DALLAS--With about seven million square feet of new construction in the Metroplex and the overall vacancy rate improving for the past six quarters, there is no doubt the area is hot for commercial real estate. Next Thursday, Nov. 20, GlobeSt.com will host RealShare DALLAS 2014 at the W Dallas-Victory Park. In the half-day morning program, participants will hear an array of topics tackled, from developments in industrial to institutional capital markets. In the conference's concluding program, “Town Hall Power Panel: State of the Market,” leaders will offer their insights as to where the challenges lie, what new developments are set to take place and what to expect as we head into 2015.

Among the panelists is KC Sanjay, senior real estate economist at Axiometrics Inc. GlobeSt.com's Anna Caplan recently spoke with Sanjay to find out more about his background, and about the session.

GlobeSt.com: Tell us more about the topic of your presentation.

Sanjay: I'll be covering economics and apartment fundamentals, both nationally and in the DFW area. Axiometrics has called 2014 the “Year of the Apartment” because apartment fundamentals have been interesting this year. Both effective rent growth and occupancy have exceeded what most predicted at the beginning of 2014. This has been especially true in Dallas and Fort Worth--occupancy is above 95 percent in both markets and effective rent growth has been above 5 percent. The national effective rent growth, by the way, is 4 percent. All of this is pretty phenomenal, when you consider that the long-term average of effective rent growth (from 1997) is around 2.8 percent.

GlobeSt.com: What is your area of expertise?

Sanjay: I'm a real estate economist; it means that my area involves researching and analyzing economic trends within real estate. I also keep close tabs on the overall economy and analyze how that will impact multi-housing. At Axiometrics, we tie economics and apartment markets together and write reports and newsletters about the connections. This makes sense; the more jobs created the higher the demand for housing. So we take a careful look at economic factors, such as employment and unemployment and job creation, and apply it to what's going on with apartments.

Along with that, I analyze the capital markets. Not only does this tell us how much is out there available to investors who might want to buy apartments or student housing properties, it also tells us things like interest rates. Low interest rates typically mean lower mortgage rates, which in turn means more people wanting to buy homes rather than rent apartments, though in this particular recovery, we're seeing more people interested in renting rather than owning.

GlobeSt.com: How did you get into your current field?

Sanjay: I've always been kind of a research nerd. It's one reason why I ended up in economics. That involves a love of numbers and statistics and knowing how to analyze them. Shortly after I received my master's degree, I was offered an opportunity to work with a company that conducted real estate research. Linking economics with real estate seemed the right way to go for me, so I jumped in. I've been in the field now for close to two decades.

GlobeSt.com: What do you hope attendees will gain from your presentation?

Sanjay: The goal here is to try to give attendees a clear picture of what's going on in the apartment market in DFW, especially from an economic viewpoint. Hopefully, they'll walk away from the presentation with a better understanding of what's driving the apartment market, both nationally and locally, and whether those fundamentals will continue exerting their influence in a couple of years.

I also hope attendees end up with an appreciation of other, perhaps not so obvious, aspects that might be impacting the apartment market, including the affordability issues and homeownership.