WASHINGTON – March 18, 2013 – Approximately 20 percent of American households live in multi-family rental buildings, yet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Census Bureau’s just-released study is one of the first to look at data on those properties, including how they’re financed, their characteristics, values and other data.

“It’s critically important we broaden our understanding of how these developments are bought and paid for,” says Erika Poethig, HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development. “The Rental Housing Finance Survey fills an important gap in our understanding of who owns multifamily rental housing – mostly individuals, not large companies – and how multifamily rental housing is financed, especially as the structure of finance is changing.”

In addition to ownership, Poethig says the survey can also help predict problems in the multi-family industry. “In light of recent changes in the availability of capital for rental housing, the Rental Housing Finance Survey also provides important insight about the financial health and stability of multifamily housing properties,” she says.

HUD says the survey will play an important role in helping the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) fulfill its requirement to set affordable housing goals for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and develop standards for underwriting multifamily mortgages.

The 2012 Rental Housing Finance Survey was conducted in the winter and early spring of 2012 by the Census Bureau and includes information from detailed interviews of a nationally representative sample of 2,264 properties.

Major survey findings

• U.S. number of multi-family properties: 2.3 million
• 73 percent are one building; 4 percent have 20 or more buildings on the property. In multifamily rental properties with 50 or more units, 45 percent have 20 or more buildings
• 77 percent provide parking
• 19 percent contain buildings built prior to 1920
• 67 percent are owned by households or individuals
• 70 percent are managed day-to-day by the owner or an unpaid agent, such as a family member
• 54 percent of two- to four-unit multifamily rental properties have a mortgage, compared to 85 percent of properties with over 50 units
• 73 percent were acquired by their owners prior to 2005
• 87 percent of multifamily properties owners reported making repairs to their housing units; the median cost of repairs was $699 per housing unit in 2011
• 69 percent of all multifamily rental property owners reported making capital improvements to their properties in 2010 or 2011; then median cost of capital repairs was $1,167 per housing unit

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