Author: Brad Beckett

Zillow says that after experiencing a mid-march decline in searches as the pandemic rolled into full effect, they are now reporting renewed interest in home searching as they say Americans have adapted to a temporary normal.   Interestingly, not only did the number of home searches see an uptick in April, they were actually higher than one year ago.  Indeed… “These are encouraging signals and time will tell if this interest will turn into more offers to buy and transactions.  The coronavirus pandemic has already cost an unprecedented number of people their jobs, which will force many to put plans for…

The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates in Q1 2020 were 6.6% for rental housing and 1.1% for homeowner housing.  The national homeownership rate for Q1 2020 was 65.3%.  In addition, approximately 88.6% of the housing units in the United States in Q1 were occupied and 11.4% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 57.9% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 30.7% of the inventory.  Data for the second quarter will be released in July. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

The oil market has been making big news recently at demand for gasoline has dried up as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Oil is one of those closely-watched commodities that, with the slightest move up or down, affects economies around the globe.  As reported by MarketWatch, in mid-April the unthinkable happened with oil futures going into negative territory for the first time ever.  In other words, the supply overwhelmed the demand and producers had to pay to have someone take it off their hands. “…the now-defunct May West Texas Intermediate crude…plunged into negative territory to start the week in…

Black Knight is reporting that mortgage delinquencies saw their first-ever March increase resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic early impact.  In addition, they report that both the national foreclosure and 90-day delinquency rates set new record lows in March – which they say is a lingering reminder of the market’s strength heading into the pandemic. Click here to read the full report at Black Knight.

The U.S. Government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in March, 2020 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 627k,  which is 15.4%  below February’s revised rate, but is 9.5% higher than one year ago.  The median sales price of new houses sold in March was $321,400 and the average sales price was $375,300.  There were an estimated 333k new houses for sale at the end of March representing a 6.4 month supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about landlords and profit margins from their investments.  Today’s infographic from the National Apartment Association rightly calls supposedly large profit margins a “misconception” which is why they chose to explain where $1 of rent really goes.  Indeed……Stay safe & healthy and have and Happy Friday!! “From property taxes that finance schools, emergency services and other local needs, to investor returns that include public pensions and 401(k)s, as well as the dollars put back into the apartment community to ensure quality living for residents, a rent payment is much more important than one…

According to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions for April 2020, apartment market conditions weakened as the industry confronts the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  According to their survey metrics;  Market Tightness (12), Sales Volume (6), Equity Financing (13), and Debt Financing (20) indexes all came in well below the breakeven level (50). “Residents across the country are currently under directives to stay at home and practice social distancing in order to contain the spread of COVID-19. As a result, much of the nation’s economic activity has been put on hold,” noted NMHC Chief Economist Mark…

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced the alignment of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s (the Enterprises) policies regarding servicer obligations to advance scheduled monthly principal and interest payments for single-family mortgage loans.  In other words, once a servicer has advanced four months of missed payments on a loan, it will have no further obligation to advance scheduled payments. This policy applies to all Enterprise servicers regardless of type or size.  In addition, the FHFA is instructing the Enterprises to maintain loans in COVID-19 payment forbearance plans in Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) pools for at least the duration of…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales were down 8.5% in March.  However existing home sales were up 0.8% year-over-year.  Total housing inventory at the end of March was 1.50 million units, up 2.7% from February and down 10.2% from one year ago. Total unsold inventory was at a 3.4-month supply at the current sales pace with properties remaining on the market for around 29 days. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $280,600, up 8% from March, 2019. “Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said…

With the Coronavirus pandemic temporarily (hopefully) altering the way America works, the folks over at RentCafé reminds us that the concept of space has taken on a whole new meaning – especially for apartment dwellers.  They looked at the largest cities across the nation (using Yardi and U.S. Census Bureau data) in terms of apartment space per person.  Next they divided the average apartment size by the average number of persons living in rentals for those cities.  Indeed… “…we’re so used to spending a lot of time outside of our homes that we don’t fully appreciate how nice it is…