We here at Apartment Finder Tampa Bay are very proud of our product and the results and successes that are generated from our product. We believe that we are very good at marketing and that combined with our product, Apartment Finder Tampa Bay is one of the best marketing solutions for the multi-family housing industry in the Tampa Bay area.
That being said, we are also of the belief that we are not the end all or be all for multi-family marketing but only that we should be a very serious part of any on-site marketing package. This includes marketing collateral, marketing in print, marketing online, social networking as well as in-person networking. So, to that end, we present the little tab to your left marked Apartment Internet Marketing which will transport you to a pretty sweet website delivering tips and information on how to market multi-family online. Specifically speaking, we'll link to an article that is Part I of a series entitled, "Apartment Marketing In Recession - 10 Free Sources."
"Is your marketing budget being slashed? Don’t fear - we’ve compiled 5 free software and online services to help your marketing team do more with less. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post next week, when we’ll give you even more free tools."
We're big fans of this kind of marketing. Keeping a good mix of traditional print and online marketing with new and innovative online marketing as well as giving out marketing collateral is a sure fire winner for keeping you in the game during these recessionary times. Check out some of the links over at AIM and if you can get the scratch together, head over to the AIM Conference in Denver, CO April 29-May 1. Maybe we'll see you there!
Apartment Marketing in a Recession – 10 Free Resources (Part 1) (apartmentinternetmarketing.com)
December 3, 2008
November 11, 2008
Citigroup To Help At-Risk Borrowers Stay In Homes
Look, we do not want anyone to lose their home. We applaud Citigroup for taking steps to curb the foreclosure rate particularly in the hardest hit areas of the housing collapse like Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona and Indiana. But we also hope that this is not a short-term fix and that this will encourage more and more companies to encourage renting if housing or a mortgage is not feasible. There is nothing wrong with renting! Financial Institutions like Citigroup can do even more good by increasing exposure of the multi-family housing industry or even partnering with the apartment industry to showcase apartments during these tough times. Could a Citigroup even establish a savings program at a solid rate where renters rent for two years and then move into a new home? And, will Citigroup extend this same grace to apartment owners and/or management companies who have pledged millions of dollars to keep America renting?
More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage were at least one payment behind on their loans at the end of June, and 500,000 had started the foreclosure process, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Late last month, JPMorgan expanded its workout program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 customers. The New York-based bank has already modified about $40 billion in mortgages, helping 250,000 customers since early 2007.
JPMorgan also said it will not put any loans into foreclosure as it implements the expanded program over the next 90 days.
Bank of America, meanwhile, has said that starting Dec. 1, it will modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with state officials in early October.
Again, we applaud banks helping people stay in there homes, but let's not just throw money at the problem and hope for the best...let's come up with real solutions that can make a difference both short-term and long-term for renters and homeowners alike. This is a good start, but we must keep going to make lasting change.
Citigroup To Help At-Risk Borrowers Stay In Homes (TBO.com)
More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage were at least one payment behind on their loans at the end of June, and 500,000 had started the foreclosure process, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Late last month, JPMorgan expanded its workout program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 customers. The New York-based bank has already modified about $40 billion in mortgages, helping 250,000 customers since early 2007.
JPMorgan also said it will not put any loans into foreclosure as it implements the expanded program over the next 90 days.
Bank of America, meanwhile, has said that starting Dec. 1, it will modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with state officials in early October.
Again, we applaud banks helping people stay in there homes, but let's not just throw money at the problem and hope for the best...let's come up with real solutions that can make a difference both short-term and long-term for renters and homeowners alike. This is a good start, but we must keep going to make lasting change.
Citigroup To Help At-Risk Borrowers Stay In Homes (TBO.com)
November 6, 2008
Apartments Are Now Showing Signs Of Weakening
Probably not the best article to lead with post-election but one that is important nevertheless. The National Multi Housing Council’s (NMHC) latest Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions reported three of the four indexes it uses to measure the health of the industry were record lows. Not. Good. Whenever you set a record low of anything that's bad, and things are not good right now for the multi-family housing industry.
One quote from the report stands out to us however so very important and something that cannot be missed in all of this gloom and doom.
"Nine straight months of job losses have begun to cut into the demand for apartment residences," says Mark Obrinsky, NMHC’s vice president of research and chief economist. "While favorable demographics and a lower home ownership rate will benefit the apartment industry over time, owners and managers will first have to work their way through the current economic downturn before the benefits of that increased demand are likely to show up. Until then, economic worry will cause some people to double up by moving in with a friend or returning to their parents’ house.
We think Obrinsky has it completely right here. Working through an economic downturn can look like many things whether it be breaking even, minimizing losses, projecting losses, or projecting minimal gains if any. The key here is to be realistic and work through the tough times, not hope things get better, but physically work through these issues.
It will not be easy, as this index clearly outlines, but it can get better. We, as an industry, just have to keep doing the good work to stabilize our assets and re-build the foundation to make sure we are ok moving forward. Hope leads to hard work and hard work can lead to success. It just might be awhile before we get there.
Three Indexes Set Record Lows in NMHC Quarterly Survey that Shows Weakening of Apartment Market (multihousingnews.com)
One quote from the report stands out to us however so very important and something that cannot be missed in all of this gloom and doom.
"Nine straight months of job losses have begun to cut into the demand for apartment residences," says Mark Obrinsky, NMHC’s vice president of research and chief economist. "While favorable demographics and a lower home ownership rate will benefit the apartment industry over time, owners and managers will first have to work their way through the current economic downturn before the benefits of that increased demand are likely to show up. Until then, economic worry will cause some people to double up by moving in with a friend or returning to their parents’ house.
We think Obrinsky has it completely right here. Working through an economic downturn can look like many things whether it be breaking even, minimizing losses, projecting losses, or projecting minimal gains if any. The key here is to be realistic and work through the tough times, not hope things get better, but physically work through these issues.
It will not be easy, as this index clearly outlines, but it can get better. We, as an industry, just have to keep doing the good work to stabilize our assets and re-build the foundation to make sure we are ok moving forward. Hope leads to hard work and hard work can lead to success. It just might be awhile before we get there.
Three Indexes Set Record Lows in NMHC Quarterly Survey that Shows Weakening of Apartment Market (multihousingnews.com)
October 29, 2008
Property Management: Retaining Residents by Building a Sense of Community
Another fantastic article today from multihousingnews.com concerning resident retention. Along with going green, building a sense of community has almost become a cliche' or more to the fact, a populist movement. There is nothing wrong with this as on its face it is good to go green and it is good to build community. However, what do these mean? Going green is a little easier to define; cut back on water consumption, recycle, don't over-consumer, look for alternative energy sources, encourage green practices, etc. But what does building community look like? Could it be a film night at a community? Is it events or a friendly staff that drive community? Daniel Babka is president of California-based Rental Marketing Success and he says it is a lot of things.
"Resident retention involves promoting a sense of connectedness to one another, to the places and neighborhoods where we live. That means creating opportunities for shared experiences, helping residents grow roots by promoting social gatherings and other business networking opportunities, promoting events held on site that draw on common interests you have identified, offering renewal incentives like “Help with your Home or Home Office” (maintenance staff or independent contractor time doing things that wouldn’t normally be covered by a service request), assisting with shelving and closet organizer enhancements, monthly drawings and promotions, occasional weekend and after 5pm office hours."
We like the fact that it starts with simply promoting community. When was the last time you were at an event that had been hevaily promoted? Probably pretty good turn out right? Parties are a great way to promote community, film nights, friendly staff, etc.
A secondary reason for creating community is resident retention. The easiest money to maintain is the money you already have. There is a hard cost to finding more customers so why not work harder to retain the ones you already have? Not only can you build an opportunity for people to come together and be a part of something bigger than themselves, but you can also lessen your cash fluctuations and create more stability for your business. Sounds like a win-win to us.
Retaining Residents by Building a Sense of Community (multihousingnews.com)
"Resident retention involves promoting a sense of connectedness to one another, to the places and neighborhoods where we live. That means creating opportunities for shared experiences, helping residents grow roots by promoting social gatherings and other business networking opportunities, promoting events held on site that draw on common interests you have identified, offering renewal incentives like “Help with your Home or Home Office” (maintenance staff or independent contractor time doing things that wouldn’t normally be covered by a service request), assisting with shelving and closet organizer enhancements, monthly drawings and promotions, occasional weekend and after 5pm office hours."
We like the fact that it starts with simply promoting community. When was the last time you were at an event that had been hevaily promoted? Probably pretty good turn out right? Parties are a great way to promote community, film nights, friendly staff, etc.
A secondary reason for creating community is resident retention. The easiest money to maintain is the money you already have. There is a hard cost to finding more customers so why not work harder to retain the ones you already have? Not only can you build an opportunity for people to come together and be a part of something bigger than themselves, but you can also lessen your cash fluctuations and create more stability for your business. Sounds like a win-win to us.
Retaining Residents by Building a Sense of Community (multihousingnews.com)
Former condo site to get the latest luxury rental concept
Pretty quick and dirty articles today from all over...more posts coming.
A high-end rental concept already planned in four other major cities will find a home in the Westshore District, where building rental properties on infill sites has become a popular strategy. DMC Developers of Houston -- known locally for its off-campus student housing -- is planning to build a 379-unit luxury apartment project on 5.7 acres it purchased last October from the The Parkland Group for $12 million.
Development 'long overdue' (tampabaybizjournal.com)
A high-end rental concept already planned in four other major cities will find a home in the Westshore District, where building rental properties on infill sites has become a popular strategy. DMC Developers of Houston -- known locally for its off-campus student housing -- is planning to build a 379-unit luxury apartment project on 5.7 acres it purchased last October from the The Parkland Group for $12 million.
Development 'long overdue' (tampabaybizjournal.com)
October 15, 2008
Job Losses Cause Apartment Rent Growth to Decline to 0.8%
Continuing our theme this week of job loss and unemployment (seriously, is there anything more depressing to write about than that right now?) comes an article from multihousingnews.com further verifying the struggle between job loss and apartment vacancy. In explaining reasons for the falling rent numbers we posted a quote below from Ron Johnsey, President, AXIOMETRICS.
“One is that job growth is the primary driver for rent growth and we have had some big job losses in the last few months and the other is that there is a lot of unsold housing inventory which is causing home prices to fall and rents follow home prices down,” explains Johnsey.
The national vacancy rate increased by +0.7 % from a year ago to 6.5 % in 3Q08, which is the highest third quarter vacancy rate since +6.6 % in 3Q03.
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Credit and housing are huge pieces of the puzzle but we cannot forget that job growth and job advancement are big pieces as well. If our industry wants to move forward then we must continue to support job growth initiatives for the long-term survival of our businesses.
Job Losses Cause Apartment Rent Growth to Decline to 0.8% (multihousingnews.com)
“One is that job growth is the primary driver for rent growth and we have had some big job losses in the last few months and the other is that there is a lot of unsold housing inventory which is causing home prices to fall and rents follow home prices down,” explains Johnsey.
The national vacancy rate increased by +0.7 % from a year ago to 6.5 % in 3Q08, which is the highest third quarter vacancy rate since +6.6 % in 3Q03.
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Credit and housing are huge pieces of the puzzle but we cannot forget that job growth and job advancement are big pieces as well. If our industry wants to move forward then we must continue to support job growth initiatives for the long-term survival of our businesses.
Job Losses Cause Apartment Rent Growth to Decline to 0.8% (multihousingnews.com)
October 13, 2008
U.S. Apartment Vacancies Rise on Concern Over Wages
We are continually fascinated with economic theory and discourse particularly as it pertains to the apartment industry. That's why when we were forwarded an article from Bloomberg News from our colleague Denise Hull, Publisher, West Palm Beach, we upon reading said article, sighed in the afterglow of economic bliss. That is not to say this article is full of good economic news. It is not. In fact, it points out a very real problem that will continue to plague the macro economy. Jobs, or lack thereof. The key to the article that pretty much sums up the vacancy rise is below:
"Twenty- to 30-year-olds are about 70 percent renters; they are a key driver for demand,'' said Chandan. `When they are not finding jobs, they are not renting either. They are more likely to move home with their parents.''
In the old economy (read 2 years ago) the thought of a massive slowdown in purchasing homes and condos was welcome news to the apartment industry for obvious reasons. Not so today as the promise of improved occupancies has not come with the slowdown in housing. We are learning, painfully, that the past has not been able to forecast this period. In the future, better economic tools must be required and more collaboration will be needed to better predict these periods.
U.S. Apartment Vacancies Rise on Concern Over Wages (Bloomberg News)
"Twenty- to 30-year-olds are about 70 percent renters; they are a key driver for demand,'' said Chandan. `When they are not finding jobs, they are not renting either. They are more likely to move home with their parents.''
In the old economy (read 2 years ago) the thought of a massive slowdown in purchasing homes and condos was welcome news to the apartment industry for obvious reasons. Not so today as the promise of improved occupancies has not come with the slowdown in housing. We are learning, painfully, that the past has not been able to forecast this period. In the future, better economic tools must be required and more collaboration will be needed to better predict these periods.
U.S. Apartment Vacancies Rise on Concern Over Wages (Bloomberg News)
October 8, 2008
Tampa Bay Area Survey-o-Rama
Our crack research teams just completed market summaries, this time for the West Tampa area, Sarasota and Bradenton. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via communities on-site staff between the dates of 9/22/08 - 9/26/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below, broken up by geographic area:
Bradenton
*Average occupancy for the area is 86%
*Average rent rates are between $691-$1309
*The most popular concession by far is 1-2 months free rent with a few 3 month free rents sprinkled here and there
*Traffic was reported as slow or steady for 80% of the respondents
West Tampa
*Average occupancy for the area is 90%
*Average rent rates are between $756-$1195
*89% of those surveyed were offering a concession
*A,B, and C product were all within 1% pt. of 90% occupancy
Sarasota
*Average occupancy for the area is 90.5%
*Average rent rates are between $791-$116
*A product had the lowest occupancy numbers coming in at an average 87% occupancy
*Traffic was reported all over the charts with some reporting slow, steady or an increase in traffic; this was more in flux than previously surveyed markets
Overall this information is neither new nor surprising. A 90% occupancy rate is what we have been seeing for a few months now, however the alarming trend is the drop in traffic rate. We will post an article tomorrow about traffic trends in this economy which reveal some surprises that had not been forecasted. Another alarming trend is the increase in months free as a concession. Earlier in the year 1 month free was standard with a few 2 month frees thrown in. However, over the past 3-4 months, that concession has upticked to 2 months free with a few 3 months free thrown around out in the street. This is a clear signal that things are getting worse and are not leveling out so that we can start seeing a light at the end of this tunnel. Right now, we think the best we could hope for is a stabilizing period followed by incremental growth.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
Bradenton
*Average occupancy for the area is 86%
*Average rent rates are between $691-$1309
*The most popular concession by far is 1-2 months free rent with a few 3 month free rents sprinkled here and there
*Traffic was reported as slow or steady for 80% of the respondents
West Tampa
*Average occupancy for the area is 90%
*Average rent rates are between $756-$1195
*89% of those surveyed were offering a concession
*A,B, and C product were all within 1% pt. of 90% occupancy
Sarasota
*Average occupancy for the area is 90.5%
*Average rent rates are between $791-$116
*A product had the lowest occupancy numbers coming in at an average 87% occupancy
*Traffic was reported all over the charts with some reporting slow, steady or an increase in traffic; this was more in flux than previously surveyed markets
Overall this information is neither new nor surprising. A 90% occupancy rate is what we have been seeing for a few months now, however the alarming trend is the drop in traffic rate. We will post an article tomorrow about traffic trends in this economy which reveal some surprises that had not been forecasted. Another alarming trend is the increase in months free as a concession. Earlier in the year 1 month free was standard with a few 2 month frees thrown in. However, over the past 3-4 months, that concession has upticked to 2 months free with a few 3 months free thrown around out in the street. This is a clear signal that things are getting worse and are not leveling out so that we can start seeing a light at the end of this tunnel. Right now, we think the best we could hope for is a stabilizing period followed by incremental growth.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
September 3, 2008
FAA and Our Sincerest Apologies
We're really sorry. Really, really, sorry. We promise to do better. Blogging, while not hard work at all actually, is time consuming and time was not one thing that we had a lot of this past month. So, we will do better and we ask for your forgiveness. More tips, ideas and better articles? Ok, we can do that.
