Self storage street rates were flat in February as consumer relocation trends and demand revert to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest National Self Storage Report from Yardi Matrix. Growth of the average national street rate for all unit sizes was -2.8 percent year-over-year, unchanged from January. Rates for standard-size 10×10 units fell by 3.1 percent year-over-year for non-climate-controlled (NON CC) units and 4.1 percent for climate-controlled (CC) units. Despite lack of rate growth, the industry is in a comfortable position as the typically busy spring leasing season approaches. “Although fundamentals softened slightly in the fourth quarter owing to normal seasonal patterns and some customers balking at increasing rates, demand is strong and occupancy remains ahead of where it normally is this time of year,” states the report. “We’re seeing good demand from new customers coming into the system,” Public Storage’s chief financial officer, Tom Boyle, said recently. “Move-in volumes through the (winter) are up double digits.” Self storage-foused REITs are forecasting mid-single digit net operating income growth in 2023. Annual street rate growth continued to be negative for most of the top 31 metros in February. Only three of the top 31 Matrix self storage metros had a year-over-year increase in street rates for 10×10 NON CC units, while rates were negative in 25 of the top metros. Learn more about the state of the self storage sector nationwide. Yardi Matrix tracks a total of 4,730 self storage properties nationwide in various stages of development — including 823 under construction, 1,885 planned and 662 prospective properties. Matrix also maintains operational profiles for 29,221 completed self storage facilities across the United States, bringing the total data set to 33,951. Yardi Matrix offers the industry’s most comprehensive market intelligence tool for investment professionals, equity investors, lenders...

Multifamily asking rents remained the same for a second straight month in February, at a national average rate of $1,702, according to the new National Multifamily Report from Yardi Matrix. As the economy continues to adjust in the post-pandemic period, year-over-year growth continued its ongoing decline. It is now 4.8 percent nationally, down 70 basis points from the previous month and its lowest level in nearly two years. Asking rent growth remains positive year-over-year in almost every major metro, but 23 of Matrix’s top 30 metros recorded negative growth over the last three months and 17 were negative in February. “Multifamily rents are playing a waiting game, as rents have essentially leveled over the seasonal winter slowdown,” state Matrix analysts, noting that February has historically recorded minor rent growth gains. “The big question is whether demand and rents pick up as normal in the spring. Demand has come down from 2021 levels, though it remains positive in most markets.” Average U.S. asking rents in the single-family rental market were also flat at $2,071. The year-over-year increase fell by 80 basis points to 3.4 percent, far below the 14.8 percent growth rate a year ago. “Near-term performance will hinge not only on demand-supply dynamics at the local level but affordability and the economy,” the report states. Gain more insights by downloading February’s Multifamily Report. Yardi Matrix offers the industry’s most comprehensive market intelligence tool for investment professionals, equity investors, lenders and property managers who underwrite and manage investments in commercial real estate. Yardi Matrix covers multifamily, student housing, industrial, office and self storage property types. Email [email protected], call (480) 663-1149 or visit yardimatrix.com to learn...

Meet Tunisia Powell, a consultant with residential consulting practices on the RentCafe team in Yardi’s Raleigh office. Greg Smith, vice president of CSD, says Powell “is positive, eager, and fearless, and never backs down from a new challenge.” Powell has been with Yardi off and on for over twelve years. When she decided to return to the company in 2014, one reason was because she missed the Yardi culture. “I believe the Yardi family vibe is in every office, which makes this company a unique and special place to work for,” Powell said. RentCaffeine websites, marketing, ILS, troubleshooting issues, third-party websites, CRM, and Voyager are some of the many projects Powell works to assist Yardi clients with. Her typical day tends to verify, which keeps it interesting with frequent new challenges. “I have several strategic clients with different workflows, ideas, and demanding needs. I have built relationships with these clients, so the first daily task is how to provide each of them with the same amount of time and support,” Powell said. Working from home for the past three years, Powell finds that keeping a list helps her to maintain a healthy work-life balance. “I start my mornings by looking at my scheduled meetings, reading emails, reviewing cases and notes from meetings, and creating a list of prioritized tasks to complete during the day,” Powell shared. Global synergy Powell enjoys the work relationships she has built with Yardi over the years. “I have worked with so many people in different offices around the United States, India, and Australia.” She continued, “To work with people that care speaks volumes.” While working in the Atlanta office, Powell was nicknamed “Tuni,” which even carried over to clients. Her infectious smile and laugh filled the office, and that energy...

