Multifamily is undoubtedly tremendously popular amonginvestors—and for many reasons. Renter demand is up, and more youngpeople want to live in urban, walkable markets, but the trend hasled to a flood of class-A development and repositioning projects,which has taken away affordable housing supply. In a downturn,class-A apartments will be the first to see a dip in demand andrents. However, even with that in mind, multifamily remains thebest asset to survive a downturn.

"If you look at multifamily, ultimately, it is a utility. Peoplehave to have a place to live, so buy the very nature of the assetclass, it fills an essential need rather than a an inessentialneed, like a shopping center," Pat Jackson,founder and CEO of Sabal Capital, tellsGlobeSt.com. "For that reason, it is the most recession resistantasset class. That is why investors continue to like multifamily.Even regulators in the bank sector treat multifamily differentlythan other CRE assets, and that is because it has an inherent riskaversion to a market cycle."