Author: Brad Beckett

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 79.4% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by October 6th, 2020.  This figure is the same share who paid rent through October 6, 2019 and compares to 76.4% that paid by September 6th, 2020.  The  data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 11.4 million professionally managed apartment units across the country. “Our initial findings for October show that despite ongoing efforts by apartment community owners and operators to help residents facing financial distress through creative and nuanced payment plans, rent relief and other…

The Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says lower taxes are among the reasons why wealthy buyers from high-tax states like California & New York are buying homes in Puerto Rico where luxury developers are reporting that business is brisk.  According to the WSJ, sales of Puerto Rican luxury houses and condominiums have been spiking during the Coronavirus pandemic with developers reporting increasing sales volume & prices compared with 2019.  Of course it might also help that Puerto Rico doesn’t only has an income tax but doesn’t have any federal or local income taxes (for qualified residents). “As awful as…

According to data from ATTOM Data’s most recent U.S. Home Sales Report, homeowners who sold in Q2 had owned their homes an average of 7.95 years, slightly up from Q1 and nearly the same as the peak of 7.96 years back in Q4 2019.  ATTOM says that metros with the longest average homeownership tenures were along the east and west coasts.  Interestingly, while the report showed that 55% of metros saw declines in average homeownership tenure from Q1 to Q2, there were areas with significant increases. Click here to read the full report at ATTOMdata.com.

Redfin is reporting that the median home sale price increased 14% year over year to $319,769, which they say is not only the highest on record but the largest increase since August, 2013.  Their data is based on housing markets in 434 U.S. metro areas during a 4-week period that ended on September 27th.  Indeed… Among their key findings: Pending home sales climbed 30% year over year. New listings of homes for sale were up 5% from a year earlier. Active listings fell 28% from 2019 to a new all-time low. 45.8% of homes that went under contract had an…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in October was $1,111 with two-bedroom units coming in at $1359.  However, despite the slight increases ABODO says the Coronavirus pandemic has brought economic disaster to many small businesses.  Indeed… “Rents aren’t going up because landlords are reticent to raise rents because of the pandemic. People still need a place to live and evictions have been dampened by federal and local regulations and laws. Even if tenants aren’t currently paying, landlords may not be able to evict, and therefore there is not any rent…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for October, 2020 showing that their median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,231 (down 0.1%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,489 (down 0.1%).   Year to date, one-bedrooms were up 0.6% and two-bedroom rent were up 0.7%.  Zumper says expensive cities continued to decrease in rental prices, with yearly drops largely led by the nation’s seven most expensive cities: San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.  Indeed… “Decreases in these cities and other expensive markets contributed to the continued trend of historically expensive…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in August was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,412.8 billion, which is 1.4% above than July’s revised estimate.  In addition, August’s figure was 2.5% higher than August, 2019.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $589.4 billion in August, which is 3.7% higher than July’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

National Fire Prevention Week runs October 4-10th, 2020 and one of the best ways to celebrate is to check all your properties’ smoke alarms for functionality and age.  If you have one that’s over than 10 years old, that means it’s time to replace it!  And when you do, National REIA recommends both ionization and photoelectric technologies be used in all your properties.  You should also have a working & tested carbon monoxide detector and fire extinguisher in each unit as well.  In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure…as well as saving lives!  As…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that pending home sales jumped 8.8% in August – marking four consecutive months of increases!  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) rose to 132.8 with every major region experiencing an increase in month-over-month contract activity.  In addition, they reported that year-over-year contract signings were up 24.2%. “While I did very much expect the housing sector to be stable during the pandemic-induced economic shutdowns, I am pleasantly surprised to see the industry bounce back so strongly and so quickly.”  Said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. Click here…

What is the median household income in every state?  That’s an important question for investors seeking new markets or tracking current ones.  The U.S. Census Bureau recently put together an interactive map (using the most recent data available) where you can drill down into more information about household income.  Just click on the map below to make it interactive. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.