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Apartment Industry Offers Wealth of Opportunities to Job Seekers
Industry News
Camden to Offer 5.75M Shares, Buy Interest in Joint Ventures
Investors Are Favoring Urban Apartments Over Suburban Communities
Indianapolis Property Market Healthier Thanks to Apartments
San Antonio Commercial Advisors Adds to Team
Beige Book Reveals Tightening Rental Market
Advantage Swings Away From Residents in Orlando
Apartment Construction on the Rebound in Illinois Market
Colorado Springs' Apartment Boom Continues With New Proposal
Colliers Launches National Student Housing Group
Do Stock Images Affect Trust?
Legislative/Legal News
Austin Apartments Get Energy Rebates 
New Ga. County Ordinance Requires Apartment Inspections
Government Looks to Turn Foreclosures Into Rentals
New Methodology Could Unlock Billions in Energy Efficiency Investment
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Apartment Industry Offers Wealth of Opportunities to Job Seekers
Digested From "Apartment Industry Offers Wealth of Opportunities to Job Seekers"
MarketWatch (01/12/12)
The apartment industry continues to see strong demand for new employees as it tries to keep pace the growing number of people opting to rent apartments instead of buy homes. The apartment management industry, in particular, has come through the recent recession mostly unscathed by the layoffs and downsizing that have hit other sectors so hard. National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) President Maitri Johnson comments, "Every year, we keep adding to the apartment stock, and we keep adding jobs. That has not been the case with many other industries during the past few years." The multifamily housing industry currently employs over 1 million people. That does not include the thousands of others working in industries that provide products and services to apartment communities. Managing apartment communities requires a team of staffers performing such functions as customer service, accounting, and preventive maintenance. A recent search of job postings on ApartmentCareers.com highlighted open positions for everything from accountants and housekeepers to webmasters and maintenance technicians. February will be Apartment Careers Month. As such, NAAEI plans to work closely with its members and local apartment associations to raise awareness about the numerous career opportunities available.
Industry News
Camden to Offer 5.75M Shares, Buy Interest in Joint Ventures
Digested From "Camden to Offer 5.75M Shares, Buy Interest in Joint Ventures"
Houston Business Journal (01/12/12)
Camden Property Trust, which this week set a public offering of 5.75 million common shares, plans to use the proceeds to buy a remaining 80 percent stake in a dozen of its joint ventures. Specifically, the Houston-based apartment REIT will pay back mortgage debt on the properties in the joint ventures. Camden expects to close its acquisition by the end of this month. When completed, Camden will fully own 12 apartment communities in four major markets -- Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
Investors Are Favoring Urban Apartments Over Suburban Communities
Digested From "Plots & Ploys: Sub-Urban Prices"
Wall Street Journal (01/11/12) by Maura Webber Sadovi
The sales market for apartment communities is currently strong. In some regions, though, Cushman & Wakefield executive director Simon Butler notes that investors are favoring prime city properties over those in the suburbs. In one recent deal, a 1,020-unit apartment community with occupancies above 90 percent in the Boston suburb of Framingham, Mass., fetched $128 million. By contrast, a 232-unit Cambridge, Mass., apartment community known as Walden Park recently sold for $64.9 million, an increase from the $55.8 million it traded at six years ago. Butler, who represented the sellers in both deals, comments, "You get stronger pricing in the city because there's a perception that there will be stronger rent growth." Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital, adds that suburban and smaller city apartment communities are more often seeing values recover at a slower pace.
Indianapolis Property Market Healthier Thanks to Apartments
Digested From "Local Commercial Real Estate Market a Little Healthier"
Indianapolis Business Journal (01/12/12)
A new Cassidy Turley report shows that the Indianapolis metro area had a somewhat up-and-down year in 2011 as far as the local commercial real estate market is concerned. In its annual "State of Real Estate" report, the city's biggest commercial real estate brokerage noted that the apartment and industrial property markets ranked as the top performers in 2011, while office and retail remained mostly stagnant. Jeff Henry, regional managing principal, wrote: "Although the challenges of the past year hampered growth, Indiana's commercial property markets proved to be remarkably resilient as every segment of commercial real estate demonstrated strengthening fundamentals." At least 30 sales of area apartment communities were completed in 2011. Meanwhile, Central Indiana recorded a 56 percent increase in multifamily housing starts from 2010 because of demand from more people looking to rent than own. The metro area's industrial real estate market, meanwhile, saw its overall vacancy rate fall from 6.3 percent at the end of 2010 to 4.7 percent by this past December. Finally, downtown Indianapolis' office vacancy rate climbed from 17.1 percent to 18.9 percent and dropped from 22 percent to 21.2 percent in the suburbs. Average office rental rates slipped slightly, according to Cassidy Turley.