First up is an article from Multi-Housing News about the Florida Apartment Association and Trade Show Conference. We particularly like what Christopher Higgins, aka The Apartment Guy, had to say so we posted his comments and thoughts from the article below.
Another session that discussed enhancing productivity by embracing change was entitled “Marketing: Change It Up.” Christopher Higgins, founder of the “The Apartment Guy,” a firm dedicated to education for the multifamily industry, explained the importance of shifting attitudes in a recession.
Change isn’t something we embrace in multifamily, but change is good, he proclaimed, using an example of the oil bust during the ‘80s and successful developments in Texas regardless of tough times. Higgins explained this was due to their willingness to adapt to the times. Companies that are not afraid to change, persevere, he said.
Continuing on this notion, Higgins cautioned managers against cutting back on their marketing, explaining the significance of brochures in appealing to prospective residents and reducing the number of vacancies. He discussed a number of mistakes companies often make in designing their advertisements, including not listing prices. “You’ll get fewer phone calls, and many of the ones you do receive will not be qualified.” Additionally, he advised managers to think outside the box and use slogans that truly describe their properties, rather than the tired, overused taglines that are seemingly ubiquitous like "(your city's)...Most Lust Luxurious," "Welcome Home," "Resort-Style Living" or "Expect to be Impressed."
“When we have times that are troubling, you need to make sure you do things well,” Higgins said. In tough times, the properties who try new things and experiment are the ones who make it, he added.
Disclosure: We work for an advertising company and we'll, we're pretty proud of that. So we agree with TAG that cutting back on marketing is never good (let's be honest, most good advertising pays for itself anyway, it's all of the other costs that factor in or bleed into the marketing budget that make marketing attractive to cut) unless you absolutely have to and that instead of cutting back, utilizing what you have to your 100% advantage should be your main focus. We also love the idea of change which TAG believes, and rightly so, is very difficulty in the multi-family housing industry. We have our theories on why this is so (maybe a future post) but the idea behind FAA was a good one. Change is good, so let's not complicate it too much but see what we can change in the industry for the better.
FAA Speakers Advise Property Managers to Change It Up for More Productivity (multihousingnews.com)
First up is an article from Multi-Housing News about the Florida Apartment Association and Trade Show Conference. We particularly like what Christopher Higgins, aka The Apartment Guy, had to say so we posted his comments and thoughts from the article below.
Another session that discussed enhancing productivity by embracing change was entitled “Marketing: Change It Up.” Christopher Higgins, founder of the “The Apartment Guy,” a firm dedicated to education for the multifamily industry, explained the importance of shifting attitudes in a recession.
Change isn’t something we embrace in multifamily, but change is good, he proclaimed, using an example of the oil bust during the ‘80s and successful developments in Texas regardless of tough times. Higgins explained this was due to their willingness to adapt to the times. Companies that are not afraid to change, persevere, he said.
Continuing on this notion, Higgins cautioned managers against cutting back on their marketing, explaining the significance of brochures in appealing to prospective residents and reducing the number of vacancies. He discussed a number of mistakes companies often make in designing their advertisements, including not listing prices. “You’ll get fewer phone calls, and many of the ones you do receive will not be qualified.” Additionally, he advised managers to think outside the box and use slogans that truly describe their properties, rather than the tired, overused taglines that are seemingly ubiquitous like "(your city's)...Most Lust Luxurious," "Welcome Home," "Resort-Style Living" or "Expect to be Impressed."
“When we have times that are troubling, you need to make sure you do things well,” Higgins said. In tough times, the properties who try new things and experiment are the ones who make it, he added.
Disclosure: We work for an advertising company and we'll, we're pretty proud of that. So we agree with TAG that cutting back on marketing is never good (let's be honest, most good advertising pays for itself anyway, it's all of the other costs that factor in or bleed into the marketing budget that make marketing attractive to cut) unless you absolutely have to and that instead of cutting back, utilizing what you have to your 100% advantage should be your main focus. We also love the idea of change which TAG believes, and rightly so, is very difficulty in the multi-family housing industry. We have our theories on why this is so (maybe a future post) but the idea behind FAA was a good one. Change is good, so let's not complicate it too much but see what we can change in the industry for the better.
FAA Speakers Advise Property Managers to Change It Up for More Productivity (multihousingnews.com)
August 8, 2008
Hillsborough Shows Smallest Growth Since 2000
No surprise here as this quote from the TBO pretty much sums it up.
Hillsborough County's breakneck growth stumbled from 2006 to 2007, marking the smallest population gain this decade -- fewer people than Polk or Pasco counties.
A strong argument can be made here that population growth isn't that key of a factor for economic growth, particularly when the county has a population of 1.1 million people. I would argue that this is true and that now is the time to start building a foundation for more infrastructure, more industry and better service from our municipalities. Then would be a good time to see if the population was growing.
Of course the flip side to that is Florida is an older state (currently 4th in median age in the US) and needs population growth to sustain itself. Meh. To me this creates a weak argument for growth; the good kind, like economic, educational, engineering, etc. If new people are coming in we can still resort to the old ways; no need to change or upgrade. If it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality. Looking around, is that such a good thing?
Not growing in this case is good. Let's use this opportunity to make technologically advancing positive 21st century changes so that when we do grow, we'll be ready.
Hillsborough's 2006-07 Population Growth Lowest Since 2000 (TBO.com)
Hillsborough County's breakneck growth stumbled from 2006 to 2007, marking the smallest population gain this decade -- fewer people than Polk or Pasco counties.
A strong argument can be made here that population growth isn't that key of a factor for economic growth, particularly when the county has a population of 1.1 million people. I would argue that this is true and that now is the time to start building a foundation for more infrastructure, more industry and better service from our municipalities. Then would be a good time to see if the population was growing.
Of course the flip side to that is Florida is an older state (currently 4th in median age in the US) and needs population growth to sustain itself. Meh. To me this creates a weak argument for growth; the good kind, like economic, educational, engineering, etc. If new people are coming in we can still resort to the old ways; no need to change or upgrade. If it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality. Looking around, is that such a good thing?
Not growing in this case is good. Let's use this opportunity to make technologically advancing positive 21st century changes so that when we do grow, we'll be ready.
Hillsborough's 2006-07 Population Growth Lowest Since 2000 (TBO.com)
August 1, 2008
Florida in Recesssion
Pretty short article from the AP today announcing what we already know, Florida is in a recession. No data to support it, no figures no facts, just the statement that we are in recession from economists at Wachovia. In a way, it's kind of refreshing to not have all the facts and figures behind the statement, just that our economy is in a sharp decline. Do we really need them anyway? Anyone with business in the state can pretty much see it everyday already. Ask a leasing agent or regional or vendor and they will tell you that yes, business is hurting and the economy is in a downturn. Want to call it a recession? Ok, if we must label it.
It all seems very daunting particularly in light of the news yesterday that the Tampa area was 2nd in the nation in growing unemployment. Not. Good. Times. And yes, we do believe that economics is largely a mental game. If you don't, then see the Consumer Confidence Index. Notice the chart. Down = bad. However, reality is reality and in this case we are in a recession.
Makes me kinda long for the 80's.
Wachovia economists say state is in recession (TBO.com)
It all seems very daunting particularly in light of the news yesterday that the Tampa area was 2nd in the nation in growing unemployment. Not. Good. Times. And yes, we do believe that economics is largely a mental game. If you don't, then see the Consumer Confidence Index. Notice the chart. Down = bad. However, reality is reality and in this case we are in a recession.
Makes me kinda long for the 80's.
Wachovia economists say state is in recession (TBO.com)
July 28, 2008
Post Properties delays Soho Square
A luxury apartment community planned for Hyde Park is being delayed until the economy and local housing market improve, the developer said Friday. Construction was supposed to start this year on 192-unit Post Soho Square at the corner of South Howard and Swann avenues in Tampa.
"But the overall economic conditions warrant delaying the start," said Tom Senkbeil, executive vice president and chief investment officer for Post Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Atlanta.
The starting date for the project, which will include 17,000 square feet of retail space, will be reassessed in January.
"We plan on developing this property," Senkbeil said, adding that the company doesn't intend to sell the 4-acre site. "It's just that in Tampa you have a very large unoccupied condominium overhang," Senkbeil said.
Many of those condominiums might be converted to apartments, possibly saturating the market, he said.
Post Properties (NYSE: PPS) paid $12 million for the site in 2005. The company manages and develops apartment complexes. It owns several thousand apartments in the area.
(from tampabaybizjournal.com)
"But the overall economic conditions warrant delaying the start," said Tom Senkbeil, executive vice president and chief investment officer for Post Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Atlanta.
The starting date for the project, which will include 17,000 square feet of retail space, will be reassessed in January.
"We plan on developing this property," Senkbeil said, adding that the company doesn't intend to sell the 4-acre site. "It's just that in Tampa you have a very large unoccupied condominium overhang," Senkbeil said.
Many of those condominiums might be converted to apartments, possibly saturating the market, he said.
Post Properties (NYSE: PPS) paid $12 million for the site in 2005. The company manages and develops apartment complexes. It owns several thousand apartments in the area.
(from tampabaybizjournal.com)
July 23, 2008
Free Movies for Residents
Who doesn't like a good summer movie? The Dark Knight? Amazing! Mamma Mia? We cried and laughed! Iron Man? Fun! Men in Black and Independence Day! Cool! Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Eh, well, not everything can be good.
Cue 'Mondays under the Moon', a new film series hosted by the Edge condominium project in Brooklyn as well as the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. This fantastic idea, open to residents and film buffs alike, will feature such films as Moonstruck, The Astronaut Farmer, The Wind and the Lion, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sound like a good idea? It is! Take it and make it your own! Your residents deserve it, plus, it's free marketing! Makes us want to take a look at The Edge...
New York Developer Hosts Free Movie Series for Residents, Film Buffs (multihousingnews.com)
Cue 'Mondays under the Moon', a new film series hosted by the Edge condominium project in Brooklyn as well as the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. This fantastic idea, open to residents and film buffs alike, will feature such films as Moonstruck, The Astronaut Farmer, The Wind and the Lion, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sound like a good idea? It is! Take it and make it your own! Your residents deserve it, plus, it's free marketing! Makes us want to take a look at The Edge...
New York Developer Hosts Free Movie Series for Residents, Film Buffs (multihousingnews.com)
July 10, 2008
NAA 2008 Education Session: CEO Roundtable
Let's be honest with each for a moment. Our first job and priority is advertising sales for Apartment Finder magazine here in lovely Tampa Bay. We are here for our advertisers and for their customers. Many times this prevents us from blogging and this was one of those times. We had a full page of notes on the CEO roundtable and was all ready to blog it when priority one (our job) reared its head and no time was left to post. We're sorry.
However, the good folks over at multi-housing news (again!) have a great article up that encapsulates what we heard from the CEO's of the roundtable (cue up Monty Python music: we're CEO's of the Roundtable and we dance whenever we're able...) So, we are going to post a link to the article below. The roundtable consisted of Steven D. Bell, chairman & CEO of Steven D. Bell & Co; David Stockert, CEO of Post Properties; Terry Danner, CEO of Riverstone Residential Group, a Consolidated American Services (CAS) Group Services; Keith Oden, President, COO and Trust Manager of Camden Property Trust.
One point we would like to note about the discussion, and since we are fake pretend amateur economists, was on the outlook each CEO had on the economy. Three of the CEO's agreed that the economy as a whole would be slow to respond until '10-'11 with a rebound in late '09 a possibility. Two of the three said that it will probably get worse economically before we start to see a recovery.
Overall the discussion could have been a bit more energized and exciting however, the overall gist of the discussion was pretty frank and a good indicator into what keeps these guys up at night.
How Top CEOs Are Dealing With Rising Energy Costs, Other Challenges (multihousingnews.com)
However, the good folks over at multi-housing news (again!) have a great article up that encapsulates what we heard from the CEO's of the roundtable (cue up Monty Python music: we're CEO's of the Roundtable and we dance whenever we're able...) So, we are going to post a link to the article below. The roundtable consisted of Steven D. Bell, chairman & CEO of Steven D. Bell & Co; David Stockert, CEO of Post Properties; Terry Danner, CEO of Riverstone Residential Group, a Consolidated American Services (CAS) Group Services; Keith Oden, President, COO and Trust Manager of Camden Property Trust.
One point we would like to note about the discussion, and since we are fake pretend amateur economists, was on the outlook each CEO had on the economy. Three of the CEO's agreed that the economy as a whole would be slow to respond until '10-'11 with a rebound in late '09 a possibility. Two of the three said that it will probably get worse economically before we start to see a recovery.
Overall the discussion could have been a bit more energized and exciting however, the overall gist of the discussion was pretty frank and a good indicator into what keeps these guys up at night.
How Top CEOs Are Dealing With Rising Energy Costs, Other Challenges (multihousingnews.com)
July 8, 2008
Could These Articles Possibly be Related to One Another?
AirTran to cut 480 jobs to reduce costs (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Fewer fliers at Tampa International Airport (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
The airline had projected to grow about 10 percent this year, but because of high fuel costs, it is reducing capacity by 5 percent. The job cuts mirror the capacity cuts.
We're not economists but maybe these are related? Is it all energy related? Some of it surely, but all? We're not convinced, but we'll go with the 'ancient business practices with no innovation' for $200 please Alex.
Whatever the culprit, it doesn't bode well for Tampa in general, as again, more job losses make the business news.
Fewer fliers at Tampa International Airport (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
The airline had projected to grow about 10 percent this year, but because of high fuel costs, it is reducing capacity by 5 percent. The job cuts mirror the capacity cuts.