It’s no secret that technology use is growing exponentially. Tech solutions are transforming the way various industries operate — including senior living — from EHRs to business intelligence tools. This ties into a recent Ziegler study, which examines 150 senior living organizations to learn how they’re using technology moving into 2023. With input gathered from CFOs, the study shares which solutions these organizations are implementing to meet today’s challenges. Read on for a quick snapshot of the study’s findings: Ziegler study reveals investments in EHRs The study — Ziegler CFO Hotline — gathers survey responses from CFOs across senior living. Ziegler presented various technologies relevant to the industry, and respondents were asked to identify which they’ve invested in over the last 12 months. Interestingly, the responses show a return to priorities of years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the top investments revealed was electronic health records — with 54% of respondents claiming they’ve invested in EHRs in the past year. When asked what they planned to invest in for the next 12 months, 31% of respondents pointed to EHRs as well. It’s no surprise given the major benefits EHRs bring to senior living organizations such as easing staff burden, empowering caregivers, mitigating risk, eliminating manual data-entry and more. Read the Ziegler study to gain further insights. Finding the EHR solution for you We know the world of technology is vast. Senior living organizations are faced with solutions left and right, and it can be challenging to determine how one differs from the next. That’s why we’ve created several resources that delve into our own solution, Yardi EHR, to show what makes it unique. At a glance, Yardi EHR is a full-service electronic health record solution that combines clinical intake processing, assessments, interoperability...

The Yardi Dubai office is full of spirit, energy and fun group activities. Office manager Oksana Goliak coordinates the office to meet up for regular friendly competitive group sporting events. In 2021 they had a virtual climb of Mount Everest and had some skiing action for Ski Dubai. Then in 2022, they started the Yardi Sports League, which included cricket, badminton, football, and volleyball. Here is a look at some of their accomplishments of the past few years. When the pandemic hit and most were on lockdown, Yardi Dubai started to include some virtual team-building activities. In 2021 the Dubai team virtually climbed the highest mountain peak, Mount Everest. Each team member logged their steps into a daily group log with a challenging goal of 230 km in seven days. Cycling activities were excluded. Watch the video here: Next up in 2021 was Ski Dubai. The team gathered at an indoor skiing arena pictured here. Watch their outing here. In 2022, Yardi Dubai started the Yardi Sports League and gathered for cricket, football, volleyball, and badminton throughout the year. Pictured below is the cricket match. Watch the video here: Dubai Sports League: Football. Watch the video here: Dubai Sports League: Volleyball and Badminton. Splitting into two teams, The Black Panthers and White Tigers. The Black Panthers won the badminton trophy, and the White Tigers won the Volleyball...

A new Yardi Matrix Bulletin focuses on the rising cost of commercial property insurance, especially in climate-affected states like Florida and Texas. These increases are a growing problem for commercial property owners and beginning to threaten new development and property sales. Although rates are rising nationwide, the problem is most acute in states that are experiencing frequent extreme weather events like hurricanes, winter freezes and wildfires. Hurricane Ian, for example, resulted in over $50 billion in damages in Florida last September. Weather-related payouts have left some insurers insolvent, while others are avoiding high-risk states. This translates into higher rates and less coverage for property owners. “The rate environment for real estate-specific property is severely challenged, especially in Florida and Texas and along the Gulf Coast,” said Danielle Lombardo, the chair of Lockton Global Real Estate, a New York-based advisory firm. “This has caused a bifurcated market between catastrophe-exposed and non-catastrophe-exposed business, with the highest double-digit increases in properties that have negative risk attributes, such as older frames, a challenged loss history or undervalued assets.” Many reinsurance companies, which property insurers use to move portions of risk off their own balance sheets, are quitting high-risk states, and those that stay are raising rates by 45-100 percent. Lombardo said. “Reinsurers are running away from Florida,” she said. “Something has to be done differently.” Learn more in the new bulletin from Yardi Matrix. Yardi Matrix offers the industry’s most comprehensive market intelligence tool for investment professionals, equity investors, lenders and property managers who underwrite and manage investments in commercial real estate. Yardi Matrix covers multifamily, student housing, industrial, office and self storage property types. Email [email protected], call (480) 663-1149 or visit yardimatrix.com to learn...

