UNITED STATES - Pramerica Real Estate Investors is predicting the apartment market will be the most affected of all major property types by the recent changes in the residential housing and credit markets.
Details of Pramerica's US Quarterly Market Perspective for October 2007 reveal many of the US apartment markets are now hurting as a result of the condo conversion bust and an over-supply in the marketplace.
Philip Conner, principal in research at PREI, said "there are some apartment markets where there wasn't a limit put on how many units could be developed or converted to condo use, such as are Florida, Southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix" and these regions of the US now such have an abundance of apartment complexes on the market either for sale or rental it may hit future rental rates and pricing .
This situation could be offset somewhat because there will be more people looking to rent now fewer people are now interested in buying homes.
That said, there are some apartment markets in the country that have remained very strong, namely Northern California, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York City, Dallas, Houston, Austin and Denver.
Retail property is another market which has seen its performance affected in the first six months of the year as less disposable income has hurt how retail assets - a trend which is likely to continue over the coming months as economic conditions mean consumers have less money to spend. More specifically, there are now high gas prices and lower consumer confidence with the difficulties of the single-family home market.
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