NMHC 2022 Annual Meeting Highlights

The NMHC 2022 Annual Meeting was held last week at the Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek in Orlando, Florida. The annual meeting is one of the multi-family industry’s premier events and is widely attended by industry leaders. This year’s keynote speaker was The Walt Disney Company Chairman and former CEO, Bob Iger. The following are our team’s takeaways from the annual event.

• What’s keeping developers up at night? Lack of single-family homes for rent, industry labor shortages, and developing affordable housing.
• Increasing amounts of people are either choosing or being forced to rent because of a shortage of single-family housing. This is driving up both single-family and multi-family prices.
• High occupancy (~97%) will put upward pressure on rents. Rental rates are growing at a record pace and there is a belief this will continue due to the increase in overall wage growth.
• On a property-level basis, an increase in rents helped offset some of the loss in rent collections.
• Hopefully with inflation comes higher wages
• The pandemic has accelerated many forms of technology in the industry:
  • Virtual tours and leasing agents
  • Wi-Fi availability – not just in the units, but also in common areas
  • “Smart” thermostats and locking systems
  • Package delivery system – To ensure safe delivery, locker systems have been installed
  • There is hope and common belief that technology will be one of the key solutions to developing more affordable housing

2022 Outlook

• Looking to cool slightly from record-breaking metrics in 2021 but still see relatively strong growth. The demand will still be there.
• Anticipate vacancies to remain tight.
• Mortgage origination:
  • Property price appreciation with be a big driver.
  • Will depend on how fast treasury rates move.
    • Could potentially increase discount rates and decrease property prices.

Joseph Pellizzon
Commercial Mortgage Banker
D: 310.622.1177
josephp@slatt.com