Some possible directions for research on multifamily housing

Abstract

The combination of a growing demand for information and a literature that has not emphasized multifamily housing has produced an information gap in multifamily housing research. This article seeks to shed light on the areas in which the information gap is widest and to put forth a research agenda for the study of multifamily housing. The article starts from a definition of multifamily housing that includes all rental housing in structures with five or more units, and it goes on to develop a more precise definition. Next the various components of the market for multifamily housing are discussed. These include the demand and supply of multifamily housing and its sources of financing. The discussion examines each of these components with an eye toward identifying questions and issues in need of further study. Data needed for further research are the subject of the sixth section. The final section highlights questions of particular interest to public policy makers.

Because of the lack of information about multifamily properties, the list of possible research questions is long. A better understanding is needed of how multifamily housing markets operate—for example, what factors influence the supply of multifamily housing and how it is financed. There is also a need to examine specific public policy issues, including the impact of tax policy on residential rents, ways of detecting financial distress in federally insured multifamily properties, and the performance of nonprofit organizations in delivering and maintaining affordable multifamily housing. Recently released data from the 1991 Survey of Residential Finance, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's planned 1995 Landlord Survey, and the newly founded Multifamily Housing Institute could play key roles in studying these questions.