Author: Brad Beckett

We have been closely watching the rent control issue for quite a while and have some good news to report from last Tuesday’s election.  For the second time in two years voters in California have said no to expanding rent control.   Proposition 21 would have allowed local governments to put rent control in place for many types of housing, including single family homes and condominiums.  The LA Times says Prop 21’s failure means that “landlord groups have convinced voters that stricter limits on rent hikes are not a solution to California’s housing affordability problems.”  In addition they point out that…

The Business Insider says some apartment owners have been able to collect rents as usual, despite the pandemic, shaky economy, and rising unemployment.  Other owners have been working with tenants who can’t pay their rent.  In light of last September, when the CDC issued a moratorium for nationwide residential evictions until December 31st with several states & cities even having their own eviction moratoriums.  In their recent report, BI spoke with several rental property experts, including National REIA’s Charles Tassell about current market conditions and where the industry may be heading. “Owning rental property these days is a “mixed bag,”…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in November was $1,113 with two-bedroom units coming in at $1357.  However, despite the slight increases ABODO says these are both insignificant moves and this trend verifies their claim (that they’ve made for many months) that 2020 rent prices are just not moving.  Indeed… “With COVID-19 still raging across the globe, new lockdowns are being seen in Europe. Whether the U.S. will avoid this plight is unknown, but with the pandemic dominating the news, stimulus plans on hold, oil prices taking another hit and…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices were up 1.5% in August and were up 8% 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.  The FHFA’s HPIs are built on tens of millions of home sales and offer insights about home price fluctuations at the levels of the nation, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in September was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,414 billion, which is 0.3% above than August’s revised estimate.  In addition, August’s figure was 1.5% higher than September, 2019.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $610.9 billion in September, which is 2.8% higher than August’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for November, 2020 showing that their median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,225 (down 0.5%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,483 (down 0.4%).   Year to date, rent for one-bedrooms was flat while two-bedroom rent was up 0.3%.  Zumper says 13 out of 100 cities tracked in their report had record-breaking yearly decreases in 1-bedroom median rent last month.  Indeed… “While decreases in large rental markets have not stopped, there is some indication the decreases have slowed. However, decreases will likely continue in some markets and there will likely…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that pending home sales dipped 2.2% in September, 2020.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) fell slightly to 130 with only one  major region experiencing an increase in month-over-month contract activity.  In addition, they reported that year-over-year contract signings were still, however, up 20.5%, year-over-year. “The demand for home buying remains super strong, even with a slight monthly pullback in September, and we’re still likely to end the year with more homes sold overall in 2020 than in 2019,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. Click…

Halloween is finally upon us (although many of us are still unsure about the kids’ trick-or-treating) and we’re talking zombies!  According to ATTOM Data’s latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, nearly 1.6 million residential properties in the U.S. (1.6% of all homes) are vacant with the portion of preforeclosure properties that have been abandoned into “zombie status” creeping up slightly to 3.8% in Q3.  Today’s infographic spells out the top 5 states with zombie foreclosurs……Stay safe, have a Happy Friday and a Zombie-free Halloween!!! Hat tip to ATTOM Data Solutions.

STORAGECafé says that self storage has seen tremendous growth in recent times, fueled by strong demand.  In fact, developers have been building facilities in every corner of the US in an effort to respond to this increasing demand for extra space.  A new report features a recently commissioned a survey that explores exactly who is driving this expansion and what exactly are they looking for. Some key takeaways: 33% of all respondents currently rent or have rented self storage in the past, and 11% of those who never rented said they intend to do so in the future. 37% said…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, the rate of home price increases reported a 5.7% annual gain in August, 2020.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 4.7% and the 20-City Composite posted a 5.2% year-over-year gain.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate both nationally as well as in 20 metropolitan regions. “Housing prices were strong in August,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index…