We're not economists but maybe these are related? Is it all energy related? Some of it surely, but all? We're not convinced, but we'll go with the 'ancient business practices with no innovation' for $200 please Alex.
Whatever the culprit, it doesn't bode well for Tampa in general, as again, more job losses make the business news.
Job Growth Can Stem Rising Vacancy
Quick article this morning from the Tampa Bay Biz Journal regarding office rental rate declines. Office vacancy rates can be tied to business development and employment, i.e a high vacancy rate can point to a higher than normal or undesirable unemployment rate whereas an acceptable or desirable occupancy rate points to a normal or economically acceptable employment rate. This affects our industry as well because high employment=renters while low employment=move outs and a higher vacancy rate. Cue the Circle of Life music.
One particular quote stands out to us as not particularly encouraging.
The overall vacancy rate for both counties [Hillsborough and Pinellas]has increased 2.2 percent over the past 12 months as the area's unemployment rate hit 5.6 percent in May, up from 3.7 percent a year earlier.
Up 1.9 percent form a year ago. Roughly translated that is about 20,000 workers from the counties 750,000+ workforce. Doesn't seem like a lot but that is a significant difference from the previous year and that is a significant amount of renters.
Office rental rates go down in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
One particular quote stands out to us as not particularly encouraging.
The overall vacancy rate for both counties [Hillsborough and Pinellas]has increased 2.2 percent over the past 12 months as the area's unemployment rate hit 5.6 percent in May, up from 3.7 percent a year earlier.
Up 1.9 percent form a year ago. Roughly translated that is about 20,000 workers from the counties 750,000+ workforce. Doesn't seem like a lot but that is a significant difference from the previous year and that is a significant amount of renters.
Office rental rates go down in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
July 2, 2008
More Design: An Interview with Adrienne Faulkner
We admit it, we are design geeks. We love architecture, interior design, remodeling, rehabbing, urban speculation, structural engineering, and pretty much anything else that has to do with form following function. Not a day goes by that we aren't reading notcot.org for design ideas or hitting up bldgblog for the latest in architectural news or a myriad of other sources to get our fix.
With that spirit in mind, we want to bring you an interview conducted by multi housing news with the immensely talented Adrienne Faulkner, founder of Dallas-based Faulkner Design Group. Faulkner has worked on more than 600 projects since 1991, and currently works on 40 projects annually from Manhattan and the Canadian provinces to Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Her group handles design on condos, senior living facilities, corporate offices, hi-rises, apartment communities, as well as a host of other dwelling types. We found this interview apropos of our current design posts (see yesterday's post on the design and architecture educational session we attended at NAA 2008) and we hope you enjoy some more insight into one of the industry's leading designers.
Q&A with Adrienne Faulkner: Multifamily Properties Sell with Design-Driven Marketing (multihousingnews.com)
With that spirit in mind, we want to bring you an interview conducted by multi housing news with the immensely talented Adrienne Faulkner, founder of Dallas-based Faulkner Design Group. Faulkner has worked on more than 600 projects since 1991, and currently works on 40 projects annually from Manhattan and the Canadian provinces to Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Her group handles design on condos, senior living facilities, corporate offices, hi-rises, apartment communities, as well as a host of other dwelling types. We found this interview apropos of our current design posts (see yesterday's post on the design and architecture educational session we attended at NAA 2008) and we hope you enjoy some more insight into one of the industry's leading designers.
Q&A with Adrienne Faulkner: Multifamily Properties Sell with Design-Driven Marketing (multihousingnews.com)
July 1, 2008
NAA 2008 Education Session: Design is The New Black
Leasing Apartments with Smart Design was a fascinating session led by Lori Snider of Creativity for Rent and Sanford Steinberg of Steinberg Design Collaborative, LLP. Design is the differentiator in today’s cookie-cutter multi-family housing market they argue. Even for the most mundane of products, which unfortunately are more of the norm than the exception, design can add emotional appeal, value and can make the community desirable. There is so much information in the world of design that one hour hardly seemed fair to Lori and Sanford, yet they were able to rapidly divulge information that left all of us satisfied. To highlight that point, in 1970, there were three notable design magazines available on newsstands. Today, that number exceeds 50. Design truly is the new black.
We decided that the best way to present this information for our bloggy purposes would be in bullet point style, so below are some design elements and tips that we look forward to exploring further.
• Be something to somebody and not everything to everybody. How deep is that? Sounds like a saying from Confucius but it is true; we need to ask ourselves what demographic am I trying to cater too? Who is looking at my community and who is my prospective customer?
• Where is the surprise? We all like surprises so why not present them in our rehab and/or design work.
• Where are the impact areas? Are your customers being impacted upon viewing presented space, i.e. community models? If no impact is being made then a change needs to be made, particularly if it involves space. Wasted space (the keyword here is wasted, not just space in general) is exactly that a wasting of usable space.
• Large framed mirrors are in.
• Design elements your customers can touch, for example water faucets, door handles, door knobs, lamps, drawers and cabinets, can be very powerful and can create an emotional attachment to the unit in question.
• The number one want by residents inside the apartment is storage space so make a point to showcase the storage space available inside your units! This includes closet space, possible pantry space, laundry room space, etc. This includes knowing the exact measurements for the space of your closets and utility rooms. Letting your customer know that a specific closet/room is 6x8 is much more powerful than saying ‘This is a large space’.
• Count the number of cupboards and drawers in your units. Saying you have 20 of something sounds much more powerful than saying lots and lots of something.
• Use real plants in the clubhouse and in your models instead of plastic plants. Customers and renters want green, so give them green. The natural kind, not the plastic kind. Besides, how hard is it to keep up with a plant? If you can’t do that, then how can you keep up with a full model renting for $1100 a month? Real green could equal real green (money!).
• Offer a one color accent wall that the prospective renter can pick out. This element gives a sense of ownership to the renter as well as autonomy which in turn give them a want to stay longer. Plus an accent wall looks damn cool.
• Smaller furniture makes floorplans look larger. Why use old 80’s giant oak furniture when you can use a sleeker more post-modern 00’s steel or ‘framed’ look and enhance the size of your floorplans by allowing more space to be visible. Clutter (see wasted space) is not a design element, it’s just clutter. Let the floodplains be a design element itself by proclaiming its own space.
• The consumer buys the community not the company. Design your marketing and your community on the feel of the community not the feel of the company. A community in Plano, TX should not look or be marketed like a community in San Francisco, CA even if they are owned by the same community. These are two different cultures taking up two different spaces. Design your community by who makes up your community, where your community is located, and why your community is where it is for this time and place.
We did not include two design elements that we would like to expand on at a later date because we feel that an entire post needs to be devoted to them and them alone. However, these tips and design elements listed above we found to be very important and we hope that even if you just use one or two, that you find yourself taking a closer look at design and what design can do for you and your community.
We decided that the best way to present this information for our bloggy purposes would be in bullet point style, so below are some design elements and tips that we look forward to exploring further.
• Be something to somebody and not everything to everybody. How deep is that? Sounds like a saying from Confucius but it is true; we need to ask ourselves what demographic am I trying to cater too? Who is looking at my community and who is my prospective customer?
• Where is the surprise? We all like surprises so why not present them in our rehab and/or design work.
• Where are the impact areas? Are your customers being impacted upon viewing presented space, i.e. community models? If no impact is being made then a change needs to be made, particularly if it involves space. Wasted space (the keyword here is wasted, not just space in general) is exactly that a wasting of usable space.
• Large framed mirrors are in.
• Design elements your customers can touch, for example water faucets, door handles, door knobs, lamps, drawers and cabinets, can be very powerful and can create an emotional attachment to the unit in question.
• The number one want by residents inside the apartment is storage space so make a point to showcase the storage space available inside your units! This includes closet space, possible pantry space, laundry room space, etc. This includes knowing the exact measurements for the space of your closets and utility rooms. Letting your customer know that a specific closet/room is 6x8 is much more powerful than saying ‘This is a large space’.
• Count the number of cupboards and drawers in your units. Saying you have 20 of something sounds much more powerful than saying lots and lots of something.
• Use real plants in the clubhouse and in your models instead of plastic plants. Customers and renters want green, so give them green. The natural kind, not the plastic kind. Besides, how hard is it to keep up with a plant? If you can’t do that, then how can you keep up with a full model renting for $1100 a month? Real green could equal real green (money!).
• Offer a one color accent wall that the prospective renter can pick out. This element gives a sense of ownership to the renter as well as autonomy which in turn give them a want to stay longer. Plus an accent wall looks damn cool.
• Smaller furniture makes floorplans look larger. Why use old 80’s giant oak furniture when you can use a sleeker more post-modern 00’s steel or ‘framed’ look and enhance the size of your floorplans by allowing more space to be visible. Clutter (see wasted space) is not a design element, it’s just clutter. Let the floodplains be a design element itself by proclaiming its own space.
• The consumer buys the community not the company. Design your marketing and your community on the feel of the community not the feel of the company. A community in Plano, TX should not look or be marketed like a community in San Francisco, CA even if they are owned by the same community. These are two different cultures taking up two different spaces. Design your community by who makes up your community, where your community is located, and why your community is where it is for this time and place.
We did not include two design elements that we would like to expand on at a later date because we feel that an entire post needs to be devoted to them and them alone. However, these tips and design elements listed above we found to be very important and we hope that even if you just use one or two, that you find yourself taking a closer look at design and what design can do for you and your community.
June 30, 2008
NAA 2008 Opening Session: Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret.)
NAA 2008 opened up with a remarkable speaker with a remarkable speech. General Colin Powell, USA (Ret.) hardly needs any introduction and we will spare you his career bio. (click here if you are interested to learn more about the former Secretary of State and his endeavors since retirement from public life) Powell spoke about Leadership, specifically taking charge and the managing and leading of people. We found General Powell to be amazingly funny and easy-going, even hilarious at times. It reminded us again that these ‘larger than life’ figures are human too; they laugh at many of the same jokes, have many of the same tastes as we do, and are going through life trying to figure it all out, just like we do. Hearing Colin Powell talk about his corvette that he bough post-retirement made us laugh. Powell likes fast cars too. Sweet.
General Powell led off talking about his childhood in an old tenement in the Bronx and how he has a strong affinity for apartment life, one that grew stronger because of his ‘renting’ housing from the U.S. Army. He understands the facts of life for apartment managing (Colonels and Generals do more than fight wars, they also manage troops, which also means managing troops’ families and where those families live and dwell) as well as some of the economic hardships facing all of us today. It was refreshing to hear him identify with us in the crowd this way because many times we feel a disconnect that seems to be more and more prevalent between the national ‘policy-makers’ and us ‘common folk.’ One gets a sense that General Powell has a lot less time for that nonsense and would rather focus on being a regular guy.
His discussion on leadership was insightful, particularly for those who manage people or a staff of people. To him, leadership is leadership is leadership meaning true leaders should be able to lead and manage anyone, in any industry in any area. Lack of industry experience should hardly ever be a stumbling block as many of the same principles required for leadership apply across the board. He continued to propose that putting people in the best position to succeed and setting goals are what makes leaders the most successful. Without the right people and without the right direction, leaders fail. Empowering every, not just a few, but every one of your employees and staff gives you greater possibilities to be successful. This melds into his philosophy that leaders and followers are human beings, and treating your employees as such is not only right, but is necessary to get the most out of your followers.
One of the last points we’ll recount about the Powell speech was probably the most impactful to us. He admitted that you can never hit you’re best, but that you should just keep striving to get better and better. This makes complete sense to us and is something we think we will remember, at least we hope, for a lifetime. We have to keep giving our all, even if we are losing or not accomplishing our original goal, or better yet, even if we are winning or accomplishing our goal. True leaders give it their all and strive to do better the next time, learning from their previous experiences and building on that which was learned. General Colin Powell, despite arguable faults that any human being possesses, believes in that philosophy and we think embodies that philosophy. Colin Powell defines a true leader and we were honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to have heard him.
General Powell led off talking about his childhood in an old tenement in the Bronx and how he has a strong affinity for apartment life, one that grew stronger because of his ‘renting’ housing from the U.S. Army. He understands the facts of life for apartment managing (Colonels and Generals do more than fight wars, they also manage troops, which also means managing troops’ families and where those families live and dwell) as well as some of the economic hardships facing all of us today. It was refreshing to hear him identify with us in the crowd this way because many times we feel a disconnect that seems to be more and more prevalent between the national ‘policy-makers’ and us ‘common folk.’ One gets a sense that General Powell has a lot less time for that nonsense and would rather focus on being a regular guy.
His discussion on leadership was insightful, particularly for those who manage people or a staff of people. To him, leadership is leadership is leadership meaning true leaders should be able to lead and manage anyone, in any industry in any area. Lack of industry experience should hardly ever be a stumbling block as many of the same principles required for leadership apply across the board. He continued to propose that putting people in the best position to succeed and setting goals are what makes leaders the most successful. Without the right people and without the right direction, leaders fail. Empowering every, not just a few, but every one of your employees and staff gives you greater possibilities to be successful. This melds into his philosophy that leaders and followers are human beings, and treating your employees as such is not only right, but is necessary to get the most out of your followers.
One of the last points we’ll recount about the Powell speech was probably the most impactful to us. He admitted that you can never hit you’re best, but that you should just keep striving to get better and better. This makes complete sense to us and is something we think we will remember, at least we hope, for a lifetime. We have to keep giving our all, even if we are losing or not accomplishing our original goal, or better yet, even if we are winning or accomplishing our goal. True leaders give it their all and strive to do better the next time, learning from their previous experiences and building on that which was learned. General Colin Powell, despite arguable faults that any human being possesses, believes in that philosophy and we think embodies that philosophy. Colin Powell defines a true leader and we were honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to have heard him.
Blogging about National Apartment Association in Orlando, FL
OK, our hopes for live blogging NAA failed miserably. You can't find wi-fi anywhere without paying for it in that city ($9.99 a day, really?) and we don't have our wi-fi travel card yet so we were out of luck. Brutal. That being said, we will be bringing you several posts today from sessions during NAA that we attended. This will include posts from a guest blogger, our friend Kathryn Albritton, Publisher for Apartment Finder Tallahassee. Together I think we can provide a nice snapshot of some of the latest trends, coolest new marketing tips, and other news from the multi-family housing industry that was showcased at NAA.
Check back soon for updates!
Check back soon for updates!
June 24, 2008
FAA’s Early Lease Termination Bill Enacted Into Law
We were just alerted to the news of the passing of the Early Termination Bill (which, in full disclosure, we helped to promote via the 2007 Legislative Days in Tallahassee, FL) from the Law Offices of Heist, Weisse, and Lucrezi P.A. June 2008 newsletter. If you are not receiving their monthly legal update, do yourself a favor, click here and sign up. Great information pertaining to landlord/tenant law, creditor's rights, discrimination defense as well as other legal issues will come to your inbox directly on a monthly basis. Good, good stuff.
