Category: News & Market Reports

S2 Capital Surpasses Blackstone As Most Active Buyer of Multifamily in DFW

Posted on by Sarah

Dallas-based national multifamily investor, S2 Capital has added 14 properties to its portfolio that spans both Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston—totaling 4,455 units with a total of 11 properties based here in North Texas.

According to Real Capital Analytics, S2 Capital is now the No. 1 most active buyer of multifamily in Dallas-Fort Worth in the past five years with its latest acquisition.

Each of the 14 properties was built between 1979 and 1987, and S2 has already begun planning renovations for the exterior and interior of each asset. In an attempt to “offer current and prospective residents an enhanced community experience,” some of the exterior renovations will include enhanced pools, fitness centers, leasing offices, clubhouses, and fresh paint and siding. Similarly, it plans to give each interior a facelift with new flooring, countertops, kitchen and shower tile, light fixtures, hardware, and appliances.

Scott Everett, founder and CEO of S2, told D CEO: “We believe DFW is now the best multifamily investment market in the country. You have to be bullish about a market with record in-migration, a business-friendly climate, household income growth, manageable inventory levels, and strong housing demand. We are very excited about the future of Dallas.” Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

Regional Power Center in Houston Sells to Local Investor

Posted on by Sarah

JLL Capital Markets has closed the sale of Market Square at Eldridge, a 262,556-square-foot regional power center anchored by a slate of tenants in Houston.

JLL marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Walton Street Capital, L.L.C. Houston-based Wu Properties acquired the asset.

According to Placer.Ai, Market Square at Eldridge center is in the top 5% of all U.S. shopping centers. The high-performing center is 98 percent leased to a robust mix of national tenants, including Burlington, Michaels, Party City, PetSmart, Dollar Tree, HomeGoods, Bath & Body Works, Ulta Beauty, Cato, Old Navy and Office Depot. A Target and popular membership-only retail warehouse serve as shadow anchors.

Market Square at Eldridge is positioned on 32.52 acres at 2660 Eldridge Pkwy S. in a high-traffic infill Houston location at the intersection of Westheimer Road and Eldridge Parkway, which sees more than 99,000 vehicles per day. The property is near Houston’s Energy Corridor, a major employment center. Surrounded by residential and multi-housing development, more than 161,182 residents earning an average annual household income of $90,716 live within a three-mile radius.

The JLL Retail Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Chris Gerard and Ryan West, Associate Erin Lazarus and Analyst Megan Babovec.

CREW Austin SAFE Donation Drive

Posted on by Sarah

Join us to support local women and children through the SAFE Alliance (Stop Abuse For Everyone). We will be collecting donations to support SAFE’s mission of a just and safe community free from violence and abuse at the June and July CREW Luncheons. Donations of Gift Cards, Food and Pantry items, Home goods, and Toiletries are encouraged. 

A list of SAFE’s ongoing needs can be found here.

Additional information about the SAFE Alliance can be found at //www.safeaustin.org/.

DATE
July 19, 2022

LOCATION
Westwood Country Club, West Room

TIME
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Recession-Proof REITs: Senior Housing Demand Bounces Back After Two Catastrophic Years

Posted on by Sarah

Few places seemed riskier during the early, pre-vaccine peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic than nursing homes and senior housing facilities. That includes Arbor Court Retirement of Topeka, the oldest retirement community in Topeka, Kansas.

“There was a lot of fear,” says Linda Clements, the director of business development at Arbor Court of Topeka, an independent living community for people 55 and older. Arbor Court contained the few Covid outbreaks it experienced – the 58-apartment community saw one Covid-related death. Nevertheless, like many senior housing communities, the business struggled during the pandemic to bring in new residents to fill empty apartments when residents either passed away or moved to facilities offering more medical care.

Highly publicized Covid deaths at nursing homes early in the pandemic forced many families to rethink congregate living and long-term-care plans, but experts and senior housing groups say demand is now picking back up.

Click to read more at www.forbes.com.

Higher Pay? Lower Requirements? Nothing Drawing Employees Back

Posted on by Sarah

Where are the workers? That’s a question that employers have been asking since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. And so far? No one really knows.

A June report from the ADP Research Institute demonstrates just how serious the shortage of workers has been for employers. Citing numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ADP reports that in March of this year, total public and private employment is 822,000 workers short of what it was in February of 2020. Part of the reason is that so many employees have quit since the pandemic started.

ADP, again citing numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that the number of people who quit their jobs in 2021 rose 36% when compared to the previous year. That’s a jump of nearly 12 million people leaving their jobs.

In all, 45.4 million people quit their jobs in 2021. As ADP says, the Great Resignation is a real event.

This has made it difficult for companies to fill their open jobs. In 2019, employers found new hires for about 84% of their job openings, ADP said. In 2021, that number had fallen to 71%. As ADP reports, applicants aren’t showing up to fill all those open jobs.

According to the report, there were nearly 30 million more private-sector job openings last year than in 2019. That’s a jump of 39%. And it’s not that employers aren’t trying to fill these positions. They’re even offering a greater number of remote job opportunities. ADP says that unique job postings for remote positions more than doubled in 2021 from the year before, hitting 2.8 million.

ADP found that employers are desperate enough for new workers that they are lowering their standards when it comes to whom they are willing to hire. The minimum years of experience that employers are requiring for new workers has shrunk from 5.8 years from January of 2018 to February of 2020 to 4.3 years from March of 2020 to March of 2022.

Companies are offering more money, too. ADP said that advertised wages were up 4% for commercial truck drivers, 10% for cashiers, 8% for registered nurses and 13% for stockers and order fillers when compared to the months leading up to COVID.

When will these perks have an impact? When will all those missing employees rejoin the labor force? Unfortunately, no one yet knows.

Investor Demand for Multifamily? It’s Been Insatiable

Posted on by Sarah

Insatiable. That’s the best way to describe investor demand for multifamily assets during the last five years.

Need proof? Consider a bulletin released late last month by Yardi Matrix. According to the company’s research, Yardi Matrix tracked more than $215 billion of U.S. multifamily property sales in 2021. And these properties traded for an average of $192,100 a unit.

Both of these figures are all-time highs, according to Yardi Matrix.

The company found, too, that 4,500 multifamily properties in the United States sold at least three times during the last decade. That’s about 5.3% of all U.S. apartment properties.

According to Yardi Matrix, investors have been most interested in smaller apartment properties that target working-class residents, mostly because these properties have the potential for higher rent growth. When investors purchase these properties, they tend to have lower rents even though they sit in markets with above-trend rent growth.

This gives investors the opportunity to raise rents on these properties, increasing their returns on investment.

The investment numbers that Yardi Matrix tracked are rather impressive. According to the company’s report, transaction activity in the multifamily sector bottomed out at $13.3 billion in 2009. Increasing steadily each year, this figure rose to a then high of $128.7 billion in 2019.

In 2020, a year of decline related to the COVID-19 pandemic, multifamily transaction volume fell to $95.5 million. Then came 2021, and a record-setting $215.3 billion in transaction volume. That is an increase of 67.3% when compared to the prior record-setting year of 2019.

Last year also set new highs for the number of multifamily properties sold — 6,488 — and the total number of units traded, 1.34 million.

Pricing has been on the rise, too. After bottoming out at $62,344 in 2009, the average price per unit has jumped all the way to $192,105 in 2021. That figure climbed 21.6% in 2021, the biggest one-year increase in decades.