Low rates and rosy assumptions about how much rent properties might collect helped fuel the record $5 trillion debt boom in U.S. commercial real estate over the past decade.

Upticks in prices of industrial and multifamily assets and some alternative property types this fall resulted in increases in overall Commercial Property Price Indexes of the three major market trackers.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent Payment Tracker found 80.4 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by November 6 in its survey of 11.5 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country.

Fallout from missed rent payments is threatening a swath of the U.S. population, as the expiration of eviction bans draws near.

Thousands of apartments stood empty in August 2020 that had been occupied only a few months before in urban cores across the country, including in previously white-hot markets like San Francisco and New York.

On Sept. 1, U.S. health officials announced they would suspend evictions across the United States to help stem further spread of the novel coronavirus.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent Payment Tracker found 90.6 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by October 20 in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country.

U.S. states saw another 840,000 jobless claims filed last week, as the number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment insurance benefits each week continues to hover at a historically high level.

On Oct. 1, just hours before the first reports of the news that President Donald Trump had tested positive for Covid-19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package. Among the elements in the bill: a complete ban on eviction filings over nonpayment. That’s a far stronger action than Congress or the White House has taken previously. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will allow the state’s ban on residential foreclosures and evictions to expire Oct. 1.

There has been stable occupancy and rental collections in 2020 despite the pandemic. As a result, some investors are now betting big on manufactured housing communities.

The National Apartment Association (NAA) announced today that it is taking legal action against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its nationwide eviction moratorium, joining the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) in its lawsuit challenging the legality of the federal agency’s order.

Blackstone Group Inc. is pouring more cash into mobile-home parks, a corner of the commercial real estate market that is holding up in the pandemic.

A surge in the share of mortgages 90 days or more overdue in June is a signal the U.S. could be heading toward a foreclosure crisis, according to a CoreLogic report on Wednesday.

The Trump administration announced a sweeping federal eviction moratorium on Tuesday, offering protections for struggling renters that go far beyond the previous 120-day moratorium that expired in July. Under the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the administration issued a four-month ban on evictions in order to keep millions of tenants in place in the hopes of preventing the spread of coronavirus.

Real estate investors have turned to single-family rental homes, warehouses and even movie studios while the pandemic makes it harder to put capital to work in more-traditional types of commercial property.

The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for the 22nd time in 23 weeks as the economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Average U.S. mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 2.91% this week, the second-lowest level on record, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are on track to lend nearly as many dollars to apartment properties in 2020 as they did in 2019. They have even loosened rules created in the early months of the COVID-19 crisis that required new multifamily borrowers keep enough reserves on hand to ensure they could make loan payments for as long as 18 months.

Millions of apartment residents have fallen behind on their rent payments, according to data from the U.S. Census—and the damage is likely to spread as the economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus continues.

The pandemic is pushing homeowners out of the big cities and into rural and suburban areas, pushing up home prices in previously sleepy towns.

A big part of COVID-19 relief policy in the early days of the crisis was a ban on evictions. At the federal level that included a 120-day ban on evictions as part of the CARES Act, which has now expired.

The number of empty apartments for rent in Manhattan soared to their highest level in recent history, topping 13,000, as residents fled the city and landlords struggled to find new tenants.

Average U.S. mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to an all-time low of 2.88% this week, the eighth time in 2020 the weekly rate has set a record in a Freddie Mac series that goes back almost five decades.

Typically, June 30 is the biggest day for affordable housing deals in New York City. It’s the end of the fiscal year, so developers race to close deals to get funding approval and get started building, says Rafael Cestero, president and chief executive officer of the New York-based Community Preservation Corporation. One of the nation’s largest financial backers of affordable housing, the nonprofit he leads has a $3.5 billion portfolio of active construction loans and mortgages. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 22 million Americans living in 6.8 million manufactured homes across the U.S.  After years of decline starting in the late 1990’s, manufactured housing has been rising in popularity over the last few years. 

South Florida construction starts took a nosedive in June, continuing the trend since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Investment sales volumes in the commercial real estate sector fell nearly 70 percent as the massive economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic ground deal making activity nearly to a halt. Data from CoStar and Real Capital Analytics showed a similar drop in magnitude although the latest price indices show only a slight decline in values, evidence that a mass repricing of assets has yet to take place.

Americans are struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout. According to a report compiled by Apartment List, 36% of renters and 30% of homeowners did not make full on-time payments in July.

