Category Archives: Market Trends

eXp Commercial is pleased to present to market Indian Creek Apartments, a fully occupied 24-unit multifamily complex on the northeast side of Aurora, Illinois, bordering affluent Naperville, Illinois, just to the east. The property is in good condition, with considerable upside in rents with modest unit updates. All units have separately metered tenant-paid water, sewer, electricity, heat, and hot water. Also offered is an attractive low-interest assumable debt of $1.453 million at a 3.32 percent interest rate not due until December 2028.

Rent growth seems likely to regain momentum as early as spring 2024, when the normal seasonal upturn in leasing velocity should coincide with obvious signs that today’s new supply excess is temporary. Price increases should then prove robust during 2025.

The price gap between average apartment rents and the cost of owning a home in the Chicago metro area is widening, providing landlords with leverage to push rents even higher.

Average of the top competitive rates from eXp Commercial’s National Capital Markets Partner CommLoan from a database of 700+ commercial lenders as of 731/23

Average of the top competitive rates from eXp Commercial’s National Capital Markets Partner CommLoan from a database of 700+ commercial lenders as of 7/24/23

A number of market participants agree that multifamily sales activity is on the upswing despite the current low transaction numbers.

Running a commercial real estate asset on a day-to-day basis can be expensive. As such, it is important for operators to manage costs relative to rental income to ensure that the given property is profitable. From a management standpoint, costs can be grouped into two buckets: Operating Expenses (or “OpEx”) and Capital Expenses (or “CapEx”). While they are both categories of expenses, there are material differences between capital expenses and operating expenses.

Real estate investors have done well. Rents have risen and home price appreciation has been quite exceptional. In the past three years, the typical rental rate and typical home price have soared by 16.4% and 35.5%, respectively. Over the past five years, those figures are 24.9% and 50.8%. These returns were occurring at a time of low-cost financing.

Commercial real estate can be broken down into several different categories. At a high level, when people think of different types of commercial real estate, they typically think about shopping centers, office buildings, or warehouses. But the commercial real estate industry is much more precise when it comes to defining property types. Below is a list of different types of commercial real estate with a description of how each category is typically defined.

Valuing commercial property is an important step in every commercial real estate transaction. This post will demystify the commercial property valuation process and walk you through some common valuation techniques used in the commercial real estate industry.

The first task in any real estate investment decision is to build a proforma, which is just a word that means cash flow projection. In this guide, we will define the term proforma, look at an example of a simple real estate proforma, review a more complicated real estate proforma, and also discuss some nuances you may see in the real world.

The capitalization rate is a fundamental concept in the commercial real estate industry. Yet, it is often misunderstood and sometimes incorrectly used. This post will take a deep dive into the concept of the cap rate, and also clear up some common misconceptions.

The broker price opinion (BPO), also known as a broker opinion of value (BOV), is a popular way of estimating the value of a property. Typical reasons for ordering a broker price opinion include estimating value prior to purchase or sale, understanding collateral value when securing a new loan or refinancing, estimating liquidation value, buying out a partner’s interest in a property, among many others. In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the broker price opinion, review the three approaches to market value, and also clear up some common misconceptions about the broker price opinion.

Understanding Net Operating Income (NOI) is essential in commercial real estate. Without a firm grasp of net operating income, commonly referred to as just “NOI”, it’s impossible to fully understand investment real estate transactions. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at net operating income, discuss the components of NOI, and also clear up some common misconceptions.

Value is traditionally defined as the power of a good to command other goods or services when exchanged. Within this broad definition of value, there are various types of value given to real property, such as investment value, market value, insurable value, assessed value, liquidation value, or replacement value. In this article we’ll go over different types of real estate value, and then zero in and focus on the difference between investment value and market value, which is often confused by commercial real estate professionals.

