Current Reports

Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report Q3 2024

The single-family rental (SFR) sector’s performance surged again last quarter, demonstrating its ability to thrive in all economic cycles. SFR construction continued its record-breaking ascent as CMBS activity blossomed. Arbor’s Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report Q3 2024, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, examines the sector’s fundamentals as would-be homeowners weigh the rent-vs-buy calculation.

Articles

Could Build-to-Rent Be a Solution to Housing’s ‘Missing Middle’ Problem?

Did you know that at the same time many renters navigate a housing market with limited affordable options, new apartment development continues to be held back by World War II-era zoning restrictions? In many localities, regulations introduced in the mid-1940s have choked the multifamily pipeline for decades, creating a “missing middle” that leaves low-income renters in a lurch.

Articles

Build-to-Rent Construction Continues Its Record-Breaking Ascent

Increasingly, single-family rental (SFR) operators have been relying on build-to-rent (BTR) development to bridge the housing gap, accelerating the momentum of SFR construction through 2024’s halfway point. Both total SFR/BTR housing starts and BTR’s share of all single-family housing starts reached new record highs in the second quarter, setting the stage for another banner year.

Current Reports

Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report Q3 2024

The small multifamily outlook continues to brighten as more signs indicate a normalization has already begun. In the second quarter, originations activity and borrowing conditions improved as completions sat at a five-decade high, Arbor’s Small Multifamily Investment Trends Report Q3 2024, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, shows. While the subsector’s fundamentals are trending up, it still has room for growth when interest rate relief arrives.

Articles

Top Markets for Multifamily Permitting in 2024’s First Half

While the overall pace of new multifamily permitting per capita in the U.S. slowed recently, it has picked up momentum in pockets of the country, especially the Midwest. In the first two quarters of 2024, Madison, WI, Columbus, OH, and Omaha, NE, were among the major metropolitan markets posting solid permitting gains, another sign of multifamily’s strength in all cycles.

Analysis

Top U.S. Multifamily Rent Growth Markets — Q2 2024

The U.S. multifamily market followed the quick pandemic contraction with a strong recovery, and has now normalized into a more stable cycle. Demand remained strong across the country, with a wide variety of markets among the leaders for rent growth.

Articles

Affordable Housing Supports Positive Physical and Mental Health

Did you know that more U.S. renters now spend over 30% of their income on housing and utilities than at any other time on record? Limited affordable housing options not only increase the rent burdens of low-income tenants but disrupt physical and mental health, underscoring the need for the creation and preservation of more affordable housing units nationwide. Quality affordable housing adds stability to communities and supports healthier environments that can significantly improve well-being.

General: 800.ARBOR.10

Multifamily lender Arbor Realty Trust offers $2 million rental assistance program for May and June

Arbor Realty Trust offers rental assistance program

Program allows unemployed tenants to repay rent once they’re back to work

One of Fannie Mae’s top 10 multifamily lenders, Arbor Realty Trust, has launched a $2 million rental assistance program to help tenants who’ve lost their jobs due to COVID-19. The program advances May and June rent payments and allows tenants to repay once they’re re-employed.

Focusing on tenants who live in multifamily properties financed through Arbor, the program not only fills the gap of rent for the tenants but also protects the property owners of those buildings, the company said in a statement.

“The next few months will be very difficult for many renters whose incomes have been significantly impacted by COVID-19,” Arbor’s President and CEO Ivan Kaufman said in an email to HousingWire. “We certainly realize that, and in a proactive effort to supplement government relief efforts and leverage private capital to protect the multifamily ecosystem, we created a unique program that will help thousands of the tenants across the nation.”

Here’s how the program works: Arbor is contributing $1 million to the program and participating property owners will match Arbor’s advances, dollar-for-dollar, totaling $2 million. The property owners must invest at least $10,000 and up to $100,000 in the program. Those property owners then work with their tenants to complete the online application, and the funds are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

To qualify, tenants must:
– Live in a property of an Arbor borrower who agrees to participate in the program and match Arbor’s funds
– Currently pay $2,000 or less in monthly rent
– Be in good standing with consistent on-time payments
– Submit proof of 30% income decline via an employer letter
– Provide documentation of unemployment and/or insurance benefits, government assistance and other forms of income sources

With May’s rent due in a week, an Arbor spokesman said its goal is to review the applications within 48 hours and notify the property owners so they can update the tenants. If approved, the advance payment goes to the property owner to cover the tenant’s rental payment. The tenants then have up to three years to pay back the May and June rent payments at zero interest, the spokesman said.

A company spokesman said the rental assistance program could help as many as 2,000 and 3,000 tenants.