With strong rent collections reported on the local and national levels, multifamily has fared better than other asset classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many investors and operating partners put their pencils down because they couldn’t find assets, one multifamily executive says he is seeing investor demand start to pick back up. However, sellers have been a little slower to come back.

The clock is ticking in Washington D.C. In a few weeks, a federal emergency program will stop distributing extra funds to people who lost jobs in the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus. That could cause a huge number of renters to fall behind on their rents and eventually lose their homes.

The Green Street Commercial Property Price Index was unchanged in June. Price adjustments reflecting the economic slowdown and uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic were incorporated into index values several months ago. The headline all-property index is down 11% from pre-Covid levels.

Verde Capital Corp., a private equity and investment management company, is negotiating a sale of several hundred apartments in Northern New Jersey. A buyer has agreed to pay $75 million, or roughly $250,000 per unit for the property, which Verde owns in partnership with a local real estate family.

The United States has reported record increases in coronavirus cases with spikes seen in states well underway in their reopening progress. The rising case numbers have caused states to alter their recovery plans, delay reopening measures and even re-institute restricitions on businesses. Data from key sectors could help illustrate the impact these changes have on the country’s economic progress. 

COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected rent prices across the nation as 2 in 3 renters were financially impacted by the pandemic and in-person touring came to a halt in March and April. With so much uncertainty and need of affordability, we used our data to grab a snapshot of what rent prices looked like the week of March 15th (when Shelter-in-Place and Stay-at-Home orders began to be enacted) and compared that to the week of June 15th to see the top cities with prices on a downward trajectory.

MHInsider magazine, the premier trade journal for the manufactured housing industry, in May published the second annual State of the Industry edition. A central component to the edition is the visual treatment of manufactured housing industry data we and our industry partners provide. The data infographic on manufactured housing industry trends provides a quick, graphic overview of the state of the industry.

U.S. sales of previously owned homes dropped in May by more than forecast to the lowest level since October 2010 as the coronavirus pandemic sent demand skidding along with the rest of the economy.

Some lucky multifamily developers will start work on new apartment projects at the perfect time, as the U.S. begins to recover from the economic crisis caused by the COVID pandemic.

Looking at monthly changes, all of the top 10 priciest cities either had flat or declining rents. It seems the pandemic has shifted the demand for apartments away from the most expensive cities, since usually demand picks up as we head into summer but now the opposite is true. As more and more companies move into remote work, many renters don’t want to pay the big city price tag when they are unable to use the amenities and are looking for more affordable options outside of large, metropolitan areas.  

As the U.S. economy makes further progress in recovering from the harsh blow of the coronavirus pandemic, certain industries are showing signs of recovery. Home purchases are up compared to last year, reservations are increasing at restaurants and hotel occupancy rates are on the rise. Even the battered air travel industry has seen some slight growth in passengers, indicating that the worst might be over for the U.S. economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified a demographic shift that could affect the top markets for multifamily construction for years to come.

Nearly half of commercial retail rents were not paid in May. Companies as big as Starbucks say the financial devastation from the shutdown has left them unable to pay their full property bills on time. Some companies warn they will not be able to pay rent for months.

CNBC’s Kelly Evans and Diana Olick discuss the home shortage and the health of the housing market amid the pandemic with Tim Mayopoulos, former Fannie Mae CEO.

It may be months before buyers and sellers understand what apartment properties are worth in an economy hobbled by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Despite mass unemployment and underemployment, multifamily rental payments have held up far better than many industry experts expected amid the economic wreckage caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jobless claims were up by another 2.98 million last week, but within the bleak report, economists see a small sign of encouragement in the fact that the record number of continuing claims rose by less than half a million.

This was supposed to be a year marked by a healthy amount of new multifamily supply, as some 300,000 units were on pace to open by the end of 2020. But federal, state and local stay-at-home orders and other responses to the coronavirus pandemic will likely reduce that to around 250,000 units, according to projections by commercial real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap and REIS, the property research arm of Moody’s Analytics.

Following an unprecedented 20.5 million drop in payroll last month, the April unemployment rate reached a record 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Sam Zell, chairman and founder of Equity Group Investments Inc., discusses current market valuations and what the post-coronavirus world may look like. Zell, the billionaire known for buying up troubled real estate, said the Covid-19 pandemic will leave the same kind of impact on the economy and society as the Great Depression 80 years ago, with long-lasting changes in human behavior that imperil many business models. He speaks in an exclusive 40-minute interview with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker.

