WASHINGTON — Market conditions continue to improve for the multifamily housing industry across all areas, according to the latest National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions.
For the seventh time in eight quarters, all four indexes reflecting Market Tightness, Sales Volume, Equity Financing and Debt Financing were at or above 50, indicating growth from the previous quarter. This is good news for the multihousing laundry business.
“In the face of an unprecedented virtual shutdown of development, the apartment market continues its strong recovery as developers play catch-up to the growing demand for rental housing,” says NMHC Chief Economist Mark Obrinsky. “Investors continue to view apartments as a preferred asset class in today’s environment, and long-term demographic changes favor rental housing.”
Even so, NMHC expects the pace of improvement in transaction activity to ease moving into 2012. The survey reflects nearly continuous recovery over the past two years.
Development activity continues to increase in most markets, with just over half of responding NMHC members (53%) reporting a substantial pickup in land acquisition, lining up financing, and getting building permits, though not much yet in the way of actual construction starts.
Full survey data are available here.
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