MIAMI—Hundreds of commercial real estate players gathered at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach on Wednesday to glean from multifamily industry experts at RealShare Apartments East. From developers to capital markets gurus to economists, panelists tackled tough issues facing the multifamily industry and offered insight into the opportunities in today's market.

In the Pulse of the Pipeline: Development Update panel, Jim Kraft, president of Del Boca Vista, moderated a discussion between Mark Humphreys, CEO of Humphreys & Partners Architects, and Ronald Ladell, New Jersey senior vice president of AvalonBay Communities. They discussed the variety of factors converging to impact multifamily development.

“In the urban markets nationally where we are doing high density projects there are a lot of Echo Boomers that can't afford them—even a micro unit they can't afford,” Humphreys said. “We are also seeing a completely unpredicted huge number of Baby Boomers going toward rental properties. Word on the street is we need bigger units and we need to watch how many of these small units we build in these properties.”