The United States has had more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with a death count approaching 70,000, as of Monday. And new reporting from the New York Times revealed that the Trump administration is "privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1 [...] nearly double from the current level of about 1,750."

Manufactured housing properties are not only surviving the economic crisis created by the spread of the novel coronavirus. By some accounts the sector is thriving compared to other types of real estate.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria told HousingWire last month that his expectation was that approximately 1 million GSE mortgages would be in forbearance by May, but as the calendar flipped to May, it appears that Calabria undershot that projection by a sizable margin.

On the heels of worse-than-anticipated first-quarter GDP data, investors got additional economic data Thursday to reflect the ongoing damage being done to the U.S. economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the last week of April, 91.5 percent of renters across the U.S. have paid some or all of their rent, but industry leaders are urging lawmakers to provide more assistance for renters as they brace for how payments will pan out in May.

Class-C apartment tenants have been badly hurt by the economic shutdown precipitated by the novel coronavirus, crushing their ability to pay rents, thereby putting strain on those properties’ owners to continue to cover costs and mortgage payments.

Protection measures against the coronavirus continued to tear through the employment ranks, with 5.245 million more Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Every part of the US economy will be altered by COVID-19. Commercial property is no exception. Coordinated efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 have abruptly halted much of the global economy.

Nearly a third of U.S. apartment renters didn’t pay any of their April rent during the first week of the month, according to new data to be released Wednesday by the National Multifamily Housing Council and a consortium of real-estate data providers.

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the economy is in the throes of an “absolutely shocking” downturn that is not reflected yet in the current data.

JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon said Monday he expects the coronavirus crisis to include a “bad recession” and elements of financial strain similar to the 2008 downturn.

The average rents on apartments are already dropping, as the U.S. economy grinds to a halt and millions of workers have lost their jobs, been furloughed or have been asked to stay home to fight the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential said it will halt evictions and rent increases for 90 days on its thousands of apartments across the country in response to the coronavirus emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy, and data released Thursday morning reflected the severe damage being done to the labor market.

To date, U.S. economic data has done little to reflect the expected negative impacts from coronavirus-related slowdowns.

Until Monday.

The New York Federal Reserve released its latest Empire State Manufacturing survey Monday morning, which showed the report’s index of business conditions fell to its lowest level since 2009.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn told CNBC on Friday he expects the U.S. commercial real estate market will crumble, much like the broader housing market collapse of 2008.

The global flight to the safety government debt continued on Friday as investors piled into U.S. Treasurys and sent the yield on the 10-year note to record lows.

Fears related to the potential global economic fallout from the coronavirus sparked a meteoric drop in the stock market last week, including a more than 4,000-point plunge in the Dow. Even as jittery global stock markets have worked to claw back from steep losses in trading this week, the question is how much of that contagion will spill over to impact commercial real estate?

The Federal Reserve announced an emergency rate cut Tuesday of half a percentage point in response to the growing economic threat from the novel coronavirus.

The average U.S. fixed rate for a 30-year mortgage fell to 3.45% this week, matching the three-year low set three weeks ago.

The rate declined as global money managers spooked by the coronavirus named Covid-19 piled into the U.S. bond markets, boosting competition for securities back by home loans.

One of the best-performing investments since last decade’s housing crash: trailer parks.

From the March 2009 stock-market bottom, shares of big mobile-home park owners Sun Communities Inc. SUI-0.44% and Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc. ELS +0.03% have returned a tech-like 4,137% and 1,186%, respectively, counting price changes and dividend payments. The S&P 500’s return has been 499%.

The Apartment Guide 2020 Annual Rent Report highlights current trends and price fluctuations that renters may experience in various places across the United States. The report compares rent prices for studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments to determine which areas of the country or cities are becoming more expensive or more affordable for renters.

The top 10 markets saw a mixture of growth rates in this report. New York City and Washington D.C. were both on upward year-ver-year trends: New York City one bedroom rent was up nearly 8%, while D.C. two bedroom rent was up over 15%. On the flip side, cities that had rents down on all fronts, both on a monthly and year over year basis, included Seattle and San Diego.

South Florida will see nearly 16,000 apartments delivered this year, leading rents to flatten in markets with added supply, according to a recently released report.

Apartment rents have risen steadily across the country and while most people know that the cities with the most expensive rents include markets in the Bay Area and New York City, those markets did not see the largest growth on a percentage basis in the past decade.

Apartment List’s first quarterly Renter Migration Report of the new decade!

