Wood Partners will break ground in early 2014 on Alta Tempe, a 296-unit luxury apartment complex at University Drive and Dorsey Lane near the new Marina Heights, which will be the state’s largest office park when it is completed. Construction of the 270,000-square-foot apartment building, situated on 7.1 acres, should be complete by June 2015. Alta Tempe will begin pre-leasing in third quarter 2014… Read more
This week’s data showed a more mixed picture than has been the case the last several weeks. But, some of the data is likely to be revised as it makes little sense in the context of all the other data being released. So, it would be wise to take a wait and see attitude before judging whether the economy has weakened… Read more
Apartment managers should not rush to cut rents, even if a flood of new apartments are expected and the construction cranes loom over their properties. If vacancies are still low, there still may be time to raise rents before competition for tenants force existing apartments to trim their rental rates. “You can take the haircut in rents too soon,” says Greg Willett, vice president for MPF Research. As the national economy strengthens, demand for apartments is improving overall… Read more
Multifamily and commercial mortgage lending volume is expected to increase in 2014, according to a new Mortgage Bankers Association survey of commercial and multifamily mortgage origination firms. The survey finds that the increase will come as lenders’ appetites to place new loans grow even stronger… Read more
The fact that the U.S. economy created only 74,000 new jobs in December – the fewest in about three years – had analysts and observers scratching their heads on Friday, some of whom cited the worse-than-usual weather as part of the reason. At least one industry affected by the weather lost jobs: Construction employment edged down in December by 16,000, to end a year in which the industry added an average of 10,000 jobs per month. Also, transportation employment was down, and leisure and hospitality barely moved up… Read more