The Governor has signed the Early Termination Bill into law which will allow you some more flexibility in charging liquidated damages or an early termination fee to a tenant who leaves before the end of the lease term. In order to take advantage of the new law, a specific addendum must be entered into at the time of lease signing under which the tenant either chooses to pay a liquidated damage amount or early termination fee upon vacating early, or pay rent until the unit is re-rented.
HB 1489: FAA’s Early Lease Termination Bill Enacted Into Law (EVICT.COM, The Website of the Law Offices of Heist, Weisse & Lucrezi, P.A.)
The Governor has signed the Early Termination Bill into law which will allow you some more flexibility in charging liquidated damages or an early termination fee to a tenant who leaves before the end of the lease term. In order to take advantage of the new law, a specific addendum must be entered into at the time of lease signing under which the tenant either chooses to pay a liquidated damage amount or early termination fee upon vacating early, or pay rent until the unit is re-rented.
HB 1489: FAA’s Early Lease Termination Bill Enacted Into Law (EVICT.COM, The Website of the Law Offices of Heist, Weisse & Lucrezi, P.A.)
June 23, 2008
Mid-June News and Notes
We are back from vacation, having trekked through the southern United States up to Memphis, TN, where the horseflies are the size of VW Bigs (pun intended). Brutal. However, we are back and ready to bring you more information regarding the multi-family community as well as preparing for our trip to Orlando, FL for the National Apartment Association Conference. In fact, we are hoping to have some things in place to do some live blogging and real-time updates while we are at the conference so stay tuned for those developments.
In the meantime, here are some news items we found to be of use while we were away. Enjoy!
Miscellaneous Tampa Bay area financial news
Former Gateway Honda location in New Port Richey sells for $2M
Another big time office building put on hold, but still moving forward
Rising against the market
Coke still has it and with success comes employees, success, and financial gain
Coca-Cola warehouse upgrades provide industrial market some fizz
Condos still going? Maybe...maybe not
Foreclosure process begins on New Port Tampa Bay as visions of luxury are curtailed
(News and Notes links from Tampa Bay Business Journal)
In the meantime, here are some news items we found to be of use while we were away. Enjoy!
Miscellaneous Tampa Bay area financial news
Former Gateway Honda location in New Port Richey sells for $2M
Another big time office building put on hold, but still moving forward
Rising against the market
Coke still has it and with success comes employees, success, and financial gain
Coca-Cola warehouse upgrades provide industrial market some fizz
Condos still going? Maybe...maybe not
Foreclosure process begins on New Port Tampa Bay as visions of luxury are curtailed
(News and Notes links from Tampa Bay Business Journal)
June 12, 2008
Seems Like a Good Idea
Nothing gets us going like a good budget. You can have your Merlot, or your sunset over the Mediterranean, or your Game 7 at the World Series, you can have all these things. We'll take that spreadsheet please...mmmm, numbers.
Seriously we kid, but budgets are important and they do important things one of which is help to create economic stimulus, assist in employment, etc. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist recently signed the 2008-09 state budget with economic stimulus, job creation and industry development in mind. For more details, click the link below. We promise, no spreadsheets are involved.
Crist signs budget (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Seriously we kid, but budgets are important and they do important things one of which is help to create economic stimulus, assist in employment, etc. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist recently signed the 2008-09 state budget with economic stimulus, job creation and industry development in mind. For more details, click the link below. We promise, no spreadsheets are involved.
Crist signs budget (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
June 9, 2008
67 Percent of Current Renters Not Likely to Move Says NAA
And we are inclined to believe them. Times are tough in the housing market and this really cool survey put out by NAA gives a lot of data points confirming a lot of info that we have been talking about here for some time now. Perusing Google News and The Earth Times we stumbled upon this press release and thought it pertinent and too important not to share.
The press release for the survey findings (linked to The Earth Times below) has some intriguing findings concerning our industry. Some that stood out are highlighted below:
*Renters not eager to take a chance on home ownership anytime soon: 69 percent of renters said they plan to stay renters for up to five more years. (This stat is simply amazing considering the amount of available housing currently on the market and the ownership mentality that is so prevalent in our culture. We think this will come down by default as more and more houses become cheaper and in some cases, may be even more cost effective as opposed to apartment living.)
*Renting seen as favorable to owning: 71 percent of adults feel that there are advantages to renting vs. owning in the current real estate market, 48 percent citing financial reasons (e.g. not being impacted by unpredictable housing values and mortgage rates) over more traditional reasons such as amenities packages (18 percent) or the flexibility of a short-term lease (32 percent). (This makes sense as people are simply taking advantage of favorable market conditions. This is where the industry has to continue to teach prospective renters about the beauty of renting.)
This survey has some solid stats and some encouraging numbers concerning our industry. This is yet another signpost for us to continue to be innovative and smart on how we approach our business. Yes, we are a business where real business decisions are needed to not only provide a quality product (apartment living) but at quality (not necessarily maximum) profit, maximized for the benefit of developer, owner, manager and renter.
Our main issue that we uncovered was this: renters aren't eager to stop renting but we also have to start getting the news out that multi-family housing is a real lifestyle choice and not just one to bank on when housing suffers. New ideas are still needed and we need to work together to make them happen!
New Survey Finds 69 Percent of Renters Plan to Continue Renting For As Long As Five More Years (The Earth Times)
The press release for the survey findings (linked to The Earth Times below) has some intriguing findings concerning our industry. Some that stood out are highlighted below:
*Renters not eager to take a chance on home ownership anytime soon: 69 percent of renters said they plan to stay renters for up to five more years. (This stat is simply amazing considering the amount of available housing currently on the market and the ownership mentality that is so prevalent in our culture. We think this will come down by default as more and more houses become cheaper and in some cases, may be even more cost effective as opposed to apartment living.)
*Renting seen as favorable to owning: 71 percent of adults feel that there are advantages to renting vs. owning in the current real estate market, 48 percent citing financial reasons (e.g. not being impacted by unpredictable housing values and mortgage rates) over more traditional reasons such as amenities packages (18 percent) or the flexibility of a short-term lease (32 percent). (This makes sense as people are simply taking advantage of favorable market conditions. This is where the industry has to continue to teach prospective renters about the beauty of renting.)
This survey has some solid stats and some encouraging numbers concerning our industry. This is yet another signpost for us to continue to be innovative and smart on how we approach our business. Yes, we are a business where real business decisions are needed to not only provide a quality product (apartment living) but at quality (not necessarily maximum) profit, maximized for the benefit of developer, owner, manager and renter.
Our main issue that we uncovered was this: renters aren't eager to stop renting but we also have to start getting the news out that multi-family housing is a real lifestyle choice and not just one to bank on when housing suffers. New ideas are still needed and we need to work together to make them happen!
New Survey Finds 69 Percent of Renters Plan to Continue Renting For As Long As Five More Years (The Earth Times)
Some Tips on Optimizing On-Site Performance
We like tips. Tips are cool. They are like little fortune cookies, some bringing a smile, some bringing an a-ha moment, others leaving you shaking your head wondering what the author was thinking. And of course, there is that fun little adult game that we play by adding certain phrases after our fortune cookie fortunes but we digress.
Today, we bring you a few tips from Jan Wiesler, senior vice president of operations for Mills Management courtesy of Teresa O'Dea Hein, Managing Editor over at multihousingnews.com. Mills Properties Inc. recently took home a total of seven prizes at this year’s “Rising Star of the Year Awards” banquet, organized by the St. Louis Apartment Association (SLAA), so we think Wiesler is imminently qualified to bring you some multi-family housing tippage.
Tips for Award-Winning Performance (multihousingnews.com)
Today, we bring you a few tips from Jan Wiesler, senior vice president of operations for Mills Management courtesy of Teresa O'Dea Hein, Managing Editor over at multihousingnews.com. Mills Properties Inc. recently took home a total of seven prizes at this year’s “Rising Star of the Year Awards” banquet, organized by the St. Louis Apartment Association (SLAA), so we think Wiesler is imminently qualified to bring you some multi-family housing tippage.
Tips for Award-Winning Performance (multihousingnews.com)
June 5, 2008
It's a Good Time to be Renting Apartments
Cash flow. Liquidity. Income. These are all good words for us in the business world trying to make our Profit and Loss statements appear in the red. Why mention P&L's, cash and other fancy financial terminology? Well, we are sitting on the cusp of another great revival in renting and in some places like Manhattan and San Francisco said revival is in full swing. This bodes well for the rental community as a whole and as a marketing partner to the industry, this bodes well for us too.
That being said, msnbc.com yesterday posted a great article about the renter's boom and how housing has directly influenced the economics of our industry. The first part of the article is pretty obvious stuff, particularly to those in the Florida market where the 'shadow market' (we always think of a sinister man in a cape and tights committing dastardly deeds when we hear this term) has saturated the market with available condos and houses to rent. 'A' product, predictably has been hit the hardest as more and more families rent homes for less than what you could rent a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment or even a 2/2 at an upscale 'A' community. However, we have talked about the up-tick in traffic and occupancy rates (see our last surveys, here, here and here) that Susan Whitney with property management company Riverstone Residential Group in Boca Raton, Fla. alludes to in the article.
The shadow market battered the rental market in the last two years, Whitney said, as renters opted for investor-owned homes and condos, which helped to drive down rents in the area. But as news spread of tenants getting burned by delinquent landlords, renters returned to the traditional market.
"(They) have become more weary about investor homes and condos, and now concessions in the market have started to decrease," she said.
Ms. Whitney is absolutely correct! More and more foreclosures in our area have left many renters and/or foreclosed homeowners with no option but to rent. Why would these renters rent again from a home or condo when the same act of foreclosure could happen again? The answer is they would not, even if it meant paying more rent per month for an apartment than they would pay for a home or condo for rent.
This trend is only going to increase and to us in our market, this is the real story. Tampa, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale communities need to start preparing their forecasts and budgets for a turnaround in the market that will, admittedly, continue to trend upwards percentage point by percentage point. This trend will be slow, but as more foreclosures trickle into the market, more renters will be created and the renter's pool will expand. Renter's will crave the stability of an apartment community and now is the time to prepare to welcome them with open arms.
Housing downturn is a boon for some renters (msnbc.com)
That being said, msnbc.com yesterday posted a great article about the renter's boom and how housing has directly influenced the economics of our industry. The first part of the article is pretty obvious stuff, particularly to those in the Florida market where the 'shadow market' (we always think of a sinister man in a cape and tights committing dastardly deeds when we hear this term) has saturated the market with available condos and houses to rent. 'A' product, predictably has been hit the hardest as more and more families rent homes for less than what you could rent a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment or even a 2/2 at an upscale 'A' community. However, we have talked about the up-tick in traffic and occupancy rates (see our last surveys, here, here and here) that Susan Whitney with property management company Riverstone Residential Group in Boca Raton, Fla. alludes to in the article.
The shadow market battered the rental market in the last two years, Whitney said, as renters opted for investor-owned homes and condos, which helped to drive down rents in the area. But as news spread of tenants getting burned by delinquent landlords, renters returned to the traditional market.
"(They) have become more weary about investor homes and condos, and now concessions in the market have started to decrease," she said.
Ms. Whitney is absolutely correct! More and more foreclosures in our area have left many renters and/or foreclosed homeowners with no option but to rent. Why would these renters rent again from a home or condo when the same act of foreclosure could happen again? The answer is they would not, even if it meant paying more rent per month for an apartment than they would pay for a home or condo for rent.
This trend is only going to increase and to us in our market, this is the real story. Tampa, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale communities need to start preparing their forecasts and budgets for a turnaround in the market that will, admittedly, continue to trend upwards percentage point by percentage point. This trend will be slow, but as more foreclosures trickle into the market, more renters will be created and the renter's pool will expand. Renter's will crave the stability of an apartment community and now is the time to prepare to welcome them with open arms.
Housing downturn is a boon for some renters (msnbc.com)
June 3, 2008
Builder Confidence in the Rental Apartment Market Dropped Sharply
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released the Q1 results of their Multifamily Rental Market Index (MRMI), a quarterly nationwide survey of multifamily builders and property owners who are asked a series of questions about current market conditions as well as their expectations for the next six months, and they are not very good.
“The economic downturn affects the rental market as well as home building,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “Rental Vacancy Rates are rather high and the demand for rental apartments is being held back by various economic conditions—including a weakening job market and record-high prices of food and energy.” And without both strong demand and more ready access to capital, multifamily builder/developers will cut back production of new rental projects.
It's no secret that builders and owners felt and are feeling the crunch of the current economy. It's pretty simple actually; low demand (in this case resulting in higher vacancies) lessens the demand for more product, in this case the building of new apartments. A product took the biggest hit with a 20 point drop on the index while B product and C product fell 18.3 and 18.6 points respectively.
The bright spot? The number of calls from prospective renters has picked up at 4 points higher than last year. This is great news! The flip side to that however is it seems concessions is driving this traffic. Lower rents and asking prices were the norm. So, as laissez-faire economics has taught us to ask, would that 4 point increase happen in spite of or because of the concessions and lower asking rate? We're not sure we know the answer to that question, however, we will hopefully have some more insight over the coming months, including a very exciting interview that we hope will be happening later this week. Stay tuned!
Confidence In Rental Market Weakens (National Association of Home Builders)
“The economic downturn affects the rental market as well as home building,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “Rental Vacancy Rates are rather high and the demand for rental apartments is being held back by various economic conditions—including a weakening job market and record-high prices of food and energy.” And without both strong demand and more ready access to capital, multifamily builder/developers will cut back production of new rental projects.
It's no secret that builders and owners felt and are feeling the crunch of the current economy. It's pretty simple actually; low demand (in this case resulting in higher vacancies) lessens the demand for more product, in this case the building of new apartments. A product took the biggest hit with a 20 point drop on the index while B product and C product fell 18.3 and 18.6 points respectively.
The bright spot? The number of calls from prospective renters has picked up at 4 points higher than last year. This is great news! The flip side to that however is it seems concessions is driving this traffic. Lower rents and asking prices were the norm. So, as laissez-faire economics has taught us to ask, would that 4 point increase happen in spite of or because of the concessions and lower asking rate? We're not sure we know the answer to that question, however, we will hopefully have some more insight over the coming months, including a very exciting interview that we hope will be happening later this week. Stay tuned!
Confidence In Rental Market Weakens (National Association of Home Builders)
May 30, 2008
Tampa MSA's carbon footprint growing
The Brooking's Institute just completed a report on the nation's 100 metros measuring the per capita carbon footprint. Tampa came in at 47th while Sarasota came in the bottom fifth at 82. The study revealed some information that should give some of the newer urban apartment communities some talking points.
Metropolitan Tampa's per capita carbon footprint from transportation and residential energy use increased 10.84 percent between 2000 and 2005. In Sarasota, its per capita carbon footprint from transportation and residential energy use increased 29.56 percent in the same period.
Sounds like a viable talking point as a Community Feature and Amenity to us. Live here and be greener! This should not be a hard sell, however turning this into real green (profits) remains to be seen. While studies show the long-term costs of going green are evident, is there enough incentive to attract potential renters with this line of thinking? Will 1-2 year renters accept a higher cost to live in the city even while saving money on energy costs? This is where extra incentives and features need to be sold like community building through gardening, automobile sharing and renting, themed apartment communities, and available exotic floorplans.