Conventional wisdom says the Federal Reserve won’t cut rates during an election year, to avoid looking like it’s favoring one candidate over another – unless there’s an economic shock so severe, it’s forced to act.

Who loves the sun? More Americans than ever, according to U-Haul.

The combination of strong fundamentals, low interest rates and intense interest from investors should make for another white hot year for the multifamily sector.

Weekly earnings for employees of small businesses grew at an annual rate of 4.1% at the end of the year, the fastest pace since the Paychex/IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch began.

We asked seven economists and researchers about their 2020 predictions for the U.S. commercial real estate market.

Forget Seattle, Denver and San Francisco. Boise, Idaho, is poised to be the hottest housing market at the start of the next decade.

After a strong year in multifamily housing, expect an even stronger one in 2020, according to RealPage Chief Economist Greg Willett.

As high-net-worth (HNW) investors and family offices mull next year’s opportunities in commercial real estate, they might want to keep the multifamily mantra in mind.

On the whole, the nation’s housing prices continued to rise throughout this year and are expected to continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

The nation’s low mortage rates were the main driver of homebuyer demand throughout 2019, spurring an uptick in home sales across the country. But as more homeowners flocked to the market, housing inventory, which has been on a steady decline since the housing crisis, fell in housing markets from the east to the west.

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate unchanged on Wednesday and signaled it plans to hold steady through 2020, barring unexpected economic news.

The pace of rising home prices quickened in September and existing home sales ticked up 1.9 percent.

In December, the majority of the nation’s rental prices either declined or remained relatively flat during the month, Zumper said in its National Rent Report.

Just over a year ago, mortgage rates nearly hit 5%, levels that hadn’t been seen since the early part of this decade. But as we get ready to move into a new decade, mortgage rates are more than a full percentage point lower than that, comfortably back in the 3-4% range.

In the U.S., 24-hour cities—the cities that essentially are up all night—translate mainly to the coastal gateway cities: Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, 18-hour cities are often the markets with above-average urban population growth, plus a lower cost of living and lower cost of doing business relative to 24-hour cities. The poster children for this emerging class of up-and-comers have been cities like Denver, Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tenn.

Apartment rents are likely to keep rising, even if the economy continues to slow over the next year, according to industry experts.

Florida will continue growing by more than 300,000 people a year and will top 22 million residents in 2022, according to a report posted online this week by state economists.

Foreign investors continue to spend money on apartment properties in the U.S., even while they may be slowing down on purchases of assets in other sectors. In the second quarter, cross-border investors became net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate overall for the first time in seven years, according to Jim Costello, senior vice president with research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA).

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lenders are once again fighting hard to make deals.

America’s rental prices declined in September, as RentCafé indicates the nation’s average rent fell by $1 – the first decrease since 2017.

The U.S. foreclosure rate fell to the lowest level in two decades in July as a strong labor market made it easier for Americans to pay their bills.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low of 3.5% in September as the economy added 136,000 jobs, slowing from August’s upwardly revised 168,000 gain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Life insurance companies are set to create a surge in multifamily lending in 2020, according to a new study from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Investors are starting to pay less for apartment properties in markets that have some kind of rent regulation laws on the books.

Homeownership is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve — and a new report shows that relief isn’t coming any time soon.

Foreign investors continue to spend money on apartment properties in the U.S., even while they may be slowing down on purchases of assets in other sectors. In the second quarter, cross-border investors became net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate overall for the first time in seven years, according to Jim Costello, senior vice president with research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA).

The top 3 markets all saw dips in rent prices last month as New York City fell from its 3 year high and San Francisco continued its downward trend. The rankings for the top 10 saw some movement in the middle and bottom, as Washington D.C moved up to become 6th, pushing Los Angeles down to 7th, and San Diego and Anaheim move into the top cities, both tied as 10th. Oakland also had a large 5.2% monthly one bedroom rental growth rate but remained firmly as 4th.

The nation's 150 major apartment markets have seen approximately 2 million new apartments built since 2010, but there's a problem. The number of renters in those cities have increased by about 2.5 million in that same time period. And with renting an apartment becoming more popular than it has in 20 years, that leads to many markets were demand exceeds supply.

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates once again when the Federal Open Markets Committee meets in September.

Two weeks ago Jyske Bank, Denmark’s third-largest bank, shocked the world by offering mortgages with a negative interest rate. Put simply, the bank would effectively pay customers to borrow money. It’s a bit more complicated than that, however, as borrowers have to pay fees that offset the savings.