San Antonio Commercial Advisors Adds to Team
Digested From "San Antonio Commercial Advisors Bulking up Multifamily Muscle"
San Antonio Business Journal (01/13/12) by Tricia Lynn Silva
San Antonio Commercial Advisors has added two new brokers who specialize in apartment communities to its team, staking its claim in the city's growing multifamily housing sector. The new hires are Scott Weems, who comes over from the local CB Richard Ellis Inc. office, and Brandon Lo Porto, formerly of Fulton Property Group LLC. Both have joined San Antonio Commercial as senior directors. San Antonio Commercial was founded less than four months ago by ex-Cross & Co. principals Ed Cross II and Paul Fagan.
Beige Book Reveals Tightening Rental Market
Digested From "As Economy Grows, Jobs Are Still Scarce, Fed Says"
New York Times (01/12/12) P. B8
The housing market "largely held steady at very low levels" from late November through the end of 2011 -- except for a rise in multifamily construction, reports the Federal Reserve. The central bank's Beige Book business survey also reveals that the rental housing market tightened in some geographic pockets. The results may reinforce the views of most Fed officials at a time when they are pressing legislators to take more action to boost residential real estate.
Advantage Swings Away From Residents in Orlando
Digested From "Orlando: Not the Renters' Market it Used to Be"
Orlando Sentinel (FL) (01/09/12) by Mary Shanklin
Over the past six years, as home prices in Orlando have seen a sharp decline, monthly apartment rents have gone up. In an area with soaring foreclosures, demand for rental housing is currently high. While apartment owners are typically paying less to purchase properties, they are definitely finding it easy to hike rents. The median rent for Metro Orlando was $833 a month in October, up marginally from $822 six years earlier, according to ALN Apartment Data. As more prospective residents flood the apartment market, lease incentives and other deals are disappearing. Anxious to tap the market, developers are currently building a number of new apartment communities in and around Orlando.
Apartment Construction on the Rebound in Illinois Market
Digested From "Apartment Construction on the Rebound in B-N"
WJBC.com (IL) (01/08/12) by Ryan Denham
While the homebuilding industry in Bloomington-Normal, Ill., area is sluggish, apartment construction is on the rebound. Only 81 new apartment units were built in 2010, but 393 units were constructed in 2011. Nationwide, apartments are being built nearly twice as fast as two years ago as Reis Inc. said vacancies across the country fell to a 10-year low in the fourth quarter of 2011. Normal saw a large increase in new apartment construction last year with Illinois State University closing two residence halls, displacing as many as 800 students. In addition, the school plans to close two more dormitories by January 2013, which will displace an 1,600 more students. Off-campus apartments will be needed to meet the rising demand for living quarters.
Colorado Springs' Apartment Boom Continues With New Proposal
Digested From "Apartment Boom Continues With Briargate Proposal"
Colorado Springs Gazette (01/06/12) by Rich Laden
Another apartment community has been proposed in Briargate area of Colorado Springs. If approved, the project would be the seventh planned in the past few months. Low vacancy rates, record-high rents, and a lack of construction in recent years has lead to an apartment boom in the region. Plans were recently submitted to the Colorado Springs Land Use Review Office for the 272-unit Apartments at Briargate. Pedcor Investments of Indiana recently announced its plans to purchase the property from High Country Land. Planning documents show the first phase of the new community would include 128 one-, two- and three-bedroom units in four buildings. The second phase would see an additional 144 rental units in another four buildings.
Colliers Launches National Student Housing Group
Digested From "Colliers Launches National Student Housing Group"
MarketWatch (01/10/12)
Colliers International has confirmed the launch of its National Student Housing Group. The firm has hired Dorothy Joffe Jackman and Travis Prince, two of the country's leading student housing real estate brokerage professionals, to lead the new unit as managing directors. The former has closed upwards of $540 million of sales and won a number of industry awards, including a "Woman of Influence" honor by Real Estate Forum. The latter has handled more than $500 million worth of student housing and multifamily housing assignments. Dwight Hotchkiss, Colliers' executive managing director of client services, remarks, "The changes in student housing real estate in recent years -- demand for new amenities, changes to campus footprints and residence strategies, scarcity of public funding -- all call for more specialized expertise. Prince and Jackman are proven leaders in this sector, whose innovation, creativity, and leadership immediately place this national group on the cutting edge."
Do Stock Images Affect Trust?
Digested From "Do Stock Images Affect Trust?"