In this article we are going to conduct an investment analysis on a 140 unit apartment building acquisition. We’ll walk through the process of forecasting cash flows and also explain the calculations needed to determine investment value. Read on as we take a deep dive into the world of apartment investing.

The internal rate of return (IRR) is a widely used investment performance measure in finance, private equity, and commercial real estate. Yet, it’s also widely misunderstood.

Being completely comfortable with the time value of money is critical when working in the field of finance and commercial real estate. The time value of money is impossible to ignore when dealing with loans, investment analysis, capital budgeting, and many other financial decisions. It’s a fundamental building block that the entire field of finance is built upon. And yet, many finance and commercial real estate professionals still lack a solid working knowledge of time value of money concepts, and they consistently make the same common mistakes. In this article, we take a deep dive into the time value of money, discuss the intuition behind the calculations, and we’ll also clear up several misconceptions along the way.

The topic of replacement reserves is often confusing for commercial real estate professionals. How much should be set aside for replacement reserves? Should replacement reserves be included in net operating income? How do replacement reserves impact cap rates and value? In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at reserves for replacement, clear up the confusion, and also tackle some common misconceptions.

In commercial real estate the tenant estoppel often comes up during the due diligence phase of an acquisition or during the underwriting of a loan. What exactly is a tenant estoppel and how does it work? Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the tenant estoppel.

When it’s time to close on a commercial real estate transaction, the process can seem overwhelming. This definitive guide will walk you through every step in the commercial real estate closing process. You will see where the commercial process is similar to the residential process, and where things are different.

The Debt Service Coverage Ratio, often abbreviated as “DSCR”, is an important concept in real estate finance and commercial lending. It’s critical when underwriting commercial real estate and business loans as well as tenant financials, and it is a key part in determining the maximum loan amount. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the debt service coverage ratio, explain what a DSCR loan is, and walk through several examples along the way.

The debt yield is becoming an increasingly important ratio in commercial real estate lending. Traditionally, lenders have used the loan to value ratio and the debt service coverage ratio to underwrite a commercial real estate loan. Now, the debt yield is used by some lenders as an additional underwriting ratio. However, since it’s not widely used by all lenders, it’s often misunderstood.

How do you feel about a criminal conviction on your record? Defending against a civil suit for intentional infliction of emotional damage? They don’t sound too bad? Well, how about a fistfight with a tenant on the front lawn of your rental property? If you’d prefer to avoid these scenarios, it might be a good idea to understand the process required to lawfully evict a tenant. While the details of the eviction process vary from state to state, the general principles discussed here are almost universal.

Market leasing assumptions define what happens after a tenant lease expires in a commercial property. Since it’s unknown whether the tenant will renew its lease or not, there are two sets of assumptions. One set of assumptions is used if a new tenant needs to be found. The second set of assumptions is used if an existing tenant renews its lease. Then, there is a renewal probability that creates a weighted average between these two sets of assumptions.

What is a tenancy in common (TIC)? What are its characteristics? Its advantages and disadvantages?

A commercial real estate sales contract can be one page or one hundred pages. There are no rules, and every term, every word, is up for negotiation. Nonetheless, there are provisions that are typically included in most CRE purchase agreements, and understanding these provisions is essential for both buyer and seller to protect their interests.

Created to help low-income, elderly, and disabled households afford decent, safe and sanitary private housing, the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), commonly known as Section 8, provides a federally-funded subsidy to eligible families, paying for all or a portion of their rent and utilities costs. The Program provides not only significant benefits to these families, but also an opportunity for those landlords who chose to participate to potentially make their property more profitable.

To a developer, affordable housing means lower rents than a market-rate project, lower net operating income, and thus lower returns on their investment. Accordingly, without any outside incentive a developer has little motivation to build affordable housing. Unfortunately, the need for affordable housing is significant.

Many real estate investors fail to recognize the importance of the market analysis. Whether they lack the skills and knowledge to complete the market analysis or just don’t understand the benefits, market analysis is an undervalued asset in real estate investment.

