MULTI-HOUSING NEWS REPORTS ON HOUSING STATISTICS April Market Pulse Published: April 01, 2008 Apartment Starts: Multifamily (5+ units) starts surged by 15 percent in February from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000 and were 23 percent above the same period one year earlier. (These date include both for-sale and for-rent housing starts.) Actual (not seasonally adjusted) starts totaled 43,000 through the first two months of the year, up 19 percent from one year earlier. Rent Changes: The year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) […]

MBA ECONOMIST PREDICTS COMMERCIAL LOAN RATES At the recent Mortgage Bankers Association meetings in Orlando, Florida Douglas Duncan, chief economist of MBA predicted that the spreads quoted by commercial mortgage lenders on commercial mortgages would remain at about their current level of 190 to 200 basis points through the end of 2008. (190 basis points equals 1.9% and is generally added to the current 10 year treasury bond yield which was 3.57% on April 3, 2008). He noted that the spreads were about 135 basis points in the early 1990’s […]