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Buyers will be out in force in 2020. That was the emphatic message delivered by attendees who took our annual survey at the GlobeSt. Apartments Conference in Los Angeles late last year. In 2018, just 19% of the respondents to the annual Capital One survey said they anticipated primarily being buyers during the following year. In fall 2019, 74% declared their intention to focus on adding to their holdings.

There are multiple reasons for the pendulum to have swung so abruptly. The first is the economy. Job growth continues. Consumer spending remains strong. Interest rates are low. Capital is abundant. Taken together, these factors produce the kind of stability that makes it easier for investors to feel more certain about the future. Interest rates, for instance, are lower than they were a year ago, but, equally significant, they are much less volatile. Furthermore, after years of worrying about when the recovery was going to end, investors now seem confident that moderate growth is the new normal. With certainty and growth aligned, it is no wonder that multifamily investors are bullish on the market.

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