COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE'S ECONOMIC ADVISORS

Absent some sort of emergency policy adjustment in reaction to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Wednesday’s CPI report all but guarantees that there will be no change in rate policy at the FOMC’s upcoming March meeting.

Ongoing racial disparities in income and wealth, and their tendency to endure across a person’s lifecycle, result in similar racial gaps in retirement security.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines the latest Trepp CMBS delinquency data, RealPage’s February apartment market update, and the February jobs report, along with the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

A data-driven look at how utility costs as a share of rent have changed for multifamily renters since 2000, based on American Community Survey microdata.

A data-driven look at one-year home price growth across the NYC housing market, showing Manhattan lagging while Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island post broad gains, based on Zillow data through January 2026.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines the latest S&P Cotality Case-Shiller home price data, highlighting continued moderation in national price growth, alongside February’s Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report, which shows ongoing stabilization in rent collections among independently operated properties, and the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

Released annually, the report is a snapshot of the intersection of racial disparities in US housing and inequities in other socioeconomic dimensions, such as education, geography, income, and evolving economic conditions.

February 2026 data from the Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report show on-time rent payments rebounding to 83.7%, with late-payment pressure easing and full-payment rates reaching their strongest level since late summer 2025. While year-over-year collections remain below prior levels, the trend continues to point toward stabilization in the mom-and-pop rental market.

National multifamily rents rose 1.4% year over year in January 2026 as rent growth continued to moderate. Metro-level performance remains uneven across markets.