Developers are building new houses for rent at an unprecedented rate, aiming to capitalize on the steep home prices and higher mortgage rates that are forcing many Americans to keep renting. In 2023, 93,000 new single-family homes for rent were completed, 39% more rental homes than in 2022, and the most in any year ever.

Walmart has worked to cut costs over the past year in some areas as it gives priority to spending elsewhere. Last month the company said it would shut all 51 of the health clinics it has opened over the past five years as it tried to build a bigger healthcare business.

In Miami, about 38% of the housing stock is condos, the highest of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. Of those buildings, nearly three-quarters are at least 30 years old. For those that have large repairs looming, many owners are scrambling to sell before Jan. 1 when building reserves must be fully funded to be in compliance with the law.

Mortgage rates climbed for most of 2023, at one point reaching nearly 8%—a level not seen in two decades before dropping closer to 6.5%. In 2024, after falling a bit in early March, mortgage rates are now back above 7%.

The downtown Manhattan availability rate—which includes vacancy and space coming on the market in the next 12 months—increased to 21.3% in the first quarter, compared with 10.3% in early 2020. Average asking rents have fallen to about $57 a square foot from more than $65.

As more retail activity goes online with Ecommerce and given the fact that the U.S. is over retailed, mall owners/developers are looking for ways to revitalize and monetize their real estate by adding multifamily to create a mixed-use environment. One of the main drivers of this effort is parking reduction, as developers and retailers have come to the realization that most shopping centers are over parked.

Investors of all sizes spent billions of dollars buying homes during the pandemic. At the 2022 peak, they bought more than one in every four single-family homes sold, though more recently their activity has slowed as interest rates rose and supply became tighter.

The 168.4 million square feet of office space for sublease in the first quarter was down slightly from the fourth-quarter 2023 peak but up almost threefold from early 2019.

Blackstone has agreed to acquire private Apartment Income REIT for about $10 billion and will invest another $400 million to improve these properties. AIR Communities owns 76 upscale rental housing communities that are primarily in coastal markets, including Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston. This acquisition is Blackstone’s largest transaction in the multifamily market.

Due largely to occupancy costs, Dollar General, located mostly in rural areas plans expansion, while the more urban-focused Family Dollar will close hundreds of stores.