Which cities are the best real estate markets and which are the worst? If you're a real estate agent, real estate investor, homeowner, homebuyer, or considering moving, you'll likely want to know the answer to that question.

Although multifamily occupancy rates keep climbing, with apartment occupancy rates in July reaching the highest level since 2000, multifamily construction is slowing.

This decade, more than 2 million new multifamily units have been added across the US. In terms of raw numbers, this volume hasn’t been seen since the 2.4 million new units introduced in the 1980’s. However, if we consider annual new units as a percent of existing capacity, the annual average of 2% for this decade falls well short of the 5% average from the 1980’s.

Delayed multifamily project completions are putting upward pressure on rent growth at new class-A buildings, according to data from research firm the CoStar Group.

Although the housing market continues to experience a slowdown in home price appreciation, new data from Zillow suggests the nation’s rental market is thriving.

It looks like the multifamily sector is set to have another strong year thanks to a combination of factors that will fuel demand for rental housing.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note broke below the 2-year rate early Wednesday, an odd bond market phenomenon that has been a reliable, albeit early, indicator for economic recessions.

In the next year, 5% of U.S. markets are predicted to depreciate, with Louisiana holding on to its title as the state with the most depreciating markets, claiming four of the 10 spots on the bottom market list.

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter point Wednesday as an insurance policy not against what’s wrong with the economy now, but what could go wrong in the future. It was the first rate cut by the central bank in more than a decade.

San Francisco one bedroom rent hit another peak, up $20 to $3,720, as summer moving demand starts to drive up prices in this city. New York City one bedroom rent, on the other hand, took a slight dip after hitting its 3 year peak in our last rent report. 

San Francisco one bedroom rent hit another peak, up $20 to $3,720, as summer moving demand starts to drive up prices in this city. New York City one bedroom rent, on the other hand, took a slight dip after hitting its 3 year peak in our last rent report. 

In the D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, a massive apartment rental and condominium complex is going up, and apparently it can’t happen fast enough. Demand for rental apartments in and near cities across America is soaring, just when most thought it wouldn’t be. The expectation was that rental demand would fall as millennials aged into their homebuying years.

Payroll growth rebounded sharply in June as the U.S. economy added 224,000 jobs, the best gain since January and running contrary to worries that both the employment picture and overall growth picture were beginning to weaken. The unemployment rate edged up to 3.7% as labor force participation rose, according to the Labor Department.

San Francisco one bedroom rent hit another peak, up $20 to $3,720, as summer moving demand starts to drive up prices in this city. New York City one bedroom rent, on the other hand, took a slight dip after hitting its 3 year peak in our last rent report. The other top 10 markets saw some adjustments as San Jose kicked down Boston to rank as the 3rd priciest city and D.C. outpaced Los Angeles to become 5th. Oakland also fell to 7th. 

 A survey conducted by law firm Akerman LLP found 70 percent of respondents felt “more optimistic” about real estate in 2019 than last year. 

 Strong leasing activity in this young summer season has pushed occupancy to a level the nation’s apartment market hasn’t seen since the tail end of the tech boom in the early 2000s. 

(Bloomberg)—The U.S. housing slowdown is turning out to be a gift to apartment landlords. After all, those people who aren’t buying still need somewhere to live.

“The Southeast’s major metros have posted terrific apartment sector performance during this cycle,” says Greg Willett, chief economist for RealPage Inc., a provider of property management software and services based in Richardson, Texas. “Investment returns have rivaled the results generated in traditionally favored gateway markets, without the volatility sometimes seen in this part of the country during the past.”

In March, the nation’s home-sale prices remained virtually stagnant, inching backward only 0.1% from 2018 levels, according to new data from Redfin.

When it comes to real estate, gentrification might just be the touchiest subject of all. In search of reasonable housing prices, short commutes, and the tantalizing prospect of a kick-ass return on investment, professionals are moving en masse into lower-income neighborhoods. 

Borrowers have an unexpected second chance to get low-interest financing to buy or re-finance apartment properties, thanks to growing worries about the slowing U.S. economy.

Financial headlines have been full of worries about a possible recession and a downturn in commercial real estate markets. Recessions often precipitate a decline in real estate markets, but long periods of increasing construction and rising property prices may pose risks of their own.

By just about any way you look at it, 2018 was the best year for multifamily real estate this century: Renters paid more for housing than they ever have before, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae both had banner years, commercial and multifamily debt hit an all-time high, all while delinquencies remained at historic lows.