From the Yardi Amsterdam office, meet Ralf de Graaf, senior manager for European Yardi services. His primary role is managing services teams during the implementation process and providing ongoing support for the European residential sector. Yardi’s EU product focus includes clients in both the Build to Rent (BTR) and student housing. He has spent over 25 years in finance, working with top financial companies such as Ernst & Young and Deloitte. de Graaf’s experience includes roles in finance management, outsourcing, platform management and operational leadership. With extensive knowledge in finance, de Graaf’s second hat at Yardi is overseeing Yardi’s international standards and compliance efforts. “In this role, I work with a small team based out of our Amsterdam office in close partnership with our programming teams and the various client service teams to help our clients meet local compliance in many European countries. The structured approach we have established towards the topic really helps to respond to rapidly changing laws and regulations across the European continent,” de Graaf said. He also works with the European translation team on initiatives to improve and deliver language capabilities across many products. “With the clear connection of the topic to the value we bring with our consumer-facing products, such as RentCafe in the residential segment, working on this topic is strategic to us,” de Graaf shared. Amsterdam YASC In 2017, de Graaf decided to pursue a career change and talk to key industry contacts. “I visited YASC in Amsterdam. This was a good moment to talk to some of the Yardi people I had the pleasure of working with for a long time, some of them already since 2004 when Deloitte became one of the first clients of Yardi in Europe,” he recalled. That was the start of...

Let’s go to the frozen tundra of Saskatoon, Canada for our latest Team Yardi profile and introduce Nick James, senior analyst in cloud services. Meet Nick James Nick James has been with Yardi since 2010, when he was part of the Point2 acquisition. James is at one of the coldest Yardi offices in Saskatoon, where temperatures can get to the low -40s in the winter. James’ work revolves around keeping malicious emails out of Yardi’s IT system and ensuring that the outbound emails sent from Yardi employees and platforms have the best possible chance of being delivered to the receiver’s inboxes, not to junk folders. Both areas involve hands-on technical work and communication with various teams to develop processes and procedures. “When I am not working on those things, I am working on security awareness initiatives with some other security team members. That includes everything from sending our regular security training to broader initiatives like Cybersecurity Awareness Month activities every October,” said James. Leading-edge betterment James appreciates that Yardi is an organization that cares about employees and clients. “That focus on people is one of the things I love most about working at Yardi.” James continued, “I get to work on things that interest me where I can see a tangible impact. Yardi has also allowed me to grow and learn in my role, so I always feel like I am moving forward.” He wants new hires in Canada and globally to know that Yardi is an employer that cares about employees and has a lot of internal growth and development opportunities. Yardi is hiring globally! Interested prospective employees can explore opportunities on the Careers site. Train displays Beyond hobbies such as video games (Dungeons and Dragons) and reading, James volunteers with a local group...

Fewer Americans are relocating, and that’s led to a period of stabilization, including rate declines and lessened transaction activity, for the self storage industry. Those were among the takeaways from a March 1 Yardi Matrix webinar presented by Jeff Adler, vice president of Yardi Matrix, and Paul Fiorilla, editorial director. You can view the session recording here.  “Storage benefits from the movement of people, and the movement of people has moderated,” Adler stated. Other trends that led to record level demand for the sector in 2021 and the first half of 2022 were many millions of Americans working from home (WFH) for the first time, and the country’s aging population base. “WFH demand has been durable, but we’re not going to see a dramatic increase in it at this point,” Adler said, especially as many companies call workers back to the office at least some of the time. The self storage sector, typically a haven for savvy investors, experienced skittish investors last quarter. Despite recording its second-highest annual sales total in 2022, sales volume dropped sharply to close out 2022. Investment activity is expected to remain light in the near-term due to uncertainty in pricing and yields. Self storage property sales totaled $10.0 billion in 2022, down 18.7 percent from $12.3 billion in 2021 – which was the all-time high. “Despite the decline, sales activity was more than double any year prior to 2021. Institutional investor demand has grown in recent years, owing to the sector’s high returns relative to other property segments over the last two decades, recent strong fundamentals performance, and the prospects for growth,” says the latest Matrix Self Storage Transaction Bulletin. “This is a great sector. There’s really no question about the sector performance being poor. It’s been really good. It...

“In the midst of a growing drug overdose crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians’ use of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) technology is critical to improving opioid prescribing practices, informing treatment decisions and supporting safe and effective patient care. Recent efforts, such as mandating use of EPCS technology and integrating PDMPs into electronic health record (EHR) systems, aim to improve prescribing practices.” That information comes from a recent post by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), which covers the importance of EPCS technology and PDMPs in today’s world. With relevance to the senior living industry, we’re highlighting the article’s key points and sharing how our EHR solution fits into the picture. Tracking the progress of PDMPs and EPCS technology Health care providers have historically relied on paper-based processes to prescribe controlled substances. But as shared by the ONC, we’ve made a lot of progress in shifting toward electronic prescribing in recent years. Reports show substantial growth in the use of EPCS systems due to DEA regulations — and state-mandated EPCS laws — with 71% of physician prescribers having used EPCS technology in 2021. Looking at PDMPs, there’s been a significant increase in usage as well. The article relays that one-third of prescribers now access a PDMP through their EHR system, compared to one-fifth in 2019. What are the benefits? So what are the benefits of electronic prescribing workflows? You can read the full article for all the insights, but in summary, the benefits of using EPCS technology and PDMPs is promising. Not only do these digital systems prevent data-entry errors, which in turn enhances resident safety, they also save time, streamline workflows and more. The largest benefit may be how they reduce...

