Over the last decade, single-family rental (SFR) operators have been increasingly focusing on build-to-rent (BTR) development as the needs and preferences of renters have shifted. As explored in the latest Arbor Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report, SFR/BTR development has surged at a time when new, for-sale, single-family home starts have declined.
Less than six months since its launch, Arbor Private Construction (APC) already has a robust pipeline of executable transactions, a strong sign that Arbor’s Chairman and CEO Ivan Kaufman correctly anticipated and identified changes in the construction lending marketplace when he introduced a new proprietary financing product last fall.
When people think of tech hubs, they often imagine a familiar mix of standards such as Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York, or recent-growth markets like Austin and Miami. However, Northern Virginia is quickly becoming a bona fide technology hub in its own right.
With constantly changing market conditions, investors sometimes need access to capital with flexible terms to improve or secure an asset. Commercial bridge loans are a popular financing tool that provides borrowers with short-term capital for renovations and purchases. They are often the perfect first step in the door to the beginning of a long-term financial partnership.
On the heels of a strong 2023, the single-family rental (SFR) sector is positioned to expand even more in 2024. Build-to-rent (BTR) starts ticked up in the third quarter to reach 7.8%, another record high. With occupancy rates stable and lease renewal rent growth above historical averages, SFR has healthy fundamentals that will continue to support growth amid headwinds, Arbor’s Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report Q1 2024, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, shows.
The U.S. multifamily market continued to show signs of slowing at the end of 2023, although demand remained robust, with high home prices leading younger generations of higher-income households to choose renting over homeownership.
Arbor’s platform of diverse multifamily financing solutions and our strong industry relationships drive us to the top of the multifamily lender rankings year after year. Through decades-long partnerships with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA, our best-in-class team delivered results for our borrowers in 2023, propelling Arbor to the top of the partner rankings.
Small multifamily starts the year from a position of strength with normalizing expense ratios and healthy occupancy rates. After demonstrating resiliency amid headwinds, this subsector is ready to capitalize on any positive momentum in the financial markets. Arbor’s Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report Q1 2024, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, examines and explains the key developments every investor needs to know.
Even as home prices posted their first annual decline in over a decade in March, affordability remains an urgent economic and policy challenge. Today, no states currently have an adequate amount of affordable and available homes for their lowest-income renters. With public support for improving housing affordability growing stronger, state and local governments have been prioritizing policy solutions to close the nationwide housing gap.
Single-family rentals’ role in the U.S. housing ecosystem is malleable. In different markets, this product type serves different purposes — acting as a magnet for transient lifestyle households in some metros, while providing families with affordable access to quality public school districts in others. As a result, SFR retention rates vary dramatically across the country, depending not only on the cost of homeownership but on the purpose that single-family rentals serve in that market, creating a unique group of top markets.
Even with concerted public and private initiatives, the affordable housing shortage has persisted in cities and communities across the U.S. Arbor’s Affordable Housing Trends Report Spring 2023, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, analyzes the challenges and assesses the outlook of a sector that has gained more investor attention amid growing economic headwinds.
While the 2008 financial crisis prompted a cyclical shift in U.S. housing — impacting everything from home prices to who can qualify for a mortgage — an equally impactful demographic change was just taking shape. The unprecedented wave of Baby Boomers that began retiring would disrupt the balance of the housing market.
Even as some developers have pumped the brakes on single-family construction, construction starts of single-family rental (SFR) units soared to a new record high in 2022 — a signal that demographic and structural tailwinds continue to outweigh cyclic recessionary headwinds.
Even as the economy’s momentum slowed in 2022, multifamily construction continued to ramp up, reaching highs not seen since the 1980s. As the number of new units increased rapidly last year, the multifamily sector’s share of all new residential construction also expanded to make up more than one-third of all starts.