It won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who’s followed commercial real estate over the last several years, but the multi-family market remains the strongest sector in the industry … by a lot.
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services provided yet more evidence of this in its 2012 annual apartment forecast for Cincinnati. According to the company’s report, rents will rise and vacancies fall in this sector this year.
In other words, it’s exactly what you’d expect if you’ve been paying attention at all to the performance of the multi-family sector across the Midwest.
According to the Marcus & Millichap report, vacancy rates in the multi-family sector are expected to fall 60 basis points in 2012 to 4.7 percent in Cincinnati. Last year, apartment vacancies dropped 140 basis points in the city.
Rents will jump here, too. Marcus & Millichap predicts that apartment asking rents in Cincinnati will end 2012 at $732 a month, an increase of 2.8 percent from 2011. Effective rents should rise 3 percent in 2012 to $696 a month.
Cincinnati should even expect to see some new multi-family construction this year. According to Marcus & Millichap, developers should finish 1,000 new apartments in the city this year. That figure would represent the largest year-over-year increase in the multi-family sector in Cincinnati in nine years.
