A Moody's report has evaluated the steadiness of multifamily performance, continued but not increased stress in office, a fall in retail vacancy, and a cooling of industrial sector.

After the highs and lows of the last few years, this sounds like a big reversion to perhaps what is a new mean. Overall, the September rate cut by the Federal Reserve brought "expectations of continued relief" that Moody's expects to continue forward — although Fed Chair Jerome Powell has continued to stress decision-making based on data and no hurry to quickly slash rates. The prospect of an economic soft landing has continued to rise this year. However, a new normal will take time and a greater amount of recent economic and financial history to ascertain.

Multifamily vacancies remained at 5.8%, 91 basis points higher than the 2010-to-2019 average. Moody's says the rate is the highest since 2011 when the country was coming off the global financial crisis and crash of the U.S. housing market. Since late 2022, the main driver of vacancy was supply-side pressure. As construction of new units continued, especially in growing areas of the South and West, the supply increased passed what demand could absorb.