Apartment landlords around America are going into default on their mortgages at decade-high rates, suggesting that the Commercial Real Estate Crash is going to get even worse in 2024.
With data from Freddie Mac reporting that the serious delinquency rate on multifamily mortgages have quadrupled over the last year. With many real estate owners and developers in markets like Florida, Texas, and California now going into default. And could soon be foreclosed on.
The reason that these multifamily investors are having issues is because a combination of three headwinds is hitting at the same times: 1) higher vacancy rates, 2) lower rents, and 3) skyrocketing mortgage interest payments. The cocktail of these trends has caused the profitability of multifamily investing to plummet over the last year.
The investors that are in the biggest trouble are those who bought into the housing market at the peak of the bubble in 2021-2022. These investors have experienced declining revenues since then and bought at a sky-high price that leaves them potentially underwater on their mortgage.