Search Engine Journal (01/12/12) by Todd Bailey
Those conscious of protecting company brands and/or logos are urged to run a "search by image" from time to time via Google and other online search engines. The objective is to uncover anything out of the ordinary that may infringe upon copyrights or place one's brand in "unruly circumstances." Search engine result pages (or SERPs) are good tools to use when choosing stock photos for not only contact pages but assets for your site to make certain your selection is not saturated within the Internet. The article's author states: "There's more to designing a good contact page than adding a contact form and slapping on a graphic of a smiling face, although I will admit this is still a good practice compared to many of the sites I have seen while searching." He goes on to advise using internal resources, photos of staff, and social badges as well segmenting departments in order to make it easier for a visitor to get in touch with whom they are seeking. For the most part, Internet users are creatures of their own personalized behavior. As a result, it is a good rule of thumb to always consider your own experiences when developing sites "that will convert better and allow your site to be as trustworthy as you can."
Legislative/Legal News
Austin Apartments Get Energy Rebates
Digested From "Apartment Complexes Get Energy Rebates"
KXAN36 News (Austin, TX) (01/12/12)
Late last week, the Austin City Council approved more than $400,000 in energy rebates to be given to four apartment communities because of improvements made that will slash energy usage. According to Austin Energy (AE), the combined energy savings is more than 861,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity -- enough to power 71 homes locally year-round. AE offers the rebates as part of Austin's Energy Conservation and Audit Disclosure ordinance, which requires apartment communities more than a decade old to perform energy audits and make energy-efficiency improvements if their apartments have 50 percent higher energy use compared to similar communities. Apartment owners must also disclose the results of the audit to current and prospective residents. Apartment communities are exempt from the ordinance if they replaced all of their heating and air conditioning equipment with Energy Star-rated equipment during the last 10 years or if they received rebates from AE for energy-efficiency improvements. So far, more than 600 apartment communities citywide have performed energy audits. Karl R. Rabago, AE's vice president for distributed energy services, concludes, "Energy-efficiency improvements to apartment communities help the majority of our residential customers, who are not homeowners, save money during tough economic times. And their savings help all of us by reducing the demand for expensive generation."
New Ga. County Ordinance Requires Apartment Inspections
Digested From "New Ordinance Requires Interior Apartment Inspections"
The Champion Newspaper (Ga.) (01/10/12) by Andrew Cauthen
In Georgia, a new DeKalb County ordinance requiring the interiors of all apartment communities be inspected by an independent state-certified inspector has gone into effect this month. The ordinance requires all apartment owners to have their rental units inspected as a condition of getting or renewing a business license. During the first year of compliance with the new ordinance, all units in an apartment community must be inspected. In subsequent years, 20 percent of the apartments are required to be inspected. Apartment communities that are less than five years old are exempt. Each inspection will be performed by a third-party inspector, who will ensure that apartment interiors meet "state minimum standard codes." Inspectors will check for such things as whether the flooring is impervious in kitchen and bath areas, if required smoke detectors have been properly installed, and whether electrical outlets and light fixtures are in good working order and have no exposed wiring. They also check to see if both interior and exterior doors, jams, and hardware are functional, as well as if any pest extermination is needed. Among other things, they also determined if exit requirements are being met with unobstructed means of egress and if there is excessive trash, rubbish, or similar items.
Government Looks to Turn Foreclosures Into Rentals
Digested From "Turning Foreclosures Into Rentals"
CNNMoney (01/09/12) by Tami Luhby
Federal officials are looking to launch a pilot program soon to transform government-owned foreclosures into rental housing. The initiative would sell foreclosed homes owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to investors in bulk for conversion into rentals. Officials not only aim to boost the supply of rental units, which are in high demand, but they also hope that putting these homes back into productive use will stabilize communities.
New Methodology Could Unlock Billions in Energy Efficiency Investment
Digested From "New Methodology Could Unlock Billions in Energy Efficiency Investment – Deutsche Bank"
Environmental Finance (01/12/2012) by Mark Nicholls
According to a new study from Deutsche Bank, lenders can now have greater confidence in energy savings projections from residential energy efficiency programs. Researchers examined 230 energy efficiency retrofits in multifamily housing projects throughout New York City. Specifically, they took a look at the accuracy of energy-saving projections and have subsequently proposed a methodology that would help lenders underwrite investments against such projections. Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation President Gary Hattem comments, "Providing hard data that clearly shows the impact and value of building retrofits is a critical step toward stimulating greater retrofit activity and investments. The report signals an important milestone in connecting the fields of finance and building science." The study sets out an approach to underwriting loans with fuel savings projections, suggesting that underwriters collect basic energy data and apply greater scrutiny to energy audits, among other things. The report concludes: "The next step toward market transformation will be proof of concept, executing transactions that show how underwriting against energy savings projections can be a viable financing practice."
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