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.

General: 800.Arbor.10

Kenneth J. Bacon

Director
Kenneth J Bacon

Kenneth J. Bacon was appointed to Arbor Realty Trust’s Board of Directors in April 2020 and serves as a member on the Audit and Corporate Governance Committees.

Mr. Bacon is co-founder and managing partner of RailField Partners, an investment management firm that invests in and operates multifamily properties on behalf of institutional investors. Prior to forming RailField, he spent 19 years at Fannie Mae as the Executive Vice President of Multifamily Mortgage Business, where he grew the firm’s portfolio from $56 billion to more than $195 billion. He also managed the American Communities Fund at Fannie Mae, which was established to provide loans and equity to for-sale and rental housing developments to increase the supply of affordable housing and to revitalize communities. Before joining Fannie Mae, he was Director of the Office of Securitization for the Resolution Trust Corporation and held officer positions at Morgan Stanley and Kidder Peabody.

Mr. Bacon also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Welltower and Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Martha’s Table and is also a board member at Comcast, Ally Financial, and the Urban Institute. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Dominium, one of the nation’s largest privately-owned affordable housing development and management companies. Mr. Bacon is active in several nonprofit and trade groups, including the Board of the Real Estate Executive Council, the National Multifamily Housing Council, and the Advisory Board of the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Mr. Bacon is an alumni and former trustee of Stanford University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts. He also has a Master of Science in International Relations from the London School of Economics, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the British government in recognition of his service to the Marshall Scholars program.

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