The Light

Economic conditions have converged to make life especially difficult for one particular type of floor plan: the studio. We expect demand for studio units to remain depressed in the short term, but we anticipate a post-vaccine snapback will reinvigorate demand, closer to …

We just published our Apartment Analysis and Forecast report, and our conclusion is in the title: Sunny Outlook for Suburban; Harsh Winter for Urban Apartments. We believe there is a further niche opportunity for suburban apartments—near rapidly developing new home submarkets. The new home …

We have all heard the tales of the current renter migration to the suburbs and even to the exurbs in some parts of the country. Until now, the migration story captivating the housing sector has been mostly anecdotal. But we …

In our September 4 edition we wrote about The Great American Land Rush. We noted that the residential land market had fully recovered during the second quarter 2020 from spring’s pandemic-induced uncertainty. Paused land transactions were back in full force …

The national apartment market has fared better than many in the real estate industry expected. Suburban markets are outperforming urban. The pandemic convinced many to look for larger spaces in more value-oriented locations as they embraced working from home. In …

The purpose of the Light is to highlight bright spots in the real estate market in the wake of a historic pandemic. Perhaps no other real estate asset class performed as well or garnered as much interest since COVID hit …

The pandemic continues to be a tale of two markets. While the US has now recovered about half of the jobs lost since February, the rate of improvement is starting to slow, and 25 million people in the US are …

Everything is bigger in Texas. The state continues to benefit from in-migration, driven by its relative affordability (including no state income tax) and vast supply of suburban and exurban housing.   The Economy Austin continues to live up to its …

Never before have space and location been more important. The housing industry continues to benefit from The Great American Move. We continue to track the acceleration of movements to exurban communities—those in the affordable West and South. Many growing families …