Student housing has experienced more resilience than traditional multifamily assets. A recent report from the National Multi Housing Council found rents in many properties in 64 college towns grew between 2004 and 2006, despite weak fundamentals for conventional apartment product.

At a recent CEO roundtable hosted by Bank of America, the heads of three of the biggest apartment REITs expressed optimism that the industry will continue to grow through 2006 and into 2007. David Neithercut, president and CEO of Equity Residential in Chicago, Ric Campo, Houston-based Camden Properties Trust's chairman and chief executive officer, and Tom Toomey, president and CEO of United Dominion Realty Trust Inc. of Richmond, VA, agreed that while they won't likely see double-digit growth in net operating income in some areas, growth in the high single digits should be the norm, at least through next spring.

Changing demographics and development trends are reshaping the nation's downtowns, including Los Angeles and other California cities. More people are opting to live in urban centers rather than suburbs. Developers are following suit, building more communities in CBDs.

Though CMBS delinquencies declined for the sixth quarter in a row in Q2, multifamily loans are exhibiting some weakness. According to Standard & Poor's structured finance division, in the second quarter, delinquent CMBS in terms of loan amount fell 5% over the first quarter to $2.35 billion. The Q2 figure is also 40% off its peak of nearly $4 billion, achieved in December 2003.

Sule Aygoren Carranza is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and editor of Multi Housing forum, from which this article is excerpted.GE Healthcare Financial…

Sule Aygoren Carranza is also managing editor of Real Estate Forum.Click here for the full story.New York City—The multifamily market's positive fundamentals…

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