Author: Brad Beckett

Landlords take notice;  A prominent Ohio law firm recently obtained a unanimous jury verdict (8-0) to defeat a case of claimed retaliation in response to a tenant’s claimed request for a disability accommodation that was met with a non-renewal of a residential lease.  The Finney Law Firm was defending Abundant Life Faith Fellowship against the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, who was also suing the Church’s pastor.  An excerpt from their posting is below: “The Civil Rights Commission case was full of demonstrable untruths about a kind-hearted 74-year-old African American minister who had suffered two strokes. By the testimony of two…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices rose 1.6% in January, 2022 and were up 18.2% from one year ago.  The FHFA produces the nation’s only public, freely available house price indexes (HPIs) that measure changes in single-family house prices based on data that cover all 50 states and over 400 American cities and extend back to the mid-1970s. “House price trends notched up slightly in January…Rising mortgage rates in January certainly reflect a major change from the past several years, but lending costs remain relatively low. The mortgage rate shift…

The NAHB’s Eye on Housing says first-time home buyers want double sinks and pantries in the kitchen as the most popular of 30 kitchen features listed in the recent What Home Buyers Really Want study.  Topping the chart, 80% of first-time buyers rated a double sink and a walk-in pantry essential or desirable, closely followed by drinking water filtration and table space for eating. “The most popular kitchen features among first-time buyers are very similar to the most popular among home buyers in general.  For example, double sinks and pantries were also the two most popular kitchen features among all…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in February, 2022 was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,704.4 billion, which is 0.5% higher than January’s revised estimate and 11.2% higher than one year ago.  Residential construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $850.6 billion in February, which is 1.1% above January’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

National REIA’s Charles Tassell was a recent guest on the Scott Sloan Show (WLW 700 AM, Cincinnati, Ohio) to discuss the languishing covid impact on housing.  In 2021 emergency rental assistance funds began to slowly trickle out of non-profit agencies.  Many times renters were waiting not just weeks, but months to receive confirmation of a check, let alone the check itself. Low-income housing advocates, always pushing to limit housing providers’ rights, sought to establish a very limited form of affirmative defense. The idea being that, if a renter was behind due to Covid, and their money was in process, the…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their latest monthly National Rent Report showing that their median national rent for 1-bedroom apartments in March, 2022 was $1,400, up 12.2% year-over-year and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,723 up 13.8%, year-over-year.  Be sure to check out their list of the top 100 metro areas. Click here to read the full report at Zumper.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported a 19.2% annual gain for January, 2022, another near record high.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 17.5% and their 20-City Composite posted a 19.1% year-over-year gain. “Last fall we observed that home prices, although continuing to rise quite sharply, had begun to decelerate. Even that modest deceleration was on pause in January. The 19.2% year-over-year change for January was the fourth-largest reading in 35 years of history.”  Said Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI. Click here to read the full report at S&P Dow…

We post a lot about where people are moving to and from – in fact, the ones about U-Haul one-way rentals are always very popular!  Today’s infographic from the  U.S. Census Bureau takes a look at the percentage change in population for all U.S. counties from 2020-21.  In other words, which counties are seeing an influx of residents and which ones are losing them.  As always, stay safe and have a Happy Friday! Hat tip to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Treasury Department said on the $46.6 billion rental assistance program has disbursed/obligated over $30 billion to renters & landlords through the end of February, 2022.  In addition, they report that the “vast majority” of funding  will be exhausted by mid-year.  The Emergency Rental Assistance Program reportedly spent about $1.93 billion spent on rent, utilities and arrears in February alone and aided 462,552 households. Click here to read the full report at Reuters. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, overall state personal income increased 7.4% in 2021 after a 6.6% increase in 2020.  The percent change in personal income across individual states ranged from 9.6% in Idaho to 4.5% in Vermont. Click here to read the full report at the Bureau of Economic Analysis.