NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ-Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s may have downgraded the economic outlook for New Jersey, but the industry’s top commercial real estate leaders agreed that the state’s four major property sectors—mainly multifamily—have helped keep it positive. With the single-family market still in-flux and lending standards remaining tight for potential homebuyers, the strength of rental housing and other development trends were discussed during RealShare NJ 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, produced by ALM Real Estate Media Group, parent company of GlobeSt.com. The conference attracted 500 of the industry's biggest and brightest players in the game to the city.

During the event’s “C-Suite Update” panel moderated by outgoing and longtime EDA chief Caren Franzini, developer Carl Goldberg, principal at Roseland Property Co., one of the state’s biggest builders of rental housing along Hudson County’s “Gold Coast,” including a new project in the works in Jersey City’s Exchange Place neighborhood, said the multifamily sector will continue to stay strong even though single-family is slowly picking up. “There’s no other way to describe it,” he said. “Rents are up, occupancies are down and there’s a surge in new apartment construction and mixed-use communities around the region.”

We Also Recommend:

• Critics Blast Grow NJ for Feeding Suburban Sprawl
• SJP Signs 50,000 SF Renewal At Signature Campus In Bridgewater
• Cambridge Services Relocates From Manhattan To Newark

The question going forward, Goldberg said, depends on the sustainability of multifamily, or whether a “bubble” is forming around thousands of un-rented units. “The answer to that question revolves around whether we genuinely believe that there has been a fundamental shift in household formation,” he said. “That is a question that is not completely understood yet, but there are certain trends that are suggesting the shift. Rates of home ownership within the United States are plummeting, and people are liking the lifestyle of highly amenitized apartment buildings adjacent to mass transit systems so that they could commute to work via mass transit instead of their cars. With the confluence of obtaining loans for prospective purchasers with very stringent down payment requirements, the for-sale market continues to languish. The outlook for multifamily rental for the remainder of 2012 into 2013 remains quite strong.”