Since the mid-2000s, single-family homeownership rates have declined, with an acceleration of this trend starting with the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the summer of 2007. While the homeownership level has stabilised in recent years, it remains subdued by pre-recession standards. Cortland believes several key factors have and will continue to contribute to an increase in demand for multifamily rental property including:

• Favorable trends in the form of an aging millennial population and pent-up demand for housing.
• Growing student debt making homeownership more challenging for many college-educated workers.
• An inaccessible owned-housing market is channeling demand to rental housing.
• With life-stage delays resulting in part from housing cost dynamics, there is a migration to affordability underway, namely to the Sun Belt and suburban areas.
• An aging Baby Boomer population supports rental demand.
• Multifamily fundamentals are attractive, with new highs in occupancies and retention rates.

Cortland believes it is well-positioned to continue thriving in the current market environment. With superior job growth and in-migration in Cortland markets, the firm expects to benefit from continued improvement in demand-side fundamentals. Cortland believes its value-add platform is able to offer the same heavily demanded finishes as products in the “luxury” category but at discounted rents, making Cortland’s communities a prime alternative – especially in an economy of generally stagnant wages and challenging affordability for single family purchases.