Experts Predict Multifamily Heaven in 2011

SAN DIEGO-”Looking ahead in multifamily, 2009 will not be a good year, 2010 will begin to stabilize, and then the good news is that 2011 looks fantastic…heaven in 2011.” So said industry analyst Ron Witten, president of Witten Advisors, during the kickoff presentation at the National Association of Home Builder’s Pillars of the Industry conference and awards gala in Downtown San Diego, an event which drew approximately 250 attendees.

“It’s a tough time right now, but at least there is hope somewhere out there in the distance,” said NAHB’s chief economist David Crowe, who joined Witten to provide a comprehensive economic overview that was focused on the housing correction in general and the apartment and condo sectors specifically.

Crowe began his presentation detailing why there has been a continued fall in housing, and how a housing downturn became a national recession. “There were a couple of things that compounded at the same time, such as mortgage stress and housing price declines,” he said, continuing that although Florida, California, Arizona, and Nevada were poster children for particularly bad markets, the bad has now stretched everywhere else.