Brookings Institution: Tampa MSA's carbon footprint growing (tampabay.bizjournals.com)
Metropolitan Tampa's per capita carbon footprint from transportation and residential energy use increased 10.84 percent between 2000 and 2005. In Sarasota, its per capita carbon footprint from transportation and residential energy use increased 29.56 percent in the same period.
Sounds like a viable talking point as a Community Feature and Amenity to us. Live here and be greener! This should not be a hard sell, however turning this into real green (profits) remains to be seen. While studies show the long-term costs of going green are evident, is there enough incentive to attract potential renters with this line of thinking? Will 1-2 year renters accept a higher cost to live in the city even while saving money on energy costs? This is where extra incentives and features need to be sold like community building through gardening, automobile sharing and renting, themed apartment communities, and available exotic floorplans.
Brookings Institution: Tampa MSA's carbon footprint growing (tampabay.bizjournals.com)
May 29, 2008
Ft. Myers/Naples Market Summary
Our research team just completed another market summary, this time for the Ft. Myers/Naples submarket. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via Ft. Myers/Naples communities on-site staff between the dates of 5/14/08 - 5/16/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below:
*Average occupancy for the area is 85%
*Average rent rates are between $862-$945
*The most popular concession by far is 1-2 months free rent
*89% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
Ft. Myers/Naples, as any cartographer will tell you, is not in the Tampa Bay area. However, our curiosity was overwhelming and we had to know what was going on down there. The market is concessions heavy with a lot of 1-2 months of free rent being offered. Traffic was reported as very slow, however many communities reported that traffic was increasing.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
*Average occupancy for the area is 85%
*Average rent rates are between $862-$945
*The most popular concession by far is 1-2 months free rent
*89% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
Ft. Myers/Naples, as any cartographer will tell you, is not in the Tampa Bay area. However, our curiosity was overwhelming and we had to know what was going on down there. The market is concessions heavy with a lot of 1-2 months of free rent being offered. Traffic was reported as very slow, however many communities reported that traffic was increasing.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
May 27, 2008
Themed Apartment Communities
There is a terrific article at multi-housing news about a wine and food themed apartment community in Phoenix, AZ.
The garden-style apartment community features a food and wine theme and includes a Chef’s Demonstration Kitchen that will host guest chefs, as well as a custom temperature-controlled wine storage room for residents.
How cool is this? Can you imagine the possibilities? You see more of this in places like Las Vegas and Orlando with themed hotels like but a full on themed apartment community?
Imagine cigar rolling sessions as well as an in-house cigar shop at a converted warehouse turned apartment complex in the heart of Ybor City. What about a complete modern-style glass and steel community near the Tampa International Airport with increased rates for runway views, air traffic control-like floorplans and free tram travel to anywhere in South Tampa? Be the first to move into the new three story, multiplex, 312 unit community The Peninsula, literally a man-made peninsula developed and built and jutting out into Tampa Bay.
The possibilities are endless and potentially amazing!
Food and Wine Themed Rental Community Opens in Phoenix (multihousingnews.com)
The garden-style apartment community features a food and wine theme and includes a Chef’s Demonstration Kitchen that will host guest chefs, as well as a custom temperature-controlled wine storage room for residents.
How cool is this? Can you imagine the possibilities? You see more of this in places like Las Vegas and Orlando with themed hotels like but a full on themed apartment community?
Imagine cigar rolling sessions as well as an in-house cigar shop at a converted warehouse turned apartment complex in the heart of Ybor City. What about a complete modern-style glass and steel community near the Tampa International Airport with increased rates for runway views, air traffic control-like floorplans and free tram travel to anywhere in South Tampa? Be the first to move into the new three story, multiplex, 312 unit community The Peninsula, literally a man-made peninsula developed and built and jutting out into Tampa Bay.
The possibilities are endless and potentially amazing!
Food and Wine Themed Rental Community Opens in Phoenix (multihousingnews.com)
May 20, 2008
Retail space growing nationally but slowing locally
Nearly 450 new shopping centers were added nationally through May 10, according to the latest industry report by from the International Council of Shopping Centers. We find this report interesting because, in what seems to be becoming a trend as of late, the rate of retail market growth in the Tampa Bay area slowed. This shouldn't surprise anyway who lives or works in the Tampa Bay area but this report should spur on the area's leadership to consider the lack of new industries and new job opportunities as a leading factor in this stagnation.
Retail seeing national growth but slowed demand forces local delays (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Retail seeing national growth but slowed demand forces local delays (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
May 16, 2008
Construction of new homes up...maybe?
Our love of all things journalism leads us to the fun game of scrutinizing headlines. We love that game particularly our favorite version which is seeing if the article matches up with the headline. Headlines are exactly that, lines preceding an article that give the reader a sense of what the article is about. So (in theory) the article should match up with the headline. Sounds reasonable. A report on msnbc.com today had the following headline:
Housing starts post surprising rebound
Wow...sounds amazing right? Especially since all we hear about in the media is the falling housing prices and subprime and prime mortgage foreclosures. However, in reading the sub-headline and paragraphs like the one italicized below we are invited to see the real and true identity of said article.
'April increase of 8.2 percent mainly spurred by apartment construction'
The strength in housing construction in April came entirely from a huge increase in apartment construction, which can be extremely volatile from month to month. Building of apartments, defined as two or more units, jumped by 36 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 340,000 units.
Seriously, apartments are behind the 8.2% growth and reading further, we see that single family homes dropped another 1.7% in April. So, why not just lead with 'Apartment Growth and Construction Stimulates Housing Upstarts' or 'Home Construction Drops but Apartments Soar'? We've never understood the blatant lack of coverage for multi-family housing but don't be fooled. The apartment industry is on the right track, is growing, and will bounce back (particularly here in Florida) and become an even more dominant force economically in this country. Just keep reading the news, but dig deeper past the headlines, and get to the real meat of the story.
Housing starts post surprising rebound (msnbc.com)
Housing starts post surprising rebound
Wow...sounds amazing right? Especially since all we hear about in the media is the falling housing prices and subprime and prime mortgage foreclosures. However, in reading the sub-headline and paragraphs like the one italicized below we are invited to see the real and true identity of said article.
'April increase of 8.2 percent mainly spurred by apartment construction'
The strength in housing construction in April came entirely from a huge increase in apartment construction, which can be extremely volatile from month to month. Building of apartments, defined as two or more units, jumped by 36 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 340,000 units.
Seriously, apartments are behind the 8.2% growth and reading further, we see that single family homes dropped another 1.7% in April. So, why not just lead with 'Apartment Growth and Construction Stimulates Housing Upstarts' or 'Home Construction Drops but Apartments Soar'? We've never understood the blatant lack of coverage for multi-family housing but don't be fooled. The apartment industry is on the right track, is growing, and will bounce back (particularly here in Florida) and become an even more dominant force economically in this country. Just keep reading the news, but dig deeper past the headlines, and get to the real meat of the story.
Housing starts post surprising rebound (msnbc.com)
May 15, 2008
Some Good Advice from a Regional Property Manager
Books and tomes have been written ad nauseum about empowering your leadership potential and harnessing your management skills for maximum efficiency. Our belief here at AF is that those books are good and have a place in the business world, particularly for study and meditation, but real world examples are so much more fun! In this article from Multi-Housing News, Kevin M. Charcut, recent recipient of the National Association of Home Builder's (NAHB) "Regional Property Manager of the Year", sits down and answers some questions about his and his team's successes. Like the previous article we posted about luxury living and design, these same principles can be applied just about anywhere in the country concerning multi-family management. Congrats to Mr. Charcut and we applaud some of the principles in the interview that exemplify his forward thinking and dedication to hard work.
Winning Advice for Property Managers (multihousingnews.com)
Winning Advice for Property Managers (multihousingnews.com)
Living Well by Design Would be Good for the Bay Area
Tremendous article by Reesa Fischer, Vice President of Product and Brand Development at Beacon Communities, LLC concerning high end living for moderately priced multi-family homes. In her own words, Ms. Fischer talks about the upgrades that were made to Rosemont Square in Randolph, Mass., a working-class suburb just south of Boston. Many of the actions taken at Rosemont Square are design principles that many apartment communities in the Tampa Bay area could use to their benefit.
"Randolph isn’t a community that has a lot of luxury living. But the improvements that the company has made to Rosemont are having a positive impact in the town. Beacon Communities is bringing urban-style design, features and lifestyle to a location that is an inner ring, working-class suburb and creating a whole new level of living in this community."
Part of what needs to take place in our industry is this focus on design and living well so that multi-family housing can differentiate itself from other forms of dwelling. Enjoy and get to designing!
Luxury Living Without High-End Costs (from multihousingnews.com)
"Randolph isn’t a community that has a lot of luxury living. But the improvements that the company has made to Rosemont are having a positive impact in the town. Beacon Communities is bringing urban-style design, features and lifestyle to a location that is an inner ring, working-class suburb and creating a whole new level of living in this community."
Part of what needs to take place in our industry is this focus on design and living well so that multi-family housing can differentiate itself from other forms of dwelling. Enjoy and get to designing!
Luxury Living Without High-End Costs (from multihousingnews.com)
May 12, 2008
West Tampa Market Summary and More Concessions Talk
Our research team just completed another market summary, this time for the West Tampa submarket. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via West Tampa communities on-site staff between the dates of 5/6/08 - 5/9/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below:
*Average occupancy for the area is 92%
*Average rent rates are between $688-$1014
*Average occupancy of communities offering concessions is 89%
*86% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
The majority of communities said that traffic was either slow or just OK. A few noted that incoming traffic was beginning to pick-up, a trend we expect to see continue as the summer months approach. The most offered concession was one month free, a point that we will be discussing in our upcoming second 2008 Tampa Bay Market Summary coming out mid-June. We're not sure exactly how deep we can go with the question, but we're pretty confident that examining the issue itself will be a good start. It may even lead (we hope) to a better way of statistically evaluating the true success and growth of a community both short-term and for the long-term. The baseball stats geek in us rejoices greatly!
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
*Average occupancy for the area is 92%
*Average rent rates are between $688-$1014
*Average occupancy of communities offering concessions is 89%
*86% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
The majority of communities said that traffic was either slow or just OK. A few noted that incoming traffic was beginning to pick-up, a trend we expect to see continue as the summer months approach. The most offered concession was one month free, a point that we will be discussing in our upcoming second 2008 Tampa Bay Market Summary coming out mid-June. We're not sure exactly how deep we can go with the question, but we're pretty confident that examining the issue itself will be a good start. It may even lead (we hope) to a better way of statistically evaluating the true success and growth of a community both short-term and for the long-term. The baseball stats geek in us rejoices greatly!
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
May 6, 2008
More Turning to Apartments in Bay Area
A fantastic article was in the Tampa Bay Tribune this past weekend about apartments and the Bay area. A lot of the themes covered in the article were covered in our Market Summary way back in January including Features and Amenities that would make apartment buying more appealing, the economic impact of a tough housing market in 2008 as well as the shadow market. Shannon Behnken, the reporter of the article, did her homework and it shows in this well researched and informative piece.
Take a few minutes out and check out the article as it gives a nice snapshot of what is going on throughout the Bay Area. We also agree with Jim Bobbitt, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis, where he predicts a 94% occupancy rate by the end of the year for the market. Enjoy!
With Money Tight, More In Bay Area Turn To Apartments, And Developers Are Responding (TBO.com)
Take a few minutes out and check out the article as it gives a nice snapshot of what is going on throughout the Bay Area. We also agree with Jim Bobbitt, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis, where he predicts a 94% occupancy rate by the end of the year for the market. Enjoy!
With Money Tight, More In Bay Area Turn To Apartments, And Developers Are Responding (TBO.com)
April 30, 2008
New Port Richey/Pasco Market Summary
Our research team just completed another market summary, this time for the New Port Richey/West Pasco submarket. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via New Port Richey/West Pasco communities on-site staff between the dates of 4/28/08 - 4/29/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below:
*Average occupancy for the area is 91%
*Average rent rates are between $640-$801
*The most popular concession by far is reducing rent rate upon move-in
*100% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
The interesting thing to note is that every community contacted was offering some sort of concession. While not true of every community in Pasco, we did try and contact enough communities to make sure we had a fairly substantial sample size. Prospective renter traffic is very slow in West Pasco and in a few cases was reported as very, very slow. How one quantifies the extra 'very' is a calculation we haven't figured out yet but we are guessing it is slower than slow.
In June, when we release our Tampa Bay mid-year Market Summary, we are hoping that we will have a very good picture of how the market is responding to the current foreclosure crisis, how the rest of the year is looking for the Tampa Bay area, and we also plan on addresing the question of concessions. Do concessions benefit communities both in the short-term and long -term or do they just hinder the bottom line financially? Can communities be successful leasing without offering a concession? Are there other examples in the business world that we can look at that will help us address this concessions question? Look for answers to these as well as a summary for the West Tampa area in the next weeks.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
*Average occupancy for the area is 91%
*Average rent rates are between $640-$801
*The most popular concession by far is reducing rent rate upon move-in
*100% of the communities contacted in this submarket are offering concessions
The interesting thing to note is that every community contacted was offering some sort of concession. While not true of every community in Pasco, we did try and contact enough communities to make sure we had a fairly substantial sample size. Prospective renter traffic is very slow in West Pasco and in a few cases was reported as very, very slow. How one quantifies the extra 'very' is a calculation we haven't figured out yet but we are guessing it is slower than slow.
In June, when we release our Tampa Bay mid-year Market Summary, we are hoping that we will have a very good picture of how the market is responding to the current foreclosure crisis, how the rest of the year is looking for the Tampa Bay area, and we also plan on addresing the question of concessions. Do concessions benefit communities both in the short-term and long -term or do they just hinder the bottom line financially? Can communities be successful leasing without offering a concession? Are there other examples in the business world that we can look at that will help us address this concessions question? Look for answers to these as well as a summary for the West Tampa area in the next weeks.
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
April 29, 2008
Florida foreclosures nearly triple
We thought we would post this article from the TBO about foreclosures. Forbes.com says that the end may not be near for home foreclosures and that data shows a 112% spike in foreclosures year-over-year. We all know people who have been affected by the sub-prime mortgage and credit crises' and while this will eventually help the apartment industry in Florida with new renters, we are never big fans of people losing their homes. Hopefully this process will work itself out for the betterment of most including the multi-family industry as well as those who are running into financial problems.
