8 www.ctaahq.org Changing Dynamics in Multi-family Housing Jordan Brooks is a senior market analyst at ALN Apartment Data who recently spoke at the CTAA Tradeshow held Sept. 9-10, 2022. ALN was founded in 1991 as an apartment locator data provider. It serves locators, brokers, lenders, appraisers, asset and fee managers, apartment associations, supplier partners and the government, and its geographic reach has been global since 2015. The following article summarizes some of the data Jordan presented at the conference, focusing on Connecticut. He talked about the multi-family housing industry and other related information. There are several multi-family performance drivers. For example, important drivers include the size of a state’s resident population, the way that size changes over time and the national employment picture in terms of the size of the labor force. The unemployment rate, generally and by sector, is also important. These all help determine the affordability of multifamily housing. Other factors are also important drivers. Stimulus payments made in 2020 and 2021 still caused state-level movement in 2022. Some programs expired in 2021, such as Child Tax Credit changes and federal unemployment benefits that were expanded and increased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government extended the student loan moratorium to Jan. 1, 2023. Although most eviction moratoriums expired, that wasn’t true in all localities. Finally, people saved more and spent less during the worst part of the pandemic, but that has now reversed. Several things became clear as I reviewed and analyzed the data through the end of August 2022. Although Connecticut’s population growth was much stronger than normal in 2020, we didn’t lose those gains in 2021. However, the labor force and the associated participation rate have not recovered as well in the state as nationally. The Leisure and Hospitality sectors are exceptions. They both bounced back well in the last 12 months. Finally, almost 60% of Hartford MSA renter households earn less than $50,000 annually, and the policy actions throughout the last two years and more continue to affect the industry. By Jordan Brooks
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