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Volume 3 - Number 17 | September 14, 2005
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TOP STORY: Special Report: Katrina's Impact on REITs Likely To Be Minimal
By Sule Aygoren Carranza
As recovery begins in the Gulf region, it's tough to say what the impact of Hurricane Katrina will be on apartment REITs. While shares of multifamily REITs soared in the days following the hurricane due to investors banking on an increase of new leases signed by displaced households, the long-term impact on the apartment REIT sector is a wait-and-see situation, said Brendan Thorpe at Fitch Ratings in New York City.
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Special Report: Industry Mobilizes in Hurricane Relief Effort
By Sule Aygoren Carranza
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, apartment companies in the area and the multifamily industry in general—together with national, state and local agencies—immediately mobilized in an effort to find housing for the victims of the hurricane. Industry organizations and national agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency had already undergone a similar relief effort, albeit on a much smaller scale, when hurricanes hit South Florida last year. But this time around, the task was monumental.
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INSIDER: JER Partners' Angus Dodd
By Sule Aygoren Carranza
JER Partners, together with German firm HP Stoessel Unternehmensbeteiligungen, recently picked up a portfolio of about 10,000 units in 11 properties in the Berlin, Germany market. The deal cost 51 million euros, or about $70 million. For JER, the transaction seemed like a value-add opportunity—the German property market has undergone an economic downturn over the past few years from which it is slowly beginning to emerge, and apartments will be in heavy demand.
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Condo Sector Cooling, Prompting Concerns for REITs
By Sule Aygoren Carranza
How much longer can the condo boom last? It may already be petering out, if a recent report from the National Association of Realtors is any indication. While home prices still increased by double digits in July, the organization has announced that existing home sales that month fell over the prior month by some 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.16 million, compared with 7.35 million in June (although sales increased 4.7% from July 2004's 6.84 million). Of those sales, existing condominium and cooperative sales dropped by 5% between June and July 2005, from 963,000 units to 915,000.<
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