Author: Brad Beckett

It might be easy to forget during the pandemic that there is a still a census being conducted by the federal government.  As you may recall from high school civics, the U.S. Constitution mandates that a census be conducted every 10 years in order to count our nation’s population.  Today’s infographic from the National Association of Realtors reminds us these numbers help provide valuable resources communities as well as redistricting & reapportionment of Congress and housing policies from HUD.  In other words, there’s a lot riding on getting accurate numbers, so please do your part and answer accordingly.  Stay safe…

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 69% of households paid their rent by April 5th.  This figure is 12 points less than the percentage that paid by March 5th and 13 points less than one year ago.  The  data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 13.4 million units across the country. “The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in significant health and financial challenges for apartment residents and multifamily owners, operators and employees in communities across the country,” said Doug Bibby, President of NMHC. “However, it is important to note that a large number of…

For the first time in a long time (pre-internet, even), the number of young people aged 25-34 heading households has increased.  The NAHB’s Eye on Housing recently crunched the numbers to show this trend’s reversal. They call it a “hopeful indicator” that may have reversed the recent trend of young people living with their parents, relatives and roommates.  Indeed… “The 2018 uptick in headship rates is largely due to the declining share of young adults living with relatives (0.2 percentage point decline) and sharing housing with roommates, housemates and other nonrelatives (another 0.2 percentage point decline). Nevertheless, the current share…

It’s an unfortunate sign of the times during our current national emergency;  Tourists are being turned back from the Florida Keys and even the Outer Banks of North Carolina has road blocks in place doing the same.  A recent story in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) reports that authorities in resort towns are taking extraordinary measures to protect their permanent residents from the Coronavirus, which has sometimes been at odds with property-owners seeking shelter from the pandemic.  As an example, the WSJ says in Cape Cod, Massachusetts over 12k residents recently signed a petition asking authorities to turn…

What will be the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the housing & mortgage industries?  That’s the topic of a new “white paper” from Black Knight that does an early comprehensive evaluation of the current state of the market, the pandemic’s potential impacts, and explores the solutions and technologies that have the ability to mitigate negative effects.  This paper will be, undoubtedly, one of many that will explore this very subject for some time.  Indeed…. “The physical effects of social distancing could have an outsized impact on home sales. Curtailment of open houses and showings will likely have an immediate…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, the average U.S. rent in March was $1,474 (up $6), however they warn that major impacts from the spread of the Cornonavirus will start showing up in April.  That being said, Yardi says rents increased 2.9% in March on a year-over-year basis, as rent growth cooled somewhat from the first two months of 2020.  But they emphasize that we’ve clearly entered a period of turmoil: “As unemployment claims eclipse records and government stimulus reaches unseen heights, the question arises: Who will be able to pay rent in the coming months?” “Both private and public…

With the Coronavirus pandemic having America firmly in its grasp, a recent article on Realtor.com says the economy appears to be headed for a recession, if it’s not already in one.  To that end, they crunched the numbers to identify those U.S. counties that could be most at risk in our worsening financial crisis.  To come up with their list, they looked at counties with the highest percentage of workers in industries most likely to be affected by the crisis.  Citing Census data from the 2017 County Business Patterns, they looked at workers in: tourism, hospitality, retail, personal fitness, restaurant,…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for April, 2020 showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,221 (up 0.2%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,471 (down 0.6%).   Year to date, one-bedroom prices are up 0.4% and two-bedroom prices are up 1.1%.  Interestingly they have an optimistic view for the long-term, once our national crisis has receded.  Indeed… “Though renters have hit a pause on their moves right now, as no one is going to open houses, we have an optimistic view for the long-term as the rental market will not be impacted…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in February was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,366.7 billion, which is 1.3% below January’s revised estimate.  However, February’s figure was 6% higher than February, 2019.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $564.3.8 billion in February, which is 0.6% below January’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

In late March, the U.S. Congress passed and President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus relief bill known as the CARES Act.  This historically massive piece of legislation will pump $2 trillion of money into the U.S. economy in order to help mitigate the damage being done by the Coronavirus pandemic.  The folks over at howmuch.net recently put together a simple chart outlining where this money is going and how it will help America.  Stay tuned, stay safe and as always, have a Happy Friday!! Hat tip to howmuch.net.