Building on a commitment to developing young talent, Arbor has added another meaningful milestone to its tradition of excellence, launching the Arbor Scholarship Award Powered by Project Destined. It awards two students who embody high integrity, persistence, and a passion for a commercial real estate career with $1,000 and provides mentorship from Arbor executives.
For more than 30 years, Arbor has been committed to growing financial partnerships that meaningfully impact communities nationwide. From planting trees to celebrate closed loans to supporting environmental organizations, our work has always been a win-win for our financial partners and the planet. But just as leaves change with each passing season, Arbor’s branding is evolving to seize the moment by embracing our roots with True Colors.
Since the Fannie Mae Green Rewards program launched in 2015, green financing has become a mainstay of commercial real estate. In addition to reducing the environmental impact of multifamily housing, the Green Rewards program creates a triple bottom line with increased cash flows, higher quality housing, and lower energy and water usage. With a high upside and little downside, the program is well worth multifamily borrowers’ consideration.
From California wildfires to rising sea levels to Florida hurricanes, the direct and indirect risks of climate change have grown in recent years, making a more substantial impact on the multifamily sector. As the need for sustainability becomes increasingly apparent, lawmakers and lenders have advanced programs and policies that show “going green” is a win-win.
As housing costs spiral, rental affordability has become a more urgent issue, burdening a greater number of Americans. Arbor’s Affordable Housing Trends Report Spring 2024, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, examines the major policies and programs shaping the marketplace at a time when overdue federal funding expansions have increased agency budgets.
In front of professionals and executives from more than 120 companies at the Real Estate Pride Roundtable in New York City in April, dozens of speakers shared honest perspectives on how far the commercial real estate industry has come on LGBTQ+ inclusion and how much more it has to go.
Lifestyle renters — those who have the means to own but prefer to rent or are willing to pay more for apartments with amenities — have become a key driver of rental demand in single-family rental homes, build-to-rent communities, and other types of high-quality multifamily housing. With this small yet influential demographic growing, our research teams examine and explain the factors driving lifestyle renter demand.
On balance, the SFR sector continues to demonstrate strength amid economic turmoil, attracting increased attention from the broader multifamily investment community.
Although headwinds persist, solid national economic growth and the strength of multifamily fundamentals indicate it’s time to recalibrate for a soft landing, write Ivan Kaufman, Arbor’s Chairman and CEO, and Sam Chandan, Founding Director of the C.H. Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business. Historically stable in times of adversity, the rental housing market is well-equipped to thrive in today’s evolving economic environment.
From California to Maui, the frequency and scope of wildfire events are rising, causing insurance markets and public agencies to reevaluate property in areas at risk for catastrophic damage. As a result, rental housing providers are seeing greater limitations to coverage, higher premium prices, and, in some cases, a total absence of viable private insurance — a trend detailed in the NMHC 2023 State of Multifamily Risk Survey and Report. This troubling new trend has placed many rental housing operators in a bind where they must simultaneously contend with the declining availability and affordability of insurance options.
In the last three years, multifamily construction has reached levels not seen since the 1980s, supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. If you are exploring the acquisition, refinancing, rehabilitation, or new construction of conventional multifamily, affordable housing, seniors housing, or a healthcare facility, consider FHA multifamily construction loans, a stable financing option with excellent terms and many other attractive advantages.
While the single-family rental (SFR) sector’s rent growth averages have retreated from record highs, structural tailwinds are keeping price growth positive — both nationally and in major SFR markets. In this research brief, Chandan Economics and Arbor Realty Trust analyze DBRS Morningstar data, which covers the top 20 MSAs by SFR activity, to discover the metropolitan areas where SFR rent growth is the hottest right now.
Fannie Mae recently announced that its Small Loan cap has increased from $6 million to $9 million for all loans committed as of August 22, 2023. Multifamily borrowers and lenders have praised the change to the Fannie Mae Small Loans program, which will encourage greater investment in a rapidly growing sector where demand remains high despite market volatility.
As Baby Boomers reach retirement age, their evolving geographic preferences are strengthening housing markets and local economies in new locations, which feature attractive climates, relative affordability, and ample outdoor activities. With swelling populations of senior citizens, our top five emerging metropolitan areas for retiree relocation are fertile ground for multifamily real estate investment.
More than halfway through 2023, the single-family rental (SFR) sector continues to demonstrate why it deserves the attention of multifamily investors. Arbor’s Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, provides an inside look at this high-performing sector where SFR/build-to-rent (BTR) construction starts are breaking records amidst the ongoing challenges of elevated interest rates, tighter underwriting standards, and historically high cap rates.
Arbor has originated billions of dollars in multifamily loans over the last three decades through our long-term partnerships with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), consistently outperforming quarterly projections. Known industrywide as a top multifamily lender, Arbor has the unique ability to maximize investment portfolios with the type of personal touch not seen anywhere else.
Through the first half of 2023, market disruptions have had limited impact on the overall performance of the small multifamily subsector even as prices fell and cap rates climbed. Arbor’s Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report Q3 2023, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, delivers data-driven analysis on the subsector’s structural health, shaping its positive outlook.
After the historic rental housing bull run of the 2010s and the early 2020s, the open question is: can it maintain this momentum over the next cycle? While the answer is highly debatable, trends in demographics, preferences, and market conditions show the presence of significant tailwinds that will continue to propel investment prospects forward. Chandan Economics, Arbor’s research partner, analyzed historical data from the U.S. Census Bureau to project how Generation Z could impact the future of the rental housing market.