Analysis

U.S. Multifamily Market Snapshot — May 2025

The U.S. multifamily market continued to settle into a normalized cycle, despite ongoing uncertainties surrounding the global economy and labor market. There is a rising tide of optimism for the sector ahead and investors are continuing to take advantage of market opportunities.

Articles

Dr. Sam Chandan Dissects What’s Driving Top Market Growth

In a rapidly evolving economic environment, the top markets for multifamily investment tend to shift quickly. In this video, 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, discusses the findings of Arbor’s Top Markets for Multifamily Investment Report Spring 2025, which was developed in partnership with Chandan Economics.

Articles

Top Markets for Rental Demand Growth

Population growth, a critical factor in assessing rental housing demand, increased 0.9% in the U.S. during 2024, the fastest annual rate since 2008. However, growth rates were much higher for many markets, especially those in Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas. As first explored in Arbor’s Top Markets for Multifamily Investment Report Spring 2025, we dive deeper into metro-level population growth in markets with at least 500,000 residents to find the nation’s top markets for rental housing demand growth.

Articles

Arbor Recognized for Excellence from Agency Partners

Arbor’s platform of diverse multifamily financing solutions, combined with our strong industry relationships and our commitment to accuracy and close collaboration with our government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) partners, drives us to the top of the multifamily lender rankings year after year. Through decades-long relationships with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA, our best-in-class team delivered results for our borrowers in 2024, propelling Arbor to the top of the partner rankings.

Articles

Renters See Apartments as ‘Forever Homes’

Today’s renters are in it for the long haul. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s recently released 2025 SCE Housing Survey shows that the average renter thinks there is a two-in-three chance they will rent for the foreseeable future. With home prices and interest rates unfavorable to would-be homebuyers, we explore renters’ perceptions and how they could impact future rental housing demand.

Current Reports

Top Markets for Multifamily Investment Report Spring 2025

Arbor’s Top Markets for Multifamily Investment Report Spring 2025, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, is your roadmap to the best locations to deploy capital. Based on the findings of our exclusive Multifamily Opportunity Matrix, this in-depth analysis assesses economic strength and market capabilities to navigate evolving conditions of the top 50 largest U.S. metros.

Research

Arbor’s data-driven articles and research reports empower multifamily and single-family rental investors and developers to make more profitable financial decisions.

General: 800.ARBOR.10

Ivan Kaufman on Yahoo! Finance: Why Multifamily Outperforms

Ivan Kaufman on Yahoo Finance

COVID-19 and Demographics Shift Housing Preferences to Suburbs

Watch the full Yahoo! Finance Interview here.

There are winners and losers with COVID-19. Ivan Kaufman, the founder, chairman and CEO of Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ABR), discussed on Yahoo! Finance why Arbor and the multifamily sector have remained strong throughout the pandemic.

Apartment housing has outperformed all other asset classes, Kaufman explained to “The First Trade” co-hosts Brian Sozzi and Alexis Christoforous. “On the multifamily side, there has been only a slight drop off in rent collections and occupancy.”

With assistance from the CARES Act, “People did very well initially. They caught up with their bills. They kept their rents current,” said Kaufman. He pointed out that earlier in the crisis, unemployment hit 14% but has dropped to approximately 8% and continues to improve.

“Our baseline on people paying rent is extraordinarily good,” he stated. Conditions are beginning to return to normal. However, Kaufman projects certain challenges still lie ahead for urban areas.

Data shows that several years ago, people began leaving cities. Millennials had started to move to the suburbs to form families, and COVID-19 has accelerated the trend. Anticipating this trend, prior to the coronavirus turbulence, Arbor focused investments in suburban properties. Now, suburban housing is seeing price appreciation and greater demand with a lack in inventory.

Kaufman advises investors to look at macro trends. Numbers have been supporting suburban growth, but having kept a keen eye on telling data such as urban mobility tracking, he nonetheless projects that cities will return to normal in the future. He anticipates young people will continue to find the allure of urban areas. A year from now, looking at metropolitan universities welcoming back students, and restaurants and offices reopening, Kaufman opined most people believe the situation will be about 95% back to normal.

“It’s going to be a very bumpy fall but I think the worst is behind us,” he said.

Watch the full Yahoo! Finance Interview here.

Learn more about Arbor’s multifamily investment solutions. Contact Arbor today to see how our products could assist your business goals.