Gray Capital

Multifamily Investment Picture Keeps Improving Compared to the prevailing uncertainties of 2023, a better view of the multifamily market and its driving forces points to increased investment activity as the year progresses. Significant challenges remain for apartment operators in 2024, but greater clarity on apartment construction, interest rates, housing demand, and the economy, alongside pent-up…

Are We Underestimating Apartment Demand? The enormous amount of apartment supply expected this year should temper any expectations of apartment demand, but newly-published research on the topic argues that U.S. housing needs are far larger than can be addressed even with the historic amount of multifamily completions last year and forecasted for this year. On…

Where Will Apartment Supply Hit Hardest? With record levels of new apartment supply a near-certainty for 2024, finding the markets with the most attractive balance of supply and demand will be a priority for multifamily investors. Asset valuations remain in flux given the sluggish apartment sales market, but greater optimism and clarity on interest rates…

Will the Multifamily Market Reignite? A number of potential scenarios could restart activity in the multifamily market, with rate cuts, pent-up investor demand, loan maturities, and continued operational challenges among the possible factors that could close the buy/sell gap and motivate more apartment property sales. Multifamily asset performance faces near-term pressures from increased apartment supply…

Private Credit and Multifamily Survival Recent reporting on commercial real estate financing has highlighted the role of private credit in providing funding for CRE sponsors/owners and delaying the need for a capital call, and despite the expectation of interest rate reductions later in the year, it is clear that private credit will remain an important…

Hardened Investors in a Softening Year for CRE The view of multifamily market fundamentals continues to clarify, with near-universal expectations of elevated apartment supply that could extend the current rent growth stagnation through the end of the year. While there is little evidence that rent growth will trend lower in 2024 compared to 2023, an…

New Year, Same Challenges—but an End in Sight Recent forecasts and expectations for the 2024 CRE and multifamily markets are not very much different than the discussions heading into 2023: Economic uncertainty, expense burdens, high interest rates, and historic amounts of new apartment supply will be major factors for multifamily asset performance next year the…

Bridge Loans and Soft Landings News of potential interest rate cuts continue to dominate the conversation, but unlike the stock market’s rally, discussion in the CRE markets is more guarded and cautious about the potential opportunities and relief that might come in 2024. While the coming year may not include a full-blown recession, most of…

Federal Reserve: 3 Rate Cuts in 2024 On the heels of a CPI report showing inflation on the slow decline, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced that the FOMC would keep the federal funds rate at its current level, with 3 rate cuts expected in 2024. Stock markets reacted with the typical enthusiasm associated with…

Chill Sets in for Multifamily Borrowers With rent growth reports showing near-zero percent rent growth for the year, multifamily borrowers, investors, and operators face continuing challenges that will require active solutions rather than passively waiting for a more favorable interest rate environment. With the year-end approaching, apartment operators and asset managers will have a full…