become available
- A slowdown in new completions is expected by 2019
- Much attention will be on 2017 and 2018 as market participants attempt to assess the effect of the large slug of new inventory hitting the market