Jared Husmann is a young broker at Keller Williams Commercial who, like a lot of youngsters in the business, collects a lot of data. At least one oldish reporter at the Business Record (there aren’t many) is impressed by all that data. Here is Hussman’s take on the data he has collected about multifamily sales in the third quarter.

Husmann found that capitalization rates dropped 60 basis points from the second quarter to 7.37 percent, based on seven transactions for a total of 239 apartment units that sold at an average price of $76,757. 

“The reason for the increased price per unit as well as the lower CAP rate is due to the interest by out-of-state investors in our market,” he wrote in the Multifamily Quarterly newsletter. “Additionally, newly constructed units are beginning to be sold/listed as the developers of these units test the appetites of these same out-of-state investors.”

For the fourth quarter, he predicts that cap rates will remain steady as sales volume slows and occupancies increase.

Meanwhile, RealPage, a company that provides property management software, has taken note of a slowdown in apartment construction in Greater Des Moines.

According to the RealPage report, at midyear Des Moines ranked first in the Midwest in annual net inventory growth and fifth in the nation.

Over the last year, construction volumes dropped nearly 63 percent, with rents declining in three of the last five quarters for Class A and C units; rents increased at 1 percent or less for Class B apartments.

As supply has subsided, performance has improved, with overall increases of 2 percent and occupancy at 94.3 percent since midyear.