A report from Multi-Housing News. "Rezoning or 'upzoning' of entire neighborhoods is undertaken to, on the one hand, increase the density of housing and, on the other, provide cheaper rental units. Neighborhoods that were occupied strictly by single-family homes and low-rise multifamily dwellings, for example, may now include high-rise apartment properties and single-family land tracts may include more homes than previously allowed."

"In Seattle, an upzoning initiative for 27 neighborhoods was approved by the City Council on March 18. The initiative is set to create 6,000 new rent and income-restricted homes for low-income residents.  'Real estate is complex. You don’t avoid a housing bubble with any single tool,' explained Kristin Ryan, a partner at local development firm Barrientos Ryan, 'because the housing market is the result of a multitude of factors.'"

From Bisnow on New England. "Top capital markets executives, speaking Wednesday at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference New England, said they expect equity and debt flow into the sector to continue to rise. They said they see institutional investors allocating more money toward multifamily, banks aggressively competing to provide loans for apartment and condo projects, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beginning a new spending cycle next week with a combined $200B budget."

"All of this competition to provide equity and debt for multifamily projects has narrowed the yields on these deals, but with uncertainty in other sectors of the economy, experts believe investors will be happy to accept slightly lower returns. Gregory Bates, the chief operating officer of developer GID, said his firm manages money for some of the world’s largest pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. He said they remain bullish on the multifamily sector. GID's portfolio comprises more than 30,000 residential units and it has a 10,000-unit construction pipeline."

"'Real estate allocations are going to stay where they are or go up,' Bates said. 'Apartments and industrial are at the top of everyone’s list … There are terrific tailwinds on the capital side.'"

"The inflow of debt is not just seeking apartment projects, Cornerstone Realty Capital President Paul Natalizio said, but lenders are also bullish on condos, a sector they have had concerns about in the past. 'There is a surprisingly very strong market for condos,' Natalizio said. 'It’s an entirely different market now. Lenders will tell you there are not enough condos … Banks have come a long way in that area, they’re very aggressive.'"

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also expected to pour more money into the multifamily space in the coming months. 'The clock starts Oct. 1,' National Multifamily Housing Council Vice President of Capital Markets Dave Borsos said of the Fannie and Freddie allocation. 'From that point to the end of 2020, each enterprise will have $100B to purchase loans. As Q4 goes on and into Q1 and Q2, I think [Fannie and Freddie] will put their foot on the gas; they have to spend $200B,. It’s encouraging for all that have enjoyed agency debt.'"

From Bisnow on Florida. "Becker attorney Phil Rosen opened the first panel by marveling at the length of the current real estate cycle. Developers who continued churning out product have been rewarded by a strong market, Rosen added. Mast Capital CEO Camilo Miguel, who is developing 700 apartments on Miami River and owns the Conrad Hotel, said 'there is so much capital competing for those deals' that it was driving up the prices of land."

"'There’s a lot of money sloshing around,' said Key International co-President Inigo Ardid. 'It’s much harder to find a deal than to capitalize a deal. It’s very easy to raise capital, and you’ve got it from a lot of sources.'"

"FM Capital co-founder Aaron Kurlansky did warn that 'everyone and their mother puts together money and buys multifamily now. It’s a frothy market.' Kristin Rick, a vice president at Pender Capital, said bidding wars are increasingly common in the market, with some buyers probably paying too much. 'If we can turn a gas station into a multifamily [deal], we will,' she joked."

The Real Deal on Florida. "It’s no secret that the Miami area is facing an oversupply of shiny new condos, spacious units with sprawling terraces in skyscrapers stretching from Brickell to the northernmost tip of Sunny Isles Beach. ut a new product type has emerged that developers claim they can’t build quickly enough: more affordable units that buyers can rent out however and whenever they want, no strings attached. The projects are mostly clustered in downtown Miami and Brickell, with price points in the $300,000 range and up – a sharp contrast to the glut of $1 million-and-up condos on the market in Miami."

"Miami’s biggest condo developer is even getting in on the action. The Related Group is partnering with ROVR Development to build a roughly 400-foot tower with about 350 units in downtown Miami that will have a short-term rental or hotel component. The project is still in the design stages."

