A report from Community Impact on Texas. "An oversupply of apartment units could be in the Katy area’s future. There are about 19,000 apartment units in the Katy area, with another 2,000 or so under construction from five luxury complexes and one senior living community, according to Apartment Data Services. This is about twice as many additional units than the existing apartment market can handle, said Bruce McClenny, president of ADS."

"Adding to the potential oversupply is the massive exodus of homeowners leaving apartment complexes because home repairs from Hurricane Harvey are completed, said McClenny and Jerone Bogar, the property manager of Grand Reserve Apartments, a luxury apartment community in Katy."

"A year ago, Grand Reserve and its competitors were at capacity because Hurricane Harvey displaced so many people, Bogar said. That is not the case anymore. 'People are now leaving in droves [because their home repairs are finished,]' he said."

From The Missoulian in Montana. "Several large projects have made a significant dent in Missoula’s housing shortage and the rental vacancy rate has increased significantly as a result, leading to lower prices on some types of units, according to Claire Matten with Sterling Commercial Real Estate Advisors in Missoula."

"She recently compiled a survey and analysis that showed Missoula's current overall apartment vacancy rate at 8.24 percent. That's much higher than the average vacancy rate of 3 percent in 2017, according to the Missoula Organization of Realtors. A wave of new apartment construction hitting the market in the summer of 2018 started to lure renters away from their old digs, leaving many of those vacant. That’s called 'decreased absorption rates' in industry parlance."

"Matten said there are indications of more concessions offered by landlords to get new tenants in the door, such as discounts on the first month’s rent and lowered prices. However, she said developers are now starting to look to avoid building more apartments in Missoula."

"'Higher borrowing costs and increasing vacancy rates should lead to a cooling off of the apartment boom,' she said."

From Bisnow on California. "Multifamily has had a strong run in San Diego, and demand is still high — but so are the costs of development, while rental growth has lost some steam. That has made new development more difficult and investment a trickier proposition than only a few years ago, according to the speakers at Bisnow's State of San Diego Multifamily."

"Properties Chief Investment Officer Paul Kaseburg, whose company has been buying value-add and stabilized product, said rent growth is slowing. 'We tend to have more workforce housing-oriented [properties] rather than new product, so we've been a little less impacted by slowing rent growth than owners of new product, but the trend is real,' Kaseburg said."

"Meridian Capital Group Managing Director Seth Grossman, whose company is a commercial mortgage broker, agreed that rent growth has slowed while interest rates have risen, so everything points to the market slowing. 'And yet we are busier than ever,' he said. 'People are complaining that they aren't getting the rent growth, and that pricing is too expensive, yet they're still doing deals regularly. Existing clients are refinancing more quickly than they used to, and purchases are up. This can't last forever, but the last year has been a lot busier than I expected.'"

From The Real Deal on New York. "To combat a near-stagnant condo market, Extell Development is offering to pay between three and five years worth of common charges for any apartment purchased by the end of the year."

"At a broker event, the Gary Barnett-led firm disclosed the portfolio-wide incentive meant to drum up business in what is decidedly a buyer’s market: The firm will pay for three years’ worth of common charges on one- and two-bedroom units put into contract by Dec. 31. It will pay common charges for five years on three- to five-bedroom units put into contract during that time."

"'They felt they wanted to find an incentive that helped the brokers but also motivated the buyers,' said a source who attended the event, an unveiling of two model apartments at the Kent, Extell’s 83-unit condo on the Upper East Side. 'They recognize it is a buyer’s market.'"

"But even in an era of deep discounts and incentives, the portfolio-wide offer is striking for one of the city’s most prolific developers, which has north of 1,000 condos for sale. Several of Extell’s buildings also offer tax abatements, meaning buyers would benefit from almost no carrying costs for several years."

"As the housing market softened this year, new development sales in Manhattan have crawled. There were 360 closings in the third quarter, down 21.9 percent year over year, according to the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The median price slid 8.8 percent to $2.55 million. Extell has billions of dollars worth of development underway."

"Other developers, too, have dangled sweeteners to attract agents and their buyers over the past 18 months. Toll Brothers offered to cover the transfer and mansion taxes at certain buildings during a summer sales event. At the 99-unit 49 Chambers Street, the Chetrit Group was offering buyers’ agents 50 percent of their commission at the contract signing."

"But not everyone agrees that sweeteners are the way to go. Donna Olshan of Olshan Realty said, 'it’s just more sensible to take the price down.'"