Multifamily Weakness Continues to Grab Attention

After a long stretch in which one of the two main commercial real estate darlings was multifamily, the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Markets Committee meeting in late January were jarring. “CRE prices continued to decline, especially in the multifamily and office sectors, and low levels of transactions in the office sector likely indicated that prices had not yet fully reflected the sector’s weaker fundamentals,” they wrote.

From co-star with industrial to mention as a disappointing partner of office — quite a fall. There’s been a growth of negative news about the property sector, whether another month of negative rent growth; problems brewing in certain areas of multifamily because of the high price of refinancing; or by some counts the slide of transactions in major metros being highest for multifamily.