A report from Westword on Colorado. "Apartment supply throughout Denver has gone up of late. In 2017, by CoStar Group David Pierce's estimate, 'there were just under 20,000 units under way, which ' was the most at any point in recent history.' However, 'the amount has steadily trended downward, and today we're closer to 14,000 market-rate units under way.' Moreover, a lot of the buildings targeted luxury consumers, which didn't address the struggles of folks looking for more affordability and led to a glut of pricey pads that are lingering on the market for longer than their owners likely anticipated."

"'If you look at the ultra-high level, we've seen rents in places like Cherry Creek and the Golden Triangle fall significantly, sometimes by 10 percent from where they were in 2015 and 2016,' Pierce says. 'We're seeing there's a limit in Denver for what some people are willing to spend.'"

From The Daily Texan. "One of the most common lines from those invested in the growing amount of high-rises and urban development in Austin is the argument of 'affordable density.' More dense housing, the argument goes, equals a greater supply of housing per square foot, which means a reduction in demand and, in turn, price."

"Kevin Quist, an economics and civil engineering senior and member of the West Campus Neighborhood Association, has noted a mixed message sent by the West Campus housing market. 'In some areas of West Campus, we see the supply of housing increase along with a supply of pricing, while in other parts like the northern areas of West Campus, we have seen a drop in pricing consistent with the rise of supply,” Quist said. 'It doesn’t seem to have an immediate short-term correlation.'"

From AZ Family in Arizona. "The number of 911 calls made from elevators in the Phoenix and Tempe areas has risen steadily over the past five years. Technicians blame a 'perfect storm' of new and aging buildings. The building with the highest number of 911 calls in that time period is a student housing apartment near the ASU Tempe campus. Riders called 911 32 times from University House over two years. That building is only six years old."

From Cavilier Daily in Virginia. "Persistent facility issues continue in Bond House, as mice have been spotted inside the building and residents continue to report a host of challenges. Second-year College student Uché Chima said that she has seen multiple mice in her apartment. Chima also shared a video of a mouse that scurried under her stove."

"'I could not sleep knowing that there's a mouse in a brand new apartment,' Chima said."

"Second-year College student Aaron Entzminger said he has not seen mice, although his friends have. However, Entzminger has faced numerous issues in Bond, including the water never being hot and having to file numerous work orders. 'The bathroom door on my side [of the apartment] to this day has not been fixed even though we have submitted like three or four work orders,' Entzminger said. 'I just don't think this is worth the money.'"

From KTBS in Louisiana. "The Louisiana State University Board of Regents approved a $3.25 million deal with an Australian company, so that LSU-Shreveport can assume control of its own student housing. 'Thank goodness,' said Clair Miller, a University Court resident and sophomore at LSUS."

"One day before learning of the buyout, 3 Investigates visited Miller's apartment. The wooden cabinet framework was rotting and Miller said she had a cockroach problem. In one of the apartment's two bathrooms, there's a hole in the ceiling above the shower, where maintenance crews repaired a leak Friday. Miller said she first noticed the leak Aug. 21 and reported it to management shortly after. 'Water was just streaming down from the overhead fan,'Miller said."

The Associated Press. "As colleges and universities come alive this fall, some campuses sit closed and empty after succumbing to a recent wave of fewer students and financial challenges. In Poultney, Vermont, population 3,300, Green Mountain College had occupied a prominent spot at the end of the main street for 185 years. That changed in the spring, when the environmentally minded liberal arts school closed after commencement, citing a drop in enrollment and financial challenges."

"Sophia Vincenza Milkowski, of New York City, graduated two years ago and stayed in Poultney because she liked it so much. 'We're still trying to figure out what Poultney even is now without it there,' she said during a break from work at a taco restaurant. 'We're all feeling its absence,' she said, 'whether we were a part of the college or not.'"

"Across the country, 71 private nonprofit colleges and universities have closed since 1995, including schools that announced they would shutter in June 2020, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities."

From Multi-Housing News. "As the sources of multifamily development financing—debt and equity—jostle for business, their strategies and products continue to evolve. Kyle McDonough, principal at Tower Capital in Phoenix, confirms that banks continue to prefer developers they already work with. Multifamily development is booming in metro Phoenix McDonough expects that multifamily financing overall will remain plentiful. 'Everybody’s trying to get it out the door.'"

"When it comes to debt, commercial banks are recognized as the biggest source of financing for multifamily construction, according to Jay Maddox, principal with Avison Young in Los Angeles. Banks have returned to the main stage of multifamily development lending after pulling back three years ago due to overbuilding concerns. However, debt funds—such as Colony Capital and Square Mile Capital—are becoming more important as they offer more flexibility on terms and, typically, non-recourse loans, in response to which some banks have loosened their lending criteria."

The Commercial Observer. "For as long as capitalization rates have been calculated in real estate, there has been an ongoing debate as to what they should be, given interest rates, cost of capital, returns on alternative investments, supply and demand constraints, tax incentives, et cetera."

"Using multifamily as an example, cap rates on Class A product were approximately 300 to 400 basis points higher than the 10-year Treasury nationally. This spread broke down at the peak of the cycle in 2006, when cap rates were only 100 bps over the 10-year Treasury, as investors bid up prices to unsustainable levels. The 2008-2009 downturn then caused the pendulum to swing the other way, with spreads peaking at more than 5 percent in 2012."

"Today, we are back to 3 percent or so as Treasury yields have plummeted. However, there is now a very wide disparity between property types and sub-markets. Class A apartments in rent-regulated buildings had been at 3 percent cap rates before the recent rent regulation changes, which will cap their upside. But they rose almost 2 percent overnight, although there haven’t been any notable trades to explain that rise. Why else have these traditional benchmarks come unstuck, and where do we go from here?"

"For institutions with long-term money to put out, any alternative is better than buying sub-2 percent Treasurys. If interest rates were to rise, those current Treasury buyers would have a capital loss. The bidding up of Class A real estate is a better alternative and is one of the primary reasons cap rates haven’t risen even though fundamentals, in many markets, have deteriorated and foreign investment has mostly dried up. Being able to leverage those assets with sub-4 percent mortgages only exacerbates the situation, causing cap rates to further compress."

"So where are we now? As long as interest rates stay at or near current levels, cap rates aren’t going up sharply, barring a deep recession, anytime soon. The true test will be when interest rates someday spike due to an exogenous event. When repo rates jumped in September, was that a warning sign? Will institutions audible from real estate back to fixed-income instruments? Will cap rates rise simply because financing is more expensive? The answer to all three questions is likely yes. But to what degree? As the accompanying chart illustrates, there is definitely a correlation between cap rates and interest rates: Only the peak of 2005 and 2006 defied it."

"We know how that turned out."

From Senior Housing News. "Senior living is in the middle of a transformative period. Supply and demand dynamics are imbalanced. Providers are grappling with oversupply in markets across the United States, while determining how to address the arrival of the baby boomers and the growing middle market."

"And the available labor pool is at record lows during the longest economic growth period in the nation’s history. But that boom may be reaching an end, with rumblings of a possible recession in 2020. In short, the industry is in the midst of a 'sea change' — one that industry stakeholders should be taking a more proactive approach to address."

"The extended length of the current economic growth cycle has resulted in some unintended consequences, Brightview Senior Living CEO Marilynn Duker said. One is an excess of capital in the debt and equity markets looking to place deals. 'We would actually welcome a recession, because [the capital markets are] a bit too frothy. We’d like to see things settle down a bit, in that regard,' she said."