Navigating Proptech: Executive Roundtables
Renting remains substantially cheaper than owning, but the affordability gap is only part of what's supporting apartment demand.
The average monthly cost of owning a home was $3,070 in the second quarter, compared with $1,894 for renting an apartment, according to Newmark. That's a $1,176 monthly...
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Yardi Matrix raised its 2026 multifamily supply forecast 2.5% to 490,362 units, with national completions still expected to bottom in 2027 near 444,343 units. Read at the aggregate level, this looks like confirmation that oversupply is resolving.
The composition tells a different story. Compared to 2020, 2027 market-rate supply will actually run 11% lower. Affordable and partially affordable product is holding the national total up, running 22%...
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The Wall Street Journal ran the numbers on New York City's rent-stabilized housing. The headline: the biggest discounts go to the wealthiest tenants, not the ones the system was built to protect.
Good story for a fairness debate.
Wrong headline if you underwrite multifamily.
The number that actually matters on a rent roll is this: the discount isn't citywide. It's borough-specific.
Manhattan stabilized units rent for about half of market...
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Multifamily construction is slowing, but the projects getting built continue to grow larger while staying overwhelmingly low-rise.
Total multifamily completions fell from 591,000 units in 2024 to 468,000 units in 2025, with the pullback concentrated in smaller properties. Completions in 5-49 unit...
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Garden style, even with a less impressive amenity set (and cruddier views) cost a crap ton less to operate, which more than offsets whatever rent premiums you might get on a high rise.
Additionally, many renters would prefer to save money on rent and drive a little further than pay a premium to live in the heart (and congestion) of an urban core. It makes sense for everyone.
Halfway through 2026, I keep hearing that multifamily is turning the corner.
The data says we're not there yet.
Nearly 1.3 million units remain in lease-up nationally. First-quarter absorption came in at 72,000 units against a two-year quarterly average of 136,000. Phoenix is forecast to finish the year down 6.2%. Austin is off 14.7% since 2023.
But New York is up 18.4% over the same period. Chicago is up 13.3%. The Twin Cities are forecast to...
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Most mortgage professionals are still using AI like an upgraded search engine.
They ask a question, get an answer, and move on.
The real value isn't in finding the best platform. It's in knowing which platform to use for which job.
We already think this way in lending. A DSCR loan, SBA loan, bridge loan, and stabilized multifamily refinance all solve different problems. AI is no different.
In my own business:
• ChatGPT helps me review grammar,...
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What the Multifamily Market Is Actually Telling Lenders in 2026
Multifamily fundamentals remain resilient, but the transaction recovery many expected in 2026 still hasn't arrived.
National rents increased in May and occupancy remains relatively stable, yet transaction volume is down 10.7% year-over-year. The issue isn't a lack of capital, multifamily continues to attract more investment dollars than any other CRE asset class. The challenge is...
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are stress-testing to 7% debt and the actual operating reality of a 1990s asset.
When you rebuild the expense model line-by-line and layer in real debt costs, a lot of 2021-2022 acquisitions are underwater. Sellers
can't move at today's pricing without taking a loss. Buyers won't pay yesterday's basis when the returns don't clear.
That's not stubbornness. That's math.
inflation.
The sponsors who are surviving today aren't lucky. They're the ones who underwrote to 6-6.5% debt even when they were getting 4%, and
modeled expenses conservatively enough that inflation didn't blow up their NOI.
The deals that are stuck aren't stuck because rates changed. They're stuck because they only worked at the exact conditions they closed
in — which means the margin wasn't really there to begin with.
Interest rates and inflation didn't break good deals. They exposed the ones that were penciled too tight.
Chandan's Economic April data shows the independent rental market starting to stabilize.On-time rent payments increased to 84.5%, marking the sixth gain in the past seven months. Full payment rates reached 97.2%, the strongest level since May 2025.That's the improvement.Here's the part that matters.On-time payments are still down 119 basis points year over year, and late payments remain elevated in the 12% to 13% range, well above historical norm ...
A single legislative provision is doing more damage to housing supply than most market forces, with build-to-rent developers pausing projects en masse as investors and lenders exit the space ahead of any final vote.
A survey of just 14 build-to-rent firms already accounts for roughly $3.4 billion...
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New York City’s housing debate is increasingly framed as tenants vs. landlords. But a quieter shift is happening underneath it: small landlords are disappearing.
Rising costs, rent regulation changes, and new housing proposals are pushing many longtime family owners out of the market. After the...
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The latest research from Yardi Matrix shows national advertised rents averaging about $1,740 in February, with year-over-year growth slowing to roughly 0.1% as new supply enters the market and occupancy levels moderate.Much of the slowdown reflects the large number of multifamily projects delivered over the past two years, particularly across Sun Belt markets that are still absorbing newly completed units. At the same time, several gateway market ...
The February 2026 Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report from Chandan Economics points to continued stabilization across the non-institutional rental market, even as year-over-year pressure remains. On-time rent payments rose to 83.7%, extending the recovery that began after the September...
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The White House is facing resistance in Congress over President Trump’s proposal to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. Administration officials have urged Republican lawmakers to add the investor ban as an amendment to major housing bills currently moving...
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The new executive order targets institutional buyers of existing single-family homes but carves out a key exemption for the build-to-rent (BTR) sector. These developers construct entire rental communities from the ground up, often in suburban areas where land is more available. That carve-out could accelerate Wall Street's shift toward BTR, which had already been gaining traction due to management efficiencies and rising demand for suburban renta ...
According to Yardi Matrix, average asking rents fell by $1 in December to $1,718, leaving year-end rent growth at just 0.3 percent. That marks a sharp deceleration from the gains seen in 2021 and 2022 as the sector continues to digest record new supply. Occupancy held relatively firm at 94.7 percent, suggesting demand remains steady despite heavy deliveries.Roughly 445,000 new units were absorbed nationally in 2025, the highest on record. While t ...
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I’ve done the weird lease lengths. It takes getting used to, when dealing with prospects. “…would you like the 11 month or 13 month option….”