The ability of renters to keep making their monthly payments buoyed the multifamily market over the past seven months. The dire predictions of early spring, when many observers predicted calamity, have not come true.
“Relative to other commercial real estate product types, multifamily is still strong,” Kiser Group Managing Broker Lee Kiser said.
But that doesn’t mean the housing market is healthy.
Cracks in the multifamily foundation have appeared as the coronavirus pandemic continued to sour the economy and some residents of large urban properties began to exit.
Bisnow/Brian Rogal
South Loop residential towers
Kiser said the real challenge for the multifamily industry is that the properties most responsible for the sector’s recent success are precisely the ones most likely to suffer in a pandemic. Class-A luxury buildings with a lot of amenities, located near dining and entertainment options and public transportation, just don’t have the same cachet.
“No one