Jay Parsons, Deputy Chief Economist with RealPage, joins Michael to discuss the multifamily market, including vacancy rates, rent growth, and more. He comments how in the face of impending doom the multifamily keeps on chugging along. Occupancy is at a healthy 94.4% overall, up 40 basis point year over year. Rent growth has accelerated, with 3.3% year over year growth as of the fourth quarter, particularly impressive given the number of newly completed units. He believes the demand strength is driven by a solid jobs story and continued demographic tailwinds. He discusses single family homes being built as rentals, and an interesting study that shows that demand for single family rentals comes not at the expense of multifamily rentals but instead at the expense of single family sales. He notes that condos seem to “not being built anywhere outside of South Florida.” Finally, he notes that he sees the landscape for multifamily investors has changed from that of a “rising tide lifting all boats” to one that is more strategic, requiring investors to be in the right markets to maximize returns, and then further goes on to comment as to where he believes those returns may lie.