Apartment markets tightened for the fifth straight month and debt financing became less available for the third consecutive quarter, according to National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions, issued last week.

This is now a worse time to borrow than three months ago, a vast majority of respondents (83 percent) indicated. Meanwhile, 42 percent are "very concerned" about the combined impact of rising interest rates and inflation and 55 percent are somewhat concerned.

In mid-April, Goldman Sachs economist Ronnie Walker issued a research note titled: "Will Higher Rates Put Out the Housing Fire?" In it he wrote that "standard economic models suggest that an increase of that magnitude should weigh substantially on housing, the most interest rate-sensitive segment of the economy and the textbook channel of monetary policy transmission."