Locally, the foreclosure rate in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater area ranked No. 21 in the top 100 metro areas. (TBO.com)
Locally, the foreclosure rate in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater area ranked No. 21 in the top 100 metro areas. (TBO.com)
April 23, 2008
Clearwater/Largo Market Summary and more concessions
Our research team just completed another market summary, this time for the Clearwater/Largo submarket. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via Clearwater/Largo communities on-site staff between the dates of 4/17/08 - 4/18/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below:
*Average occupancy for the area is at 92%
*Average rent rates are between $861-$912
*The most popular concession by far is one month free with a few communities offering 2 month's free rent
*Just as in St. Pete, 47% of communities in this submarket are offering concessions
The good news is that we have seen, over the past four months, a rise in occupancy in the realm of one to three percentage points on average throughout this submarket. We are hearing stories of increased rentals to former homeowners who have been foreclosed on, renters who previously had been renting from homeowners who have been foreclosed on, and many who were putting off home buying due to the inability to snag a homeowners loan. The trend is still heavily in favor of searching for homes to rent by far, but we feel that the playing field will level out over the next few months and occupancy will continue its steady, albeit slower than we would like to see, rise.
The concessions issue continues to fascinate us however. While the average occupancy in Clearwater/Largo is at 92%, those offering concessions are sitting at 91% occupancy. One percentage point differential is not large enough to make a clear case that concessions are not necessary. We also have not explored the question of what would those communities who are offering concessions look like if they were not? However, this is the third submarket we have surveyed where those complexes offering concessions have come in with an occupancy rate below the market average. We have one more survey on the way and then we'll crunch the total numbers and do a concession post on the effectiveness of concessions in the Tampa Bay area. Stay tuned!
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
*Average occupancy for the area is at 92%
*Average rent rates are between $861-$912
*The most popular concession by far is one month free with a few communities offering 2 month's free rent
*Just as in St. Pete, 47% of communities in this submarket are offering concessions
The good news is that we have seen, over the past four months, a rise in occupancy in the realm of one to three percentage points on average throughout this submarket. We are hearing stories of increased rentals to former homeowners who have been foreclosed on, renters who previously had been renting from homeowners who have been foreclosed on, and many who were putting off home buying due to the inability to snag a homeowners loan. The trend is still heavily in favor of searching for homes to rent by far, but we feel that the playing field will level out over the next few months and occupancy will continue its steady, albeit slower than we would like to see, rise.
The concessions issue continues to fascinate us however. While the average occupancy in Clearwater/Largo is at 92%, those offering concessions are sitting at 91% occupancy. One percentage point differential is not large enough to make a clear case that concessions are not necessary. We also have not explored the question of what would those communities who are offering concessions look like if they were not? However, this is the third submarket we have surveyed where those complexes offering concessions have come in with an occupancy rate below the market average. We have one more survey on the way and then we'll crunch the total numbers and do a concession post on the effectiveness of concessions in the Tampa Bay area. Stay tuned!
If you should have any questions or if you would like the report in full, please e-mail aftampa@apartmentfinder.com or call us at 813-864-0275.
April 18, 2008
News and Links
Some news and notes pertaining to the multi-housing industry around the nation and Tampa Bay...have a great weekend everybody.
Crescent Resources shifts from commercial to build rental units
Crescent Resources LLC is expected to begin construction this summer on 300 rental units at Crosstown Center in Brandon. The $39.5 million Circle at Crosstown will be built by Crescent Multifamily Construction LLC, an affiliate of Crescent Resources, the project's general contractor. The project's total buildout including land, construction and development costs will equate to about $131,600 per unit.
Circle at Crosstown will be on the corner of U.S. 301 and Falkenburg Road in Brandon, just off the Crosstown Expressway outside the eastern city limits of Tampa. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Ranks of Apartment Dwellers Increase Dramatically
More than one million households joined the ranks of renters in the last two years, according to a new report by the National Multi Housing Council, a Washington-based group representing the multifamily rental housing industry.
Nationwide, the number of renters is projected to increase by 4.3 million households over the next decade, says Mary Ann King, 2007 NMHC chairman, in the council’s newly released annual report. Apartment demand is forecast to increase by 430,000 units annually, the report says. (National Real Estate Investor; nreionline.com)
Crescent Resources shifts from commercial to build rental units
Crescent Resources LLC is expected to begin construction this summer on 300 rental units at Crosstown Center in Brandon. The $39.5 million Circle at Crosstown will be built by Crescent Multifamily Construction LLC, an affiliate of Crescent Resources, the project's general contractor. The project's total buildout including land, construction and development costs will equate to about $131,600 per unit.
Circle at Crosstown will be on the corner of U.S. 301 and Falkenburg Road in Brandon, just off the Crosstown Expressway outside the eastern city limits of Tampa. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Ranks of Apartment Dwellers Increase Dramatically
More than one million households joined the ranks of renters in the last two years, according to a new report by the National Multi Housing Council, a Washington-based group representing the multifamily rental housing industry.
Nationwide, the number of renters is projected to increase by 4.3 million households over the next decade, says Mary Ann King, 2007 NMHC chairman, in the council’s newly released annual report. Apartment demand is forecast to increase by 430,000 units annually, the report says. (National Real Estate Investor; nreionline.com)
April 15, 2008
National rental rates inconsistent across country
There is a very good read on msnbc.com (link below) about national rental rates and how they compare city-to-city. Rental prices have plummeted in Phoenix while in San Francisco, rates have risen as much as 14%! New York and Seattle also experienced similar rent spikes due to a growing job-seeking populace. The culprit in Phoenix? An oversupply of housing that renters can rent for a cost below what they could rent an apartment. Sound familiar Florida?
Apartment rental costs are all over the board (msnbc.com)
Apartment rental costs are all over the board (msnbc.com)
April 14, 2008
St.Pete/Gateway Market Summary and concessions
Our research team just completed another market summary, this time for the St. Pete/Gateway submarket. The research was conducted by phone and information was provided via Gateway communities on-site staff between the dates of 4/1/08 - 4/3/08. A few results have been highlighted and are below:
* Average occupancy in the area is reported at 92%.
* 47% of those surveyed are offering concessions.
* Concessions range from one and a half-to two month's free rent, $200 off move-in, and half off security deposit.
* The average rent rate range is $883-$932.
What we found particularly interesting for this area was the 3-5% vacancy rate gap for higher end 'B' and 'A' luxury communities compared to other communities in the area. Another interesting note was the 92% occupancy rate for those apartment communities offering concessions. This stat, along with the 82% occupancy rate for Lakeland communities offering concessions, fall s below each submarkets average occupancy rate. Could this show that offering concessions doesn't drastically improve multifamily housing occupancy in the Tampa Bay area?
Obviously surveying two submarkets isn't a large enough sample size to answer the concession question but it still leaves us wondering to the effectiveness of concessions. Our team is scheduled to do two more market summaries this month, one for West Tampa, and the other for Sarasota and we will look to gather more info on this concession trend.
* Average occupancy in the area is reported at 92%.
* 47% of those surveyed are offering concessions.
* Concessions range from one and a half-to two month's free rent, $200 off move-in, and half off security deposit.
* The average rent rate range is $883-$932.
What we found particularly interesting for this area was the 3-5% vacancy rate gap for higher end 'B' and 'A' luxury communities compared to other communities in the area. Another interesting note was the 92% occupancy rate for those apartment communities offering concessions. This stat, along with the 82% occupancy rate for Lakeland communities offering concessions, fall s below each submarkets average occupancy rate. Could this show that offering concessions doesn't drastically improve multifamily housing occupancy in the Tampa Bay area?
Obviously surveying two submarkets isn't a large enough sample size to answer the concession question but it still leaves us wondering to the effectiveness of concessions. Our team is scheduled to do two more market summaries this month, one for West Tampa, and the other for Sarasota and we will look to gather more info on this concession trend.
April 9, 2008
The Florida Rental Market is Losing to Houses
We came across a very interesting article today on this here interwebs from the Apartment Expert, Lisa Trosien. Ms. Trosien recently did a Google Trends search and the results were pretty incredible, particularly for those in the Tampa and Orlando markets.
You can click on the article link below however the basic gist is that she found that there were more Google searches for 'homes for rent' in Tampa and Orlando than 'apartments for rent'. We were curious to see if this info could be updated (there was no time reference for the trend) and the results were pretty much the same. We did a basic 'homes' and 'apartments' search and narrowed it down to March 2008. The graph below shows what we found.
It would seem that, with exceptions in the two major college towns of Tallahassee and Gainesville, that apartment searches in the state of Florida are getting beat 2-1 to homes. We were curious to see how Tampa and Orlando stacked up to the rest of the country so far in 2008 using the same key words. The results are below.
Compared to other U.S. cities this year Orlando and Tampa stand out as overwhelming cities where more searches are done for homes than for apartments. There are still a lot of searches for apartments as Orlando came in 5th and Tampa 8th overall for these keywords using Google, but the importance of the overall picture cannot be lost. It would seem then that coupled with the article we posted from Businessweek about the glut of properties on the market, that there is a direct correlation between the shadow market and apartment renting. How long this trend will continue is anybodies guess but we'll be keeping a close eye on this trend to gauge how the rental markets are doing in Florida.
tip to: Apartment Expert Lisa Trosien (apartmentexpert.com)
Google trends and apartments
You can click on the article link below however the basic gist is that she found that there were more Google searches for 'homes for rent' in Tampa and Orlando than 'apartments for rent'. We were curious to see if this info could be updated (there was no time reference for the trend) and the results were pretty much the same. We did a basic 'homes' and 'apartments' search and narrowed it down to March 2008. The graph below shows what we found.
Blue = Apartments
Red = Homes
Red = Homes
It would seem that, with exceptions in the two major college towns of Tallahassee and Gainesville, that apartment searches in the state of Florida are getting beat 2-1 to homes. We were curious to see how Tampa and Orlando stacked up to the rest of the country so far in 2008 using the same key words. The results are below.
Blue = Apartments
Red = Homes
Compared to other U.S. cities this year Orlando and Tampa stand out as overwhelming cities where more searches are done for homes than for apartments. There are still a lot of searches for apartments as Orlando came in 5th and Tampa 8th overall for these keywords using Google, but the importance of the overall picture cannot be lost. It would seem then that coupled with the article we posted from Businessweek about the glut of properties on the market, that there is a direct correlation between the shadow market and apartment renting. How long this trend will continue is anybodies guess but we'll be keeping a close eye on this trend to gauge how the rental markets are doing in Florida.
tip to: Apartment Expert Lisa Trosien (apartmentexpert.com)
Google trends and apartments
April 7, 2008
The Housing Bust Shakes Up Rentals
In most housing downturns, rental markets thrive. This time, a glut of properties has put the brakes on rent hikes in many cities.
For many Americans, as property values sink and mortgage interest payments rise, the dream of homeownership has turned into a nightmare. In the past, however, one group of people who have tended to ride out real estate downturns are landlords, who can raise rents while potential buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for conditions to settle. But not this year. Rent growth in 2007 actually went flat in some metro areas hardest hit by the housing meltdown.
Read more about rentals and how they are effected by the recent housing industry problems. (yahoo.com)
For many Americans, as property values sink and mortgage interest payments rise, the dream of homeownership has turned into a nightmare. In the past, however, one group of people who have tended to ride out real estate downturns are landlords, who can raise rents while potential buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for conditions to settle. But not this year. Rent growth in 2007 actually went flat in some metro areas hardest hit by the housing meltdown.
Read more about rentals and how they are effected by the recent housing industry problems. (yahoo.com)
April 2, 2008
Spring 2008 Executive Summary - Part IV
Today we present our final piece of our Spring Executive Summary where we take a look at the outlook for 2008 and beyond concerning Features and Amenities for Tampa Bay, Florida and the nation. Enjoy!
Agro-housing is gaining support amongst designers, architects and builders alike. Specifically, as Amara Holstein reported in Dwell magazine in October 2007, these projects essentially combine urban living with multi-story or even single-story greenhouses. The community encourages resident, as well its own staff, to cultivate fruits, spices, plants, and flowers on-site. “A rooftop green space caps off the structure, and passive and active solar energy, along with gray water irrigation and rain water harvesting, helps keep the building also somewhat sustainable in form as well as function.”
Scenic gardens, green rooftops, and other green’ projects are increasingly becoming the norm at more and more communities across the nation. There is no reason, given Florida’s warm, tropical climate, that these ‘green initiatives’ could not be experimented with and implemented locally. Top floor solar paneling as a unit incentive to lower energy costs are also being implemented in apartment dwellings. Sometimes even to the answer of a $0 electric bill! Reclaimed water, while a staple of many municipal governments for parks and gardens, is becoming more and more prevalent for communities to use for grounds watering as well as for aesthetic features such as fountains. Scenic gardens are a great way to show off the beauty of a community’s local landscaping and it also creates a hotspot for communal activity in addition to the pool area, clubhouse or gazebo.
Several communities in Seattle and New York have begun allowing residents to ‘rent’ a car or bike for use for a certain time period during the week or weekends. Instead of driving one’s own car, residents can ‘rent’ the car for an hour to run quick errands or such. This gives the resident the ability to choose a more energy-efficient way to travel and serves as an earth-friendly feature provided by the community.
These ideas build a sense of community which in turn creates a sense of civic and community pride. Ultimately, this creates cleaner units, greener and more appealing communities, happier residents, and reduces the amount of turnover. Community buildings make residents want to stay longer as they feel they are a part of something special.
Potential resident interior design options are increasingly becoming more popular. Allowing residents to choose an accent color for a main wall in an apartment has proven to be a solid selling point, particularly in growing metro areas like Denver, San Francisco, Phoenix, Charlotte and Miami. Built-in mp3 docking components are also increasingly popular as more of these personal gadgets become cost-effective items.
The point of innovation and new ideas is to promote change. Apartment communities need to embrace the changes and new ideas in design, as the competition for housing remains fierce.
Conclusion
To say for certain what lies ahead in 2008 is irresponsible and unwarranted. We can only use the indicators we have from the past several years, including a very tumultuous 2007, to best predict ways to make sure 2008 is as successful as possible for the multi-family housing industry. Several submarkets are already becoming increasingly full of activity and will continue to be so in 2008, such as Pasco County, Hillsborough and the Polk and Manatee markets. The Economic outlook will depend on jobs and wage growth while also depending on a steadying credit/mortgage market. New innovations such as greener features and amenities, more community based initiatives and consumer friendlier apartments will become increasingly popular as the apartment industry works to differentiate itself from a growing housing and condo market.
Sources: (Note: Posting our sources for our Executive Summary is important to us at Apartment Finder Tampa. We believe in transparency and want to be upfront and honest on how we came to our conclusions. If any of the below researchers/reporters believe that we misinterpreted the data, then please let us know as soon as possible so that we can correct the information.)
Powerpoint Presentation at BAAA 13th Annual Developer’s Forum, Wednesday, November 28th, 2007,
Michael Slater, President/CEO, TRIAD research and Consulting, Inc.
