"..the strongest multifamily markets have been driven by traditional fundamentals. Panelists at the [National Multifamily Council’s Apartment Strategies] conference singled out San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., Denver, Austin, Texas, Seattle, Wash., Dallas, Texas and Houston, Texas as the most currently robust multifamily markets. Combined, these markets have an employment base growing by 2.6 percent, a full percentage point faster than the U.S. rate – a very wide gap. Moreover, these markets also have strong demographic growth, driven in part by the job market, especially in technology and oil, which has attracted in-migration from other states and internationally. The conference consensus was that the current multifamily cycle will outlast prior average cycles given that the multifamily market under-built during the boom in the mid-2000s, but still had large declines during the bust.