Elevated mortgage interest rates and high home prices boosted demand for single-family rentals (SFR) last year, supporting the growth of rents in almost all of the 100 largest metropolitan areas. Pricing momentum, which averaged 4.5% nationally, was concentrated in affordable markets in the Northeast and Midwest, an analysis of Zillow’s Observed Rent Index data shows.
Increasingly, single-family rental (SFR) operators have been relying on build-to-rent (BTR) development to satisfy their inventory needs. The popularity of BTR communities made economies of scale possible for the SFR sector in the recovery after the 2007 housing crisis and continues to fill a housing need nationwide. Now, newly released U.S. Census Bureau data shows that SFR development activity remained robust even as its momentum slowed, moving the sector into a more stable equilibrium.
With political headwinds reshaping the corporate responsibility landscape, commercial real estate (CRE) leaders, policymakers, and academics recently gathered in New York City for the NYU Stern Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance’s 3rd Annual Symposium on Innovation & Sustainable Real Estate to discuss the future of sustainable real estate finance, investment, operations, and technology. In a series of panel discussions, industry leaders offered their perspectives on how sustainability is evolving in a new political environment and why green policies still make business sense.
Rental housing remains uniquely positioned for continued growth in an environment of economic volatility and political uncertainty, Dr. Sam Chandan, founding director of the C.H. Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of Chandan Economics, asserts in his video overview of Arbor’s Special Report Spring 2025.
Arbor’s Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report Q1 2025, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, examines a key commercial real estate sector that consistently shows stability amid ongoing economic volatility. Small multifamily continues to show positive trends in key indicators, such as asset valuations, originations volume, and construction, signaling that the sector should continue to overpower headwinds as it builds on its ongoing momentum.
With construction activity continuing to vary according to market, newly released U.S. Census Bureau data reveals emerging trends in multifamily building permits issued and how supply dynamics are poised to impact rent pricing patterns in the nation’s top 100 markets.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced that new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) rules designed to boost housing production are now in effect. The new rules bring more favorable debt service coverage ratios (DSCRs), loan-to-cost ratios (LTC), and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios on certain types of FHA multifamily loans, unlocking more proceeds to borrowers.
The U.S. multifamily sector finished 2024 with the wind at its sails, as the market settled into a more normalized cycle. Rental demand continued to be driven by solid wage growth and household formation, as well as high home prices leading many would-be-homebuyers to consider lifestyle renting.
Arbor is committed to diversity and inclusion, employee satisfaction, and human rights. We also strive to develop safe and sustainable products and services.
Affordable housing and the extension of financing to customers investing in affordable housing is not a new concept for Arbor. In fact, Arbor has, for more than two decades, funded affordable loans and has the expertise required to execute across a variety of lending platforms and programs. Arbor was also an early and active participant in our agency partners’, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, “green” lending programs, which require willing borrowers to make improvements to their properties that help reduce energy and water consumption and lower utility costs to tenants. Furthermore, Arbor has made a commitment to educating its employees and engaging with its clients to make known the newly revamped “green” lending programs offered by our agency partners.
Our people remain at the core of who we are and how we define ourselves, and so we are proud to have partnered with two organizations to actively support the recruitment, development, and retention of diverse professionals across our organization.
Arbor has continued to grow its partnership with Project Destined (“PD”), a real estate finance-focused internship program, providing minority college students with the ability to gain and fine tune technical, financial and leadership skills and which, as a by-product, gives us the opportunity to source additional diverse talent. Six talented Arbor employees, representing several different areas of our business, represented Arbor as mentors in PD’s Summer 2022 and Spring 2023 sessions and looks forward to another great year of partnership in 2024 and beyond.
Additionally, Arbor continues to participate with Future Housing Leaders (“FHL”), which is a Fannie Mae-led recruiting service that helps companies create a more diverse workforce through intentional sourcing and recruiting.
We look forward to nurturing and evolving these partnerships over time, helping to shape future leaders from a variety of backgrounds with the active participation of our existing employees and the support of management.
Arbor also encourages its employees to support industry-focused organizations and committees that are committed to creating, launching, and managing DEI initiatives within our space. Such organizations include Commercial Real Estate Women Network (CREW) and the CRE Finance Council (CREFC) Women’s Network.
We plan to continue developing initiatives and supporting organizations that ultimately further espouse our DEI goals and values.
Arbor actively encourages its employees to support the communities in which we live and operate. Each year, Arbor and its employees support local food banks, and clothing drives, hospitals and medical research, and community-based organizations focused on the welfare of families and children.
As part of Arbor’s support of volunteerism and philanthropy amongst our employees, Arbor introduced a series of volunteer activities across its offices in 2023. Further, we continue to proudly support our clients and counterparties in their charitable efforts.
