Author: Brad Beckett

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 77% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by June 6th, 2021.  This figure is 3.8% lower than those who paid rent through June 6, 2020.  The data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 11.7 million professionally managed apartment units across the country – representing a wide variety of market-rate rental properties that can vary by size, type and average rental price. Click here to read the full report at the NMHC.

According to Arbor’s Q1 2021 Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report, if there were three real estate headlines to come out of the pandemic, they would focus on work-from-home trends, online retailing and single-family rentals (SFRs).  Adding to that, they say that by the end of the year SFRs may be the only one of the three to avoid some post-pandemic reversion. In fact, Arbor goes on to to say that SFRs are now increasingly filling the role that starter homes had for previous generations and professional residential operators are quickly racing into the sector.  Indeed… In major metropolitan areas, activity…

According to ATTOM Data’s latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, zombie foreclosures represent only one of every 12,256 homes in Q2, 2021, which they say are just a minuscule portion of the nation’s 99 million residential properties. The report says 223,671 properties were in the process of foreclosure in Q2 of this year, up 27.5% from first quarter but still down 13.3% from the second quarter of 2020.   In addition, the number of Zombie homes sitting empty (8,078 in Q2) was up quarterly by 21%, and annually by 5.6%. “The latest numbers show a spike in zombie properties…

Realpage.com says that while there is lots of talk about inflation there is some good news – the incomes of apartment renters are rising.  They report that median household incomes for market-rate renters signing new leases jumped to a record high of $64,656 in April 2021 – which is up 5.5% from two years ago.  The data was taken from apartment renter applications from those signing leases each month. Their figures exclude government stimulus money and only includes income from recurring sources. “This is yet another reminder (of many) that market-rate apartment affordability is a non-issue at a macro scale…

Recent data from the NAR’s Economist Outlook say that the share of all-cash sales to existing-home sales surged to 25% in April, 2021 as non-first-time buyers are paying all cash to increase the competitiveness of their offers, edging out first-time buyers.  The data comes from the most-recent Realtors Confidence Index Survey and shows a significant increase from one year ago (15%) and 2019 (20%). According to one REALTOR who offered a comment in the April 2021 survey “Buyers are losing to cash buyers and VA & FHA buyers are hurting.” Another REALTOR said “there is an unprecedented (number of )…

Rentable says that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in June was $1,146 (up 1.34%) with two-bedroom units coming in at $1404 (up 1.23%).  Be sure to check out their full data set of U.S. cities. Click here to read the full report at Rentable.

The Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says several big cities are pursuing legislation to phase out natural gas for home cooking & heating, citing concerns over global-warming and climate change.  According to the report, some states are pushing back against these bans by outlawing such municipal prohibitions (preemption) because they are overly restrictive and costly.  The first such ban was passed by (as you might expect) by Berkeley, California in 2019. “Arizona last year became the first state to pass preemptive legislation barring municipalities from banning new gas hookups. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce helped lead a coalition of…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in April was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,524.2 billion, which is 0.2% above March’s revised estimate.  In addition, April’s figure was 9.8% higher than one year ago.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $729.2 billion in march, which is 1% higher than March’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Visual Capitalist says data shows we consume more media than at any point in time over the last decade.  Today’s infographic reminds us that the way in which we consume media has dramatically shifted toward the online world, versus TV and radio which are trending downward….Indeed….Have a Happy Friday!!! “Disparities in media consumption have a generational aspect that’s worth noting, as well. For instance, older Americans like Baby Boomers still consume media routinely through television. On the other hand, younger cohorts like Millennials and Gen Z tend to consume more through mobile.” Hat tip to the Visual Capitalist.

If you enjoyed watching the hit Netflix show “Schitt’s Creek” here is the listing for you.  According to the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) the 80-acre town of Nipton, California is up for sale.  The town, located on the on the California side of the Mojave Desert, is about an hour away from Las Vegas and is on the market for $2.75 million.  The WSJ says Nipton has seen a variety of prospective buyers, including a group of believers in the existence of a ninth planet who thought it would make a good place to hide out when the…