ECHO BOOMERS

ECHO BOOMERS= The children of baby boomers.

This generation is entering the prime renters age and many experts are expecting this growth in the rental population to have a strong effect on apartment building vacancy rates. This is great for owners of apartment buildings.

If you own a building why not get a free property managament quote from Root Realty.

2010 Apartment Outlook

I reviewed the Marcus and Millichap 2010 Apartment Outlook today and wanted to share a few things that I took away regarding the fundamentals of Chicago Multifamily Real Estate and the outlooks for 2010....

• The researchers at M&M feel that investment activity has bottomed and we are in the beginning of a recovery.
• The midwest, including Chicago, was not battered as badly as other parts of the country in terms of employment loss and occupancy rates. Because of this Chicago multifamily real estate valuations were not hit as hard and therefore will not have steep rebound that may happen in other parts of the country.
• The valuations for Chicago in this report are right in line with Root Realty's opinion of where Cap Rates are in the Chicago Multi-Family sector.
• As a wrap up, Chicago multi-family fundamentals will be driven by employment growth and many experts are anticipating growth in 2010.

Annual Apartment Vacancy- All Time High

The US Census Bureau recently released its Third Quarter 2009 Rental Vacancy Rates.

2009       11.1% (through 3rd Quarter)
2008         9.9          
2007         9.8
2006         9.9
2005         9.9
2004        10.1
2003          9.9    
2002          9.0
2001          8.4
2000          8.2


The vacancy rate is up in the South, West, and Northeast, but remains unchanged from last year in the Midwest.

Root Realty believes that as vacancy rates improve so to will valuations for Multi-family housing. In the short term, housing stock that is being rented needs to be sold off, but longer term the next generation of renters is on the way and rental housing should boom.


                     

Sold

Root Realty completed the sale of a 12 unit mixed use in Lincoln Square today. 8.8CAP. Investment properties at a good price in a good location are moving. http://www.rootrealty.com/

exciting website updates

Root Realty is currently updating http://www.rootrealty.com/ to become the #1 website for Chicago Property Management. The updated site will not only have information for property owners and investors, but will also have functions that make life for our tenants easier.

The Fed Rescue Plan could be a boon for RE

In today's unsettling financial and real estate markets we are all looking for something to give us confidence. Todays announcement of the bank bailout should be just that.

Real estate values and transactions have been crippled by the lack of credit available to potential buyers. The reason for this credit crunch is due to the banks apprehension to add more loans to their books because of the losses that they have due to loans that are in default. When the banks look at the underlying value of the loan collateral and see that they have loans outstanding that are worth more than the value of the real estate collateral, they need to reserve capital in case of a default. This adds to less liquidity for the bank and therefore less capital to lend. These bad loans are reffered to as illiquid asstes.

Hank Paulson's plan is to have Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Treasury Dept take these illiquid assets off the bank balance sheets. If this plan is structured correctly we could see the credit markets open up and lenders having the opportunity to start over using prudent underwriting to make loans. This should bring the transaction volumes up and we should see a bottom in real estate values. So lets keep our fingers crossed that Washington is able to make a quick decision for a solid rescue plan.

Buy Up In a Down Market! Gain Equity!

Selling in a down market and buying a more expensive property, assuming both properties have depreciated at about the same rate, can make you money. Waiting for the market to rebound can actually cost the seller more money than buying up in a down market.

When real estate values are down it is the right time to buy a larger property and take advantage of the discount. Consider this; you own a $1,000,000 property that is down 10%. Your property is currently worth $900,000, or down $100,000. A $2,000,000 property that is also down 10% is currently worth $1,800,000 or down $200,000.

If you make the trade and wait for the market to rebound 10% you have created $100,000 in equity.