Powerpoint Presentation at BAAA 13th Annual Developer’s Forum, Wednesday, November 28th, 2007, Michael Brown, First Advantage SafeRent, “New Tenant Eligibility Requirements & Today’s Credit Challenges”
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; March 27, 2008; Tampa will grow, but more infrastructure needed, developers say
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; September 25, 2007; More apartments coming to Westshore
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; October 18, 2007; Vacancy rising in Tampa, and so are average rents
Apartment Industry Responds to Bush Bailout Proposal Press Release; December 7, 2007; Doug Bibby, President of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC),
New Cornerstone: Foundations for Florida’s 21st Century Economy 2003 (Revisited 2007); Florida Chamber Foundation
Units Magazine, July, 2007; Home Grown, pgs. 20-28, Todd Tibbits
Carolina REAL DATA Real Estate Information Services, Apartment Index; Tampa Bay December 2007
Agro Housing; Posted by: Amara Holstein on Oct 23, 07; http://www.dwell.com/daily/blog/10561526.html
Agro-housing is gaining support amongst designers, architects and builders alike. Specifically, as Amara Holstein reported in Dwell magazine in October 2007, these projects essentially combine urban living with multi-story or even single-story greenhouses. The community encourages resident, as well its own staff, to cultivate fruits, spices, plants, and flowers on-site. “A rooftop green space caps off the structure, and passive and active solar energy, along with gray water irrigation and rain water harvesting, helps keep the building also somewhat sustainable in form as well as function.”
Scenic gardens, green rooftops, and other green’ projects are increasingly becoming the norm at more and more communities across the nation. There is no reason, given Florida’s warm, tropical climate, that these ‘green initiatives’ could not be experimented with and implemented locally. Top floor solar paneling as a unit incentive to lower energy costs are also being implemented in apartment dwellings. Sometimes even to the answer of a $0 electric bill! Reclaimed water, while a staple of many municipal governments for parks and gardens, is becoming more and more prevalent for communities to use for grounds watering as well as for aesthetic features such as fountains. Scenic gardens are a great way to show off the beauty of a community’s local landscaping and it also creates a hotspot for communal activity in addition to the pool area, clubhouse or gazebo.
Several communities in Seattle and New York have begun allowing residents to ‘rent’ a car or bike for use for a certain time period during the week or weekends. Instead of driving one’s own car, residents can ‘rent’ the car for an hour to run quick errands or such. This gives the resident the ability to choose a more energy-efficient way to travel and serves as an earth-friendly feature provided by the community.
These ideas build a sense of community which in turn creates a sense of civic and community pride. Ultimately, this creates cleaner units, greener and more appealing communities, happier residents, and reduces the amount of turnover. Community buildings make residents want to stay longer as they feel they are a part of something special.
Potential resident interior design options are increasingly becoming more popular. Allowing residents to choose an accent color for a main wall in an apartment has proven to be a solid selling point, particularly in growing metro areas like Denver, San Francisco, Phoenix, Charlotte and Miami. Built-in mp3 docking components are also increasingly popular as more of these personal gadgets become cost-effective items.
The point of innovation and new ideas is to promote change. Apartment communities need to embrace the changes and new ideas in design, as the competition for housing remains fierce.
Conclusion
To say for certain what lies ahead in 2008 is irresponsible and unwarranted. We can only use the indicators we have from the past several years, including a very tumultuous 2007, to best predict ways to make sure 2008 is as successful as possible for the multi-family housing industry. Several submarkets are already becoming increasingly full of activity and will continue to be so in 2008, such as Pasco County, Hillsborough and the Polk and Manatee markets. The Economic outlook will depend on jobs and wage growth while also depending on a steadying credit/mortgage market. New innovations such as greener features and amenities, more community based initiatives and consumer friendlier apartments will become increasingly popular as the apartment industry works to differentiate itself from a growing housing and condo market.
Sources: (Note: Posting our sources for our Executive Summary is important to us at Apartment Finder Tampa. We believe in transparency and want to be upfront and honest on how we came to our conclusions. If any of the below researchers/reporters believe that we misinterpreted the data, then please let us know as soon as possible so that we can correct the information.)
Powerpoint Presentation at BAAA 13th Annual Developer’s Forum, Wednesday, November 28th, 2007,
Michael Slater, President/CEO, TRIAD research and Consulting, Inc.
Powerpoint Presentation at BAAA 13th Annual Developer’s Forum, Wednesday, November 28th, 2007, Michael Brown, First Advantage SafeRent, “New Tenant Eligibility Requirements & Today’s Credit Challenges”
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; March 27, 2008; Tampa will grow, but more infrastructure needed, developers say
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; September 25, 2007; More apartments coming to Westshore
Tampa Bay Business Journal Online; October 18, 2007; Vacancy rising in Tampa, and so are average rents
Apartment Industry Responds to Bush Bailout Proposal Press Release; December 7, 2007; Doug Bibby, President of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC),
New Cornerstone: Foundations for Florida’s 21st Century Economy 2003 (Revisited 2007); Florida Chamber Foundation
Units Magazine, July, 2007; Home Grown, pgs. 20-28, Todd Tibbits
Carolina REAL DATA Real Estate Information Services, Apartment Index; Tampa Bay December 2007
Agro Housing; Posted by: Amara Holstein on Oct 23, 07; http://www.dwell.com/daily/blog/10561526.html
Market opportunities flow along Manatee River
Buffeted by the economy, growth and business opportunities in two riverfront cities in Manatee County are on different tacks. Some Palmetto and Bradenton downtown developers are changing plans but still proceeding with projects. Some have given up, and others are waiting out the housing market slide.
Continue reading about Palmetto and Bradenton developments. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Continue reading about Palmetto and Bradenton developments. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
March 28, 2008
News and Links
Phillips Development's $6M land deals deepen luxury rental pool
A year after it was part of a complex land deal that helped divvy up 576 acres of land near Brandon, Centex Homes has sold 19 acres near the corner of Falkenburg Road and Progress Boulevard. It could soon become home to a 300-unit, luxury rental community. (Tampa Bay Business Journal...subscription required)
Michigan Developers Unveil Affordable Housing Projects with Amenities and Design
Brookstone Capital and Hooker DeJong have completed construction of two affordable housing developments in Kalkaska and Jackson, Mich. Both the projects have architecture and amenities seldom offered in affordable housing projects in the U.S. (multihousingnews.com)
A year after it was part of a complex land deal that helped divvy up 576 acres of land near Brandon, Centex Homes has sold 19 acres near the corner of Falkenburg Road and Progress Boulevard. It could soon become home to a 300-unit, luxury rental community. (Tampa Bay Business Journal...subscription required)
Michigan Developers Unveil Affordable Housing Projects with Amenities and Design
Brookstone Capital and Hooker DeJong have completed construction of two affordable housing developments in Kalkaska and Jackson, Mich. Both the projects have architecture and amenities seldom offered in affordable housing projects in the U.S. (multihousingnews.com)
March 26, 2008
Apartment Reports Upbeat Despite Foreclosure Crisis
There is a fascinating article in the January/February 08 Multihousing Professional that is also online (see link below). The article recaps the downturn in housing, looks at the shadow markets in Tampa, Orlando, Phoenix, and Southern Florida, reports on the top REIT's in the country including Equity, AIMCO, and Camden, and talks about the future of apartment community ownership and living. Enjoy!
Apartment reports upbeat amid housing downturn (multihousingpro.com)
Apartment reports upbeat amid housing downturn (multihousingpro.com)
News and Links
Condo Prices Fall by a Smaller Percentage than Home Prices
Average condo and co-op prices across the country have been falling in the last year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2008 research on existing home prices. (multihousingnews.com)
More stores, more road for Shops at Wiregrass
Pasco County officials and developers of The Shops at Wiregrass broke ground Wednesday on the much-anticipated extension of State Road 56. The $24 million, 3.8-mile road extension will provide access to the 800,000-square-foot, outdoor shopping center located at S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel and to the Meadow Pointe/Wesley Chapel Lakes project. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Average condo and co-op prices across the country have been falling in the last year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2008 research on existing home prices. (multihousingnews.com)
More stores, more road for Shops at Wiregrass
Pasco County officials and developers of The Shops at Wiregrass broke ground Wednesday on the much-anticipated extension of State Road 56. The $24 million, 3.8-mile road extension will provide access to the 800,000-square-foot, outdoor shopping center located at S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel and to the Meadow Pointe/Wesley Chapel Lakes project. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
March 25, 2008
Spring 2008 Executive Summary - Part III
Today we present Part III of our Spring Executive Summary where we take a look at the development outlook for 2008 for the Tampa Bay area. Enjoy!
The Tampa Bay market both geographically and financially is creating new areas of growth for the multi-family housing industry. Three particular submarkets sum up the majority of the new activity:
• Hillsborough County is experiencing above-average growth in Brandon and the Westshore/Westchase/Wesley Chapel districts of Tampa. The continued current growth of Brandon, which has been going on for some time now, saw more high-end product come online in 2007, and the same will be said for 2008 with several projects near completion. Continued construction on multiple projects will inject more A and high B product into the area to support the continued influx of middle and upper middle class economies. The Westshore/Westchase districts, like Brandon, house many current to near complete projects. Yet more projects will break ground in 2008 as competition for housing the growing urban professional intensifies. Already five new developments are scheduled to either break ground or begin opening ‘Phase I’ type units in ’08.
• In Pasco County, a mini-migration out of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties has created an influx of new families that need infrastructure support. Thus new malls, new housing developments and job creation indicate that Pasco is a prime location for new apartment development. On top of the easy proximity to Clearwater via US 19, and Tampa proper via the Suncoast Parkway, as well as accessibility to I-75, Pasco is a development dream. The growing economy, land availability and the need for new housing choices, makes Pasco County an attractive market.
• Polk and Manatee Counties are the wildcards of the group with serious growth potential yet there is limited activity in the new construction pipeline. With urban and rural expansion increasing along the I-4 corridor, it would stand to reason that there is a high potential for growth. However there is little to moderate growth projection in these areas. Lakeland is the preferred destination for build-up with several projects ready to break ground or expand. Manatee County will continue to attract expansion projects into 2008 as activity grows along the I-75 corridor. This is consistent with the continued push of Tampa Bay metro growing into the outlying areas as land becomes more and more scarce..
Taking this snapshot then, combined with leading indices from other submarkets, we see two main trends for 2008. The first is continued growth towards the outlying areas of the metro area. The second trend, is the increase in A and high B product exposure in the Westshore/Westchase/Wesley Chapel districts. This increase in urban living appeals to the urban and peri-urban professional who would like to live closer to the city for the purposes of work, personal economies, the environment and creating community.
While growth is projected for 2008 and beyond for these submarkets, specific economic factors will have their say in the success of these developments. While the success of the pre-condo market allowed multi-family communities to flourish, the environment created by the re-introduction of these single-family housing and condos as rentals has now taken away that edge.
Innovation in multi-family housing is another subject that few can argue is not essential to the industry. The easiest and most effective way to innovate the industry, and thereby differentiating apartment dwelling from housing and condo dwelling, is through the very features and amenities the multi-family housing industry provides. New technologies, community building and lowering environmental waste will attract new renters in 2008 and beyond.
The Tampa Bay market both geographically and financially is creating new areas of growth for the multi-family housing industry. Three particular submarkets sum up the majority of the new activity:
• Hillsborough County is experiencing above-average growth in Brandon and the Westshore/Westchase/Wesley Chapel districts of Tampa. The continued current growth of Brandon, which has been going on for some time now, saw more high-end product come online in 2007, and the same will be said for 2008 with several projects near completion. Continued construction on multiple projects will inject more A and high B product into the area to support the continued influx of middle and upper middle class economies. The Westshore/Westchase districts, like Brandon, house many current to near complete projects. Yet more projects will break ground in 2008 as competition for housing the growing urban professional intensifies. Already five new developments are scheduled to either break ground or begin opening ‘Phase I’ type units in ’08.
• In Pasco County, a mini-migration out of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties has created an influx of new families that need infrastructure support. Thus new malls, new housing developments and job creation indicate that Pasco is a prime location for new apartment development. On top of the easy proximity to Clearwater via US 19, and Tampa proper via the Suncoast Parkway, as well as accessibility to I-75, Pasco is a development dream. The growing economy, land availability and the need for new housing choices, makes Pasco County an attractive market.
• Polk and Manatee Counties are the wildcards of the group with serious growth potential yet there is limited activity in the new construction pipeline. With urban and rural expansion increasing along the I-4 corridor, it would stand to reason that there is a high potential for growth. However there is little to moderate growth projection in these areas. Lakeland is the preferred destination for build-up with several projects ready to break ground or expand. Manatee County will continue to attract expansion projects into 2008 as activity grows along the I-75 corridor. This is consistent with the continued push of Tampa Bay metro growing into the outlying areas as land becomes more and more scarce..
Taking this snapshot then, combined with leading indices from other submarkets, we see two main trends for 2008. The first is continued growth towards the outlying areas of the metro area. The second trend, is the increase in A and high B product exposure in the Westshore/Westchase/Wesley Chapel districts. This increase in urban living appeals to the urban and peri-urban professional who would like to live closer to the city for the purposes of work, personal economies, the environment and creating community.
While growth is projected for 2008 and beyond for these submarkets, specific economic factors will have their say in the success of these developments. While the success of the pre-condo market allowed multi-family communities to flourish, the environment created by the re-introduction of these single-family housing and condos as rentals has now taken away that edge.
Innovation in multi-family housing is another subject that few can argue is not essential to the industry. The easiest and most effective way to innovate the industry, and thereby differentiating apartment dwelling from housing and condo dwelling, is through the very features and amenities the multi-family housing industry provides. New technologies, community building and lowering environmental waste will attract new renters in 2008 and beyond.
March 20, 2008
Green Builder
'Going green' is our generations latest and greatest trend and culturally this is a necessary one. There is a battle going even know in our culture between the consumer culture and the conservation culture. Many times we find ourselves on both sides of the battle, fighting for conservation one day and for consumerism the next. As usual, balance is the key. Overconsumption is not a good thing naturally however consumption is inevitable. Overconservation can be anti-progressive while conservation can be just what a natural environment needs.
Which leads us into apartment building. Buildings by themselves naturally take up space and resources which can lead to vast amounts of material consumptions. Making buildings more efficient while consuming less seems to equal out the consumption vs. conservation equation thus incorporating a viable balance. So today we spotlight Swinerton Inc., a San Francisco based construction company.
"Today, our multifamily projects are stronger, constructed more efficiently, and built with less waste generated and fewer natural resources consumed in both the construction and operation," says Gordon W. Marks, chairman and CEO of Swinerton Inc. "These innovations in building technology equate to time and money saved for our clients."
Continue reading more about green buildings. (Multi-Housing News)
Which leads us into apartment building. Buildings by themselves naturally take up space and resources which can lead to vast amounts of material consumptions. Making buildings more efficient while consuming less seems to equal out the consumption vs. conservation equation thus incorporating a viable balance. So today we spotlight Swinerton Inc., a San Francisco based construction company.
"Today, our multifamily projects are stronger, constructed more efficiently, and built with less waste generated and fewer natural resources consumed in both the construction and operation," says Gordon W. Marks, chairman and CEO of Swinerton Inc. "These innovations in building technology equate to time and money saved for our clients."
