What are the Best Sources for Commercial Real Estate (Multifamily and BTR-SFR) News and Resources?

Dear valued investors and future investors,

It’s time again for CPI Capital's weekly news briefing. Our regular briefing contains a mixture of updates, commentary and informative, related articles about the lucrative world of passive income and real estate investments.

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It’s often said that “Information is power”. Well, certainly in real estate investment terms, having the right information can give you the power to make educated investment decisions, study market trends, prepare financial forecasts, provide relevant advice, and so on.

There are, typically, two types of news and information sources many property professionals use to obtain data and information on, for example, multifamily and BTR-SFR properties. Such information may be provided on a paid and unpaid basis, with the latter usually requiring a monthly or annual subscription.

But where do you get such information and which resources are the best for collecting news and data about multi-family and BTR-SFR (built-to-rent and single-family residences) markets across the US?

First, what sort of information and data do real estate investors seek?

Obviously, there are a multitude of types of real estate, from vacant land to land and buildings; from multifamily and BTR-SFR properties to office, retail, and hospitality assets. Some data sources are general and provide information on a national/countrywide basis, while others focus on specific sectors of the market, or even sub-sets.

Typically, the sort of information the sources mentioned below provide or are monitored by real estate professionals include:

• economic and financial news on a national or even global basis, such as GDP figures, interest rates, cost of borrowing, employment/unemployment figures, or the latest developments on stocks and shares;
• opinions, commentary and analysis of national or world events;
• legislation as it affects real estate properties;
• property market trends at a macro and micro level;
• accredited research publications;
• major supply and demand trends (building permits, new construction starts, structural changes in demand for a particular asset class such as multifamily or BTR-SFR, etc.);
• take-up (net absorption) and occupancy rates; vacancy rates by sector;
• Cap rates;
• information on major acquisitions or sales transactions or about existing or new investors in the market;
• product development trends (i.e. do BTR-SFR development needs community swimming pool or just larger space for tenants to live in?); and,
• many other factors. All of which in some way influence prices and rentals for CRE!

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How real estate investors use information and data

Once the above information and data about real estate has been obtained, then how is it used? Uses are very varied and may include:

• identifying macro and micro market trends;
• forecasting supply patterns;
• forecasting demand and occupancy/vacancy rates over, say a 5-year holding period; 
• evaluating properties both in terms of current and expected future value, by reference to other sales or the forecasted cashflows of a property;
• assessing borrowing costs;
• working out the anticipated investment returns to passive investors; and
•  much, much more…

Some of the best sources for Commercial Real Estate (multifamily and BTR-SFR) news and resources?

There is a vast array of resources used by investors and real estate professionals, some of which are detailed below.

Some of these resources contain news and information which can be filtered by article content (i.e. multifamily and/or BTR-SFR) or by region or city across the US.

Some are more geared towards the institutional reader, REIT, or global investor and may focus on hard, macro-level economic data rather than news, giving analysts the raw information to determine their own opinions after careful review.

•  Globe Street and Biz Now (for breaking industry news and research reports)
• PERE News (institutional/macro environment/REIT focused)
• CBRE quarterly market reports and semi-annual cap rate survey covering some 50 states (in fact, other major, international brokerages such as Cushman and Wakefield also produce market reports on a national, regional or sectoral basis (i.e. by asset type such as retail, industrial, or self storage))
• New Mark
• Brocadia and North Mark (both tend to cover multi-family issues in more depth)
• Real Page
• Yardi Matrix

There is no “one-stop shop” for information about the various multi-family and BTR-SFR markets and there is likely to be a disparity between the figures quoted for the various sectors within the above publications. However, the data does give investors enough background information to formulate their own opinions and understand issues such as key supply and demand dynamics.

There are also a variety of other information sources such as some of the better newspapers, blogs, and webcasts—one of the most popular webcasts being the “Walker webcast”. This webcast has a variety of different guests from a business or finance background plus a number of eminent, respected commercial real estate professionals.

CPI Capital understands the importance of collecting and analysing reliable information and data with respect to the general economy and property market, as well as regarding the multifamily and BTR-SFR sub-sectors in markets across the nation.

CPI Capital has its own team to analyse, collect, assemble, and collate relevant data from a wide variety of resources. This enables our investment team to make informed decisions for the benefit of our passive investors both when it comes to acquiring new properties, managing the cashflow of existing properties, or their dissolution at the end of the investment term.

As mentioned earlier, “information is power” but only when it’s reliable and well analysed and appropriately used in private equity real estate investment!

 Yours sincerely,

 August Biniaz, COO, Co-Founder CPI Capital

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