Electric vehicles – and their charging apparatuses – are a hot topic. With electric vehicles accounting for only about 6% of U.S. new car sales in 2022, the country is one of the world’s largest markets for EVs. The federal government has set a goal of 500,000 EV charging stations at apartment buildings, public parking lots, roadways and other locations by 2030, up from 133,000 in 2020. At that point half of all road vehicles could be electric, if the government’s target is met. Owners of EVs, which use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, spend 60% less each year on fuel costs compared to drivers of gas-powered cars, according to a Consumer Reports study in 2020. The federal government, most states and the District of Columbia offer tax credits and other incentives to install charging stations. California, for example, has provided $1.2 billion to build the infrastructure for EVs across the state. The state will also adopt regulations requiring EV charging station installation in the parking facilities of buildings, including hotels, multifamily buildings and nonresidential development, by 2025. Other states, including Arkansas and Florida, offer rebates for EV charging station installation and EV purchases. Approaching essential status One outgrowth of these and other trends is that EV charging stations are evolving into an essential asset for property managers. By installing EV charging stations, retail business, offices and workplace property managers gain opportunities to attract customers and tenants by demonstrating “their commitment to new technology and innovation,” says industry resource Property Manager Insider. “For multifamily and commercial properties, … the availability of reliable EV chargers is not just a nice-to-have, but a vital factor for retaining and attracting residents and tenants,” adds CleanTechnica, a clean energy news source. Key steps that property managers can take to stay...

Love was in the air across senior living communities this Valentine’s Day, including the communities of our amazing clients! So if you’re a fan of heartwarming stories, you’re in the right place. We hope you’ll take a moment to see how these communities made this love-filled day special. Valentine’s Day in senior living We’re loving how our senior living clients celebrated Valentine’s Day this year, whether they organized festive activities or celebrated resident lovebirds. From blogs to social media posts highlighting charming moments, we’re happy to be resharing it all:  Pacifica Senior Living put together a blog post sharing how their communities celebrated Valentine’s Day — and they spotlighted the relationships their residents cherish. Take Joyce and Joanne from their Laguna Hills community, two sisters who have maintained a loving relationship since their early days. From attending nursing school together to now residing in the same Pacifica apartment, these two lovely ladies enjoy spending quality time together each day. Read the Pacifica post to learn about Joyce and Joanne, plus see more Valentine’s stories featuring Pacifica residents. At Maplewood Senior Living, one resident couple brought the Valentine’s Day spirit by reflecting on their lifetime of love. Residing in Maplewood at Princeton, residents Vicki and Marty have been together “forever” (as quoted by Vicki in Maplewood’s blog post). The post delves into their journey individually and as a couple — sharing everything that led them through decades of love. Read Maplewood’s post for all the feels, and to see then-and-now photos of Vicki and Marty.   Continuing with the theme of long-lasting love, check out this video featuring Benchmark Senior Living residents. As shared on Benchmark’s LinkedIn, the video shows how residents Dave and Pauline celebrated 25 years together by renewing their vows. The two...

Yolanda Poulson is an account manager on the RentCafe implementation team in the Yardi Raleigh, North Carolina office. Poulson has been working at Yardi since 2016. Prior to joining Yardi, she worked as a project manager for a Yardi client for 11 years. Training clients on how to use and support their newly implemented RentCafe platform is critical during the implementation. “As an account manager, I can build relationships with our clients and assist them with setting up their projects. In addition, I enjoy getting to know each of my clients and forming a bond that reassures them of being in great hands,” Poulson said. All hands on deck Going above and beyond, Poulson services Yardi clients and assists colleagues in other departments, such as onboarding new employees, which has opened new challenges for her. “These transitions have allowed me to learn new products and enhance my knowledge base, my knowledge of Yardi products, and my network across the company,” Poulson shared. Poulson is also a part of the Yardi Cares committee in the Raleigh office. The team finds outreach opportunities for the Yardi staff to participate in throughout the Triangle region. The saying “there is no I in TEAM” is a motto Poulson holds dearly and admires most about the team she works with. Collaboration and flexibility are two key components she enjoys the most about her work. “My advice to all new hires is to be a sponge and soak up all the knowledge around you and ask questions. Do not be afraid to submerge yourself into your work and research issues using the tools provided. Remember always to trust the process and your leadership team to have your best interest at heart,” Poulson said. Yardi is hiring globally! Interested prospective employees...