2019 Economic Outlook and How it Will Impact Commercial Real Estate and Student Housing

Austin, Texas — What is the economic outlook for the year, and what does that mean for the student housing industry? Hessam Nadji, president and CEO of Marcus & Millichap/Institutional Property Advisors, answered just that in the keynote speech which kicked off the InterFace Student Housing Conference in Austin earlier this month.

Nadji began by laying out the basics on where we are today economically in comparison to before and during The Great Recession. “We’ve added 21 million jobs since the bottom of The Great Recession, and that has caused a 120 basis point reduction in the unemployment rate at a time when inflation is 200 basis points below where we were in 2007,” he says. “That is the crux of why everything in our industry as a whole — commercial real estate, and student housing in particular — has done so well. The combination of really good growth with very little inflation, and therefore low interest rates.”