From CBS Sacramento in California. "The price of housing is going up everywhere, but people in Stockton are being hit especially hard. For example, the Torcello apartments were built in 2003 at a cost of $25 million. That’s $83,000 per unit. Sixteen years later, the same developer is building Stonebrier apartments. The cost is $36 million or $232,000 a unit. That’s a 277% increase."

From Socket Site in California. "The list price for 201 Folsom Street #41A has now officially reduced to $9.995 million and the 'incentive' language removed. At the same time, the list price for the adjacent 5,223-square-foot penthouse shell #41B, which had been listed for $10.495 million (and to which a $1.55 million 'buildout incentive' had subsequently been attached as well) has just officially been reduced by $2.5 million (24 percent) to $7.995 million."

From Senior Housing News. "On the development front, Seasons is targeting markets west of the Mississippi with a particular emphasis on California, said COO Dan Williams. Williams has expertise in standalone memory care, and Seasons is currently constructing this type of building in Torrance, California. 'Memory care’s taken a little hit recently, I still think it’s an excellent product,' Williams said. The sector has suffered from overbuilding, but he sees 'pockets' — such as as Torrance — where there is unmet demand."

From Commercial Property Executive. "Heavy incoming supply continued to burden self storage rent growth in the month of August. On a year-over-year basis, street-rate rents fell 1.7 percent for the average 10×10 non-climate-controlled and 2.9 percent for climate-controlled units of similar size. Overall, rent rates declined in approximately 75 percent of the top metros tracked by Yardi Matrix."

"The flood of newly completed projects impacted Charleston the most, where rent rates fell by 11.3 percent over the past 12 months. Substantial new supply also put pressure on Portland (down 5 percent) and Atlanta (down 3 percent). In San Jose rent rates were still down 6 percent. Other Californian markets experienced little to no improvement."

From KMBC in Kansas. "Federal mortgage backer Fannie Mae has filed a foreclosure lawsuit against one of Kansas City’s most notorious low-income apartment investment companies -- alleging life safety violations and need for critical repairs at the 124-unit Crestwood Apartment complex in a Kansas City, Kansas. Apartment investor Michael Fein is named in a lawsuit filed in Wyandotte County District Court, alleging Fein’s KM-TEH Realty 6, LLC, did not 'fully repair' about $190,000 worth of items at Crestwood Apartments outlined in a January inspection."

"The lack of action, the foreclosure lawsuit says, put the company in default of a $2.9 million loan backed by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is demanding roughly $2.5 million of the loan after credits applied, plus interest, according to court documents. This year, KMBC 9 Investigates has uncovered multiple complaints from residents and public officials at several of KM-TEH investors’ properties across the metro. KM-TEH owns 11 properties and about 1,600 units in the Kansas City area."

From D Magazine in Texas. "I came to Dallas in 1979, when the city was a boomtown. Over the next decade, the city’s skyline changed dramatically as newly constructed, modern office buildings stretched to new heights. The downtown office expansion didn’t last long, though. The market was overbuilt, and it was widely reported that Dallas had a near 30-year supply of office space."

"When several banks failed after the 1987 crash, many of the companies that were officed close by shuttered and/or deserted Downtown Dallas. More than a decade after Black Monday, downtown Dallas was still primarily seen as a wasteland and a risky investment. I lived downtown, in the penthouse of the Joule Hotel, in the 1990s and felt I had the city all to myself. At one point, I was the only person living on Main Street."

"For years, when I would talk with investors from other markets, like New York, they always had a story to share about losing money in the Dallas real estate market, office buildings in particular. When the market began to stabilize, many of the older office and warehouse buildings in the downtown area were renovated, and some were converted into multifamily communities and hotels to bring new life to the area."

"With the surge in rental rates and record sales prices for buildings north of Woodall Rogers Freeway, we see development come south of the freeway including residential, office, and parking structures. Today, demand for office space in Uptown is strong, and leases in the area are some of the highest in Dallas."

"Forty years after I moved to Dallas, the city is in an economic upswing, and we are seeing record prices for office buildings in the greater Dallas area. I’ve learned that no matter what point of the cycle we’re in, most people in commercial real estate tend to think it’s going to last forever. Having seen the Dallas market move through many cycles, I can confidently say that change is always around the corner."