NEW YORK CITY-Channeling the late NY senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” The creeping inroads the economy is making on the unemployment front can be as frustrating as it is hopeful. And for the multifamily sector, the direction employment takes will set the course for its continued health, and the brightening jobs picture is helping the sector. So says CBRE in its newly issued annual multifamily capital-markets report.

(Real Estate Forum covered the multifamily market from the infill development standpoint in its latest issue. Click here for the full story.)

Recognizing the inherent strength of the sector, and the likelihood that this will continue, the report does indicate that, “the sector compares favorably to other property types and continues to attract strong investor interest. Meeting future expectations, however, will require a balancing act between future job growth and new supply.” It all comes down to job growth and demand.

And the report shows that demand across the national spectrum is robust, and the outlook is healthy. That is true even in the face of a slowdown the firm has tracked in rent and revenue growth.

Despite the fact that CBRE expects that slowdown to continue into the second half, “the national multihousing market will remain healthy with vacancy staying near its long-term average and rent growth slightly above consumer price inflation.”

That leaves the experts in what they term a cautiously optimistic mood, and the expectation is that the commercial real estate finance markets will only get better as the year progresses. “The Federal Reserve's accommodative policy stance is likely to remain in place for some time,” the report states, “providing borrowers ample opportunity to lock in historically low interest rates.”

The folks of CBRE track a return not only of CMBS, which GlobeSt.com has reported on as the market has revitalized, but also of bank lending. “With fewer constraints on property-type and market selection, these lenders will help improve liquidity to the secondary markets,” the report states, “where many borrowers faced fairly limited borrowing options over the past few years. Furthermore, we believe that the volume of outstanding distressed loans will continue to shrink in 2013, reflecting fewer new additions to the distressed pipeline, as well as an increase in dispositions by banks and special servicers.”

In Q4 of 2012 alone, the report reveals, banks pushed more than $300 million in multifamily loans, while life companies represented some $146 million in originations. And while this was off-ace from the prior year, the report remains confident that the 2013 numbers will continue on their upward trajectory.