Continue reading more about green buildings. (Multi-Housing News)
March 17, 2008
News and Links
Heights project gets a kick start
One of the area's largest general contractors, The Beck Group, plans to build its Florida headquarters at the Heights of Tampa -- a 48-acre, $500 million redevelopment project on the Hillsborough River north of downtown. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Employment Jackpot! Hard Rock Hotel needs to hire 1,000
The slots at the Tampa casino are about to get company. Baccarat and blackjack will be unveiled later this year and that means that approximately one thousand dealers will be needed to fill at the Hard Rock. (tampabay10.com)
Tampa Bay Area Lost Jobs, Despite Reports
In a release of revised employment figures Friday, Florida officials knocked the legs out from under the Tampa Bay area's long-standing reputation as a hotbed of job creation. (The Ledger)
Trump Tower Down To Its Last Hope
For the past three years, the developers of Trump Tower Tampa searched coast to coast for a lender willing to finance the $300 million luxury condominium. After being turned down by numerous traditional lenders and 10 hedge funds, they're poised to walk away and sell the waterfront site along Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa, the project's developer says. (MultiFamily Executive Online)
One of the area's largest general contractors, The Beck Group, plans to build its Florida headquarters at the Heights of Tampa -- a 48-acre, $500 million redevelopment project on the Hillsborough River north of downtown. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
Employment Jackpot! Hard Rock Hotel needs to hire 1,000
The slots at the Tampa casino are about to get company. Baccarat and blackjack will be unveiled later this year and that means that approximately one thousand dealers will be needed to fill at the Hard Rock. (tampabay10.com)
Tampa Bay Area Lost Jobs, Despite Reports
In a release of revised employment figures Friday, Florida officials knocked the legs out from under the Tampa Bay area's long-standing reputation as a hotbed of job creation. (The Ledger)
Trump Tower Down To Its Last Hope
For the past three years, the developers of Trump Tower Tampa searched coast to coast for a lender willing to finance the $300 million luxury condominium. After being turned down by numerous traditional lenders and 10 hedge funds, they're poised to walk away and sell the waterfront site along Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa, the project's developer says. (MultiFamily Executive Online)
March 11, 2008
News and Links
Apartment Developer Lobbying Florida City for Density Increase
Leonard Garner, developer of a high-rise apartment community in downtown Sarasota, Fla., has petitioned city commissioners for a density increase from 42 apartments to 168. In exchange for the increase, Garner has vowed to make the community affordable. Under his plan, apartments will range from $530 a month for a 400-square-foot studio to $1,800 for a three-bedroom unit. (HeraldTribune.com)
Capturing Failed-Condo Opportunities: an Interview with Dave Woodward, CEO, Laramar Group
In a time of economic change, Laramar Group remains focused on its specialty for over 20 years—value-added investment. The company has raised a $350 million fund (up to $1.4 billion leveraged) to acquire value-added apartments across the country. Keat Foong, MHN executive editor, talks to Laramar CEO Dave Woodward regarding how the company is making the most of the challenging economic conditions.
(multihousingnews.com)
Leonard Garner, developer of a high-rise apartment community in downtown Sarasota, Fla., has petitioned city commissioners for a density increase from 42 apartments to 168. In exchange for the increase, Garner has vowed to make the community affordable. Under his plan, apartments will range from $530 a month for a 400-square-foot studio to $1,800 for a three-bedroom unit. (HeraldTribune.com)
Capturing Failed-Condo Opportunities: an Interview with Dave Woodward, CEO, Laramar Group
In a time of economic change, Laramar Group remains focused on its specialty for over 20 years—value-added investment. The company has raised a $350 million fund (up to $1.4 billion leveraged) to acquire value-added apartments across the country. Keat Foong, MHN executive editor, talks to Laramar CEO Dave Woodward regarding how the company is making the most of the challenging economic conditions.
(multihousingnews.com)
Spring 2008 Executive Summary - Part II
Today we present Part II of our Spring Executive Summary where we take a look at the economic outlook for 2008. Enjoy!
The economic outlook for 2008 can be summed up in one word: uncertainty. The ramifications of a tumultuous 2007 will have serious carry-over into 2008, but how far into 2008 remains a looming issue. Both jobs and the credit crisis will remain at the top of the list of serious economic issues.
In a new report released by the Florida Chamber Foundation (revised 2007), titled "New Cornerstone Revisited”, the paper reported that "Florida's population increased by about 320,000 residents in 2006 -- down from the torrid pace of 2004 and 2005. Most of the decrease was in domestic migration. Florida continued to attract residents from the Northeast and the Midwest, but Florida became a net exporter of residents to other Southern states." This is a dangerous precedent for the multi-family housing industry because while Florida may be attracting new residents, many are leaving for other states, so much so that the net increase in population decreased dramatically from 2004 and 2005. Logically, the number of hurricanes in those seasons, higher insurance rates and property taxes has also been influential in these migrations.
Again, the numbers show that while many of these new Floridians and residents of Tampa Bay may be new renters, many are retirees and home owners. While the population grows here in Tampa Bay, the real question is how can that growth be turned into wealth? Again, the clear answer is job growth to counteract this impending imbalance.
The report goes on to state that, "Good progress has been made in the past three years" to strengthen the state's economic foundations and diversify the economy”. However, "significant challenges remain. At stake are the State's most vital current and future interests: the growth and competitiveness of its economy; the quality of life for its citizens; and the livability and sustainability of its communities." This job market diversity may be closer to Floridians than many analysts think if a few regional, national, and international economic factors occur. Florida is in a unique position geographically, and can take advantage of several international markets, specifically the future widening of the Panama Canal, increasing of ties with Asian markets, and the potential reopening of a democratic Cuba. Via government and local industry associations these organizations can encourage all Florida businesses to take full advantage of international market opportunities while also attracting more foreign direct investment in Florida businesses. Also, through local community involvement and association involvement, we can encourage a relief of legal immigration bottlenecks, capacity constraints, and other factors that may be impeding the flow of visitors and goods through the State’s seaports and airports. If and when these things happen, then we will grow and be prosperous thus bringing new renters.
Additionally, the credit crisis has impacted the multi-family industry and will prove to be an issue for some time, in regard to both tightened qualifications for home buyers, and the result of the sub-prime collapse. Mortgage lending has tightened the qualifications for credit so much that purchasing a home is no longer an option for many. This identifies a new sub-sector of renters, one that would have previously chosen home ownership but now does not qualify for purchasing.
The recent sub-prime mortgage collapse and subsequent credit crunch have left many homeowners and potential homeowners in a credit lurch. Doug Bibby, President of the National Multi Housing Council, lays much of the blame on the government. In a recent press release, The NMHC President said, “Unfortunately, while there was much the government could have done to prevent this crisis, there isn't much it can reasonably do now to alleviate it. What it can do, however, is recognize its own mistakes and ensure that this doesn't happen again. And that means, among other things, recognizing that homeownership isn't the right housing choice for all households at all points in their lives. Housing our diverse nation well means having a vibrant rental market along with a functioning ownership market.”
Concerning credit therefore, some homeowners or potential homeowners who are no longer able to qualify for a mortgage will turn to renting. Current credit checks and credit programs, however, are disallowing many of these potential renters because of recent credit problems. Several credit experts are suggesting keeping the same strict qualifications, but taking a closer look at renters on a case-by-case basis and exploring if their credit issues are of the more recent nature. In many cases, a more flexible approach in allowing these potential renters to rent may be called for.
While the opportunity to obtain credit for mortgages dramatically increased over the past 4 years, including skyrocketing loans for sub-prime mortgages, and while the government on all levels, as Doug Bibby suggests, did encourage more homeownership as opposed to rent options, the fault for competition amongst homeowners and apartment communities cannot rest solely outside the multi-family housing industry. While the obvious signs for coming shortfalls in credit and economic slowdown were evident, the multi-family industry in many ways did not plan for the impending bubble burst and was slow to react. This may have contributed inversely to long-term economic growth.
To further explore this one simply needs to analyze the vacancy to rent increase ratio over the past few years, particularly in light of per capita growth per in the state of Florida. Job growth increased in Florida 2.1% per annum between the years 2000-2006 ranking 5th nationally. Wages also increased 3.2% per capita over that same span ranking 20th nationally. More people and more wealth created great rental pools for the local apartment industries. However, with the inflation index and increase in everyday costs like oil, the wage increase was practically nullified. While an abundance of new jobs were created, wages did not outpace the general cost of living and certainly did no support the dramatic increase in home costs and subsequent increase of rental rates. Coupled with the migration out of Florida and the elimination of the investor market, the result was rising vacancy rates. The following chart shows this trend more clearly.
Much of the uncertainty forecast for 2008 is caused not just by one mitigating factor but by several factors. However, the outlook is not all gloom. If the job market can increase, and more importantly come with a wage increase: if the credit crisis can come to a slowdown: and if the multi-family housing industry can stave off rate increases; then market normalcy could resume in the second half of 2008. Then, 2009 could bring a much more positive outlook to the economy. For the time being however, the collapse or ignoring of any of these arenas could spell further problems deep into 2008 and into 2009 as well.
From an optimistic viewpoint, job growth, wage increase and development have historically been a spark economically for the multi-family housing industry. And, in fact, there is already movement in several submarkets with current, active growth and more planned for 2008.
The economic outlook for 2008 can be summed up in one word: uncertainty. The ramifications of a tumultuous 2007 will have serious carry-over into 2008, but how far into 2008 remains a looming issue. Both jobs and the credit crisis will remain at the top of the list of serious economic issues.
In a new report released by the Florida Chamber Foundation (revised 2007), titled "New Cornerstone Revisited”, the paper reported that "Florida's population increased by about 320,000 residents in 2006 -- down from the torrid pace of 2004 and 2005. Most of the decrease was in domestic migration. Florida continued to attract residents from the Northeast and the Midwest, but Florida became a net exporter of residents to other Southern states." This is a dangerous precedent for the multi-family housing industry because while Florida may be attracting new residents, many are leaving for other states, so much so that the net increase in population decreased dramatically from 2004 and 2005. Logically, the number of hurricanes in those seasons, higher insurance rates and property taxes has also been influential in these migrations.
Again, the numbers show that while many of these new Floridians and residents of Tampa Bay may be new renters, many are retirees and home owners. While the population grows here in Tampa Bay, the real question is how can that growth be turned into wealth? Again, the clear answer is job growth to counteract this impending imbalance.
The report goes on to state that, "Good progress has been made in the past three years" to strengthen the state's economic foundations and diversify the economy”. However, "significant challenges remain. At stake are the State's most vital current and future interests: the growth and competitiveness of its economy; the quality of life for its citizens; and the livability and sustainability of its communities." This job market diversity may be closer to Floridians than many analysts think if a few regional, national, and international economic factors occur. Florida is in a unique position geographically, and can take advantage of several international markets, specifically the future widening of the Panama Canal, increasing of ties with Asian markets, and the potential reopening of a democratic Cuba. Via government and local industry associations these organizations can encourage all Florida businesses to take full advantage of international market opportunities while also attracting more foreign direct investment in Florida businesses. Also, through local community involvement and association involvement, we can encourage a relief of legal immigration bottlenecks, capacity constraints, and other factors that may be impeding the flow of visitors and goods through the State’s seaports and airports. If and when these things happen, then we will grow and be prosperous thus bringing new renters.
Additionally, the credit crisis has impacted the multi-family industry and will prove to be an issue for some time, in regard to both tightened qualifications for home buyers, and the result of the sub-prime collapse. Mortgage lending has tightened the qualifications for credit so much that purchasing a home is no longer an option for many. This identifies a new sub-sector of renters, one that would have previously chosen home ownership but now does not qualify for purchasing.
The recent sub-prime mortgage collapse and subsequent credit crunch have left many homeowners and potential homeowners in a credit lurch. Doug Bibby, President of the National Multi Housing Council, lays much of the blame on the government. In a recent press release, The NMHC President said, “Unfortunately, while there was much the government could have done to prevent this crisis, there isn't much it can reasonably do now to alleviate it. What it can do, however, is recognize its own mistakes and ensure that this doesn't happen again. And that means, among other things, recognizing that homeownership isn't the right housing choice for all households at all points in their lives. Housing our diverse nation well means having a vibrant rental market along with a functioning ownership market.”
Concerning credit therefore, some homeowners or potential homeowners who are no longer able to qualify for a mortgage will turn to renting. Current credit checks and credit programs, however, are disallowing many of these potential renters because of recent credit problems. Several credit experts are suggesting keeping the same strict qualifications, but taking a closer look at renters on a case-by-case basis and exploring if their credit issues are of the more recent nature. In many cases, a more flexible approach in allowing these potential renters to rent may be called for.
While the opportunity to obtain credit for mortgages dramatically increased over the past 4 years, including skyrocketing loans for sub-prime mortgages, and while the government on all levels, as Doug Bibby suggests, did encourage more homeownership as opposed to rent options, the fault for competition amongst homeowners and apartment communities cannot rest solely outside the multi-family housing industry. While the obvious signs for coming shortfalls in credit and economic slowdown were evident, the multi-family industry in many ways did not plan for the impending bubble burst and was slow to react. This may have contributed inversely to long-term economic growth.
To further explore this one simply needs to analyze the vacancy to rent increase ratio over the past few years, particularly in light of per capita growth per in the state of Florida. Job growth increased in Florida 2.1% per annum between the years 2000-2006 ranking 5th nationally. Wages also increased 3.2% per capita over that same span ranking 20th nationally. More people and more wealth created great rental pools for the local apartment industries. However, with the inflation index and increase in everyday costs like oil, the wage increase was practically nullified. While an abundance of new jobs were created, wages did not outpace the general cost of living and certainly did no support the dramatic increase in home costs and subsequent increase of rental rates. Coupled with the migration out of Florida and the elimination of the investor market, the result was rising vacancy rates. The following chart shows this trend more clearly.
| County | Vacancy Rate Movement | Rent Rates | ||
| 2001-2007 | ||||
| | 2001-2006 | 2007 | $ increase | % increase |
| Hillsborough | 2.80% | -3.00% | $120 | 16% |
| Pinellas | 2.60% | -3.50% | $190 | 23% |
| | 5.20% | -8.00% | $140 | 13% |
| Polk | 2.90% | -5.50% | $160 | 19% |
| Manatee | 1.10% | -4.60% | $130 | 16% |
| | 0.50% | -3.20% | $180 | 22% |
Much of the uncertainty forecast for 2008 is caused not just by one mitigating factor but by several factors. However, the outlook is not all gloom. If the job market can increase, and more importantly come with a wage increase: if the credit crisis can come to a slowdown: and if the multi-family housing industry can stave off rate increases; then market normalcy could resume in the second half of 2008. Then, 2009 could bring a much more positive outlook to the economy. For the time being however, the collapse or ignoring of any of these arenas could spell further problems deep into 2008 and into 2009 as well.
From an optimistic viewpoint, job growth, wage increase and development have historically been a spark economically for the multi-family housing industry. And, in fact, there is already movement in several submarkets with current, active growth and more planned for 2008.
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