Good Time to Buy Apartments?

Great time to buy investment real estate? Depends. For sure in the single family home market, prices are down significantly. Interest rates are also at close to all-time lows. So, yes, very good time to buy. The apartment market is different altogether. Because first time buyer financing is harder to get and also due to many foreclosures making homeowners into tenants, there are far more renters in the marketplace than normally would be. Therefore, rental rates are up and vacancies are down. Most apartment owners are happy and not very motivated to sell. Read: no good deals here. The one opportunity I see is in the duplex – fourplex market. Here there has been financial trouble because of the loose financing that occurred. Compare this to the financing of apartment buildings above 4 units which has always been very conservative. There are short sales and bank owned foreclosures to be had in the duplex – fourplex market. And with rents up… yes, good time to buy.

4plex Cap Rate Same Same Comparison

I just ran an analysis on a 4plex which traded hands in 2006 for $950,000 and now my investor bought it two months ago as a short sale for $700,000. The GRM went from 16.5 to 12.2. The Cap Rate was 3.5% and now is 5.2%. Yes, definitely better numbers. Even better is the cash flow after financing because interest rates dropped approximately 100 basis points.