A detailed market analysis is key to any real estate investment decision. Even though the financial projections have far more impact in management and investment decisions, market analysis is behind each and every number in the financial statements.

One of the most important ways to use all of the data gathered in a real estate market analysis is to examine the supply and demand factors for a particular type of real estate

The cap rate is an important concept in commercial real estate, and it is widely used. There is often confusion about how to calculate the cap rate using various methods. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate several ways to calculate the cap rate.

The concept of highest and best use is one of the fundamental principles that underlie real estate appraisal. Highest and best use requires that the appraisal considers not just the current use of the property but also the potential value associated with alternative uses.

The income approach is one of three techniques commercial real estate appraisers use to value real estate. Compared to the other two techniques (the sales comparison approach and the cost approach), the income approach is more complicated, and therefore it is often confusing for many commercial real estate professionals. In this article, we’ll walk through the income approach to property valuation step by step, including several income approach examples.

Loss to lease is a commonly used calculation in a commercial real estate analysis. However, loss to lease can also be one of the most confusing calculations to understand, especially when you see it for the first time. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the loss to lease calculations and walk through several examples to help you understand what it is and how it works.

Every investment involves a certain amount of risk. There are certain general sources of risk that influence all assets – things like geopolitical risk and global macroeconomic risk. What makes each asset unique is the level of sensitivity that its rate of return has to those risks. In addition, specific types of assets have risks that are uniquely their own. In this article, we’ll look at eleven types of risk in commercial real estate investment.

One of the unique challenges of commercial real estate investment is that markets, types of property, return expectations, and physical environments are in a constant state of change. As a result of these changes, a commercial property could be cash flow positive one day and undesirable the next due to shifts in tenant desires or some other factor. The real estate term for this type of risk is “obsolescence” and there are three types that CRE investors should be aware of.

When real estate investors are evaluating a potential rental property purchase or a bank is underwriting a potential loan, one of the first documents that they will ask for is the property’s “rent roll” or “rent roll report.” In this article, the rent roll document is described in detail and its utility in the CRE due diligence process is highlighted.

It is very common for a lender to require a borrower to open a checking account as part of the transaction. Because of this, it is critical that borrowers have awareness of a lightly understood and rarely enforced, but potentially devastating clause in a typical retail bank’s deposit account agreement known as the “Right of Offset.”

Weak Macro Data Can Obscure Local Opportunities Don’t overlook opportunities just because macro-level numbers suggest the market isn’t performing well. Investors can and should closely evaluate the macro trends, considering population growth, job growth, household formation, income levels, and all the other major metrics. But investors also need to dig under the surface.

For generations, Americans have thought of homeownership as a hallmark of success. But there are reasons not to buy a home, even for those who can afford to do so.

Chicago apartment dwellers are seeing some of the fastest rental price increases in the nation this spring and summer, reports a new market study.

Compared to other loans, 504 loans offer savings that result in improved cash flow. The maximum loan amount is $5 million, or $5.5 million for small manufacturers or certain types of energy projects.

With higher standard deductions and income thresholds for capital gains, it’s more likely you’ll fall into the 0% bracket in 2023

A seller’s net proceeds sheet is a document that estimates the amount of money a seller will receive after all closing costs have been paid. The net proceeds of a sale are important to capital gains tax exposure because they determine the amount of profit that is subject to tax.

Are you thinking of selling a commercial income property? If so, it is important to calculate the correct tax basis to avoid higher capital gains tax when the property is sold. It is also necessary to determine the tax basis before you sell since the tax basis plays a role in determining depreciation.

The Midwest offers several advantages compared to other U.S. regions, including its diverse economy, growing population, and stable housing market. All of which makes the region an excellent place for investors looking to expand their portfolios.

Chicago’s multifamily sector currently enjoys strong market fundamentals highlighted by healthy occupancy rates and continued rental rate growth.