Commercial/Multifamily Briefs, August 25, 2022

News in brief from Avison Young, Madison Marquette, Merritt Community Capital and Zillow.

Avison Young To Acquire some Madison Marquette Service Lines
Avison Young, Toronto, agreed to acquire Washington, D.C.-based Madison Marquette’s office and industrial property management, agency leasing and project management service lines.

The firms expect the deal to close in September.

The acquisition includes more than 20 million square feet of affected real estate and 235 team members including property managers, agency leasing professionals, project managers, building engineers and accountants. The Madison Marquette staffers will integrate with Avison Young’s existing markets, primarily in Texas, California, the East Coast and a new Hawaii office.

“This is a transformative opportunity for both companies to build on their core strengths to achieve competitive advantage,” says Vince Costantini, CEO of Madison Marquette. “We made the strategic choice to move a portion of our services to Avison Young to better serve our office clients, and [we] look forward to a new partnership with the firm with respect to its industry-leading data analytics platform, AVANT by Avison Young.”

Merritt Closes Fund 23 at $179M, Its Largest Fund To Date

Merritt Community Capital, Oakland, Calif., closed Fund 23 this month, the largest fund in the organization’s history at $178.6 million. Fund 23 currently finances nine projects, creating 729 affordable homes across California. 

Fund 23 has 13 investors including six new or reengaged investors and four returning investors making their largest single investments to date. 

Merritt has raised over $430 million since 2019 and created over 1,800 homes for 4,500 people in California. 

Merritt prioritizes partnerships with mission-aligned housing developers to create and preserve affordable homes for underserved populations. Of the 729 homes funded by Fund 23, 31% are set aside for seniors, 27% for people with special needs, and 5% for farmworkers. As Merritt strives to improve the lives of low-income individuals and families, 30% of the homes financed by Fund 23 are for extremely low-income residents, households earning at or below 30% of the average median income (AMI) and another 50% of the homes are for very low-income residents, people earning 31 to 50% at of AMI.  Fund 23 projects are projected to save $5.67 million in rent per year, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,339 metric tons, and reduce vehicle miles traveled per year by 2.7 million miles.

Zillow: Renters Can Save Using New Search Tool

Zillow, Seattle, said renters can save thousands using its new search tool to better time their move

Renters can now search Zillow rental listings by move-in date, potentially saving them thousands of dollars in today’s ultracompetitive market, the firm said this week.

The new filter, available now on desktop and coming soon to the Zillow app, can better align the end of a lease with the start of a new one, eliminating the dreaded “double rent” scenario just as typical U.S. rents have crossed the $2,000 threshold for the first time.

In addition to potentially saving thousands of dollars by using the move-in date filter, renters can also save time by utilizing Zillow Renter Hub, now available on the Zillow app. Renters can easily see which properties they’ve contacted and applied to, respond to messages from prospective landlords, and manage their current lease and rent payment schedule — all from the Zillow app. According to Zillow’s 2022 Consumer Housing Trends Report, a majority (60%) of recent renters said they used an app on a smartphone or tablet to search for a rental. Now, instead of users having to dig through their inbox and toggle to and from the Zillow app for updates on their rental search, Renter Hub keeps contacted rentals, messages with prospective landlords and all of the up-to-date details on their current home organized in one place, right at their fingertips.

These Zillow app updates are vital in a market where demand for rentals is growing rapidly. Many prospective home buyers are opting to stay in the rentals market as the cost of buying continues to rise. Monthly payments on a typical mortgage are more than 75% higher than they were in June 2019.