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In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending February 5th, 2022... the growth of construction spending for single-family homes, worries over rising mortgage rates, and the futuristic auction of a Tampa Bay home. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week, and good news about the job market. The government says that U.S. companies added 467,000 jobs in January. That’s after the creation of 510,000 jobs in December. Wall Street economists has only predicted 150,000 new jobs for January and 200,000 for December. (1) There’s no lack of jobs, but many people have missed work recently because of the omicron surge. As MarketWatch reports, a record 7.8 million people called in sick last month. That helped drive the unemployment rate higher from 3.9% to 4%. But the omicron wave is receding in many parts of the country, and the number of unemployment applications wa

Las Vegas has unveiled a digital twin of its downtown area to help city planners deal with future growth and other issues, like climate change. It’s a virtual modeling system by a Chicago-based company called Cityzenith. It says that Las Vegas has completed an initial set up phase, and is now headed into phase two. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Cityzenith says its SmartWorld Digital Twin technology will help Las Vegas analyze issues involving mobility, air quality, noise pollution, water use, and carbon emissions coming from large downtown buildings. City planners will be able to analyze those emissions as they call for changes to reduce greenhouse gases to a net zero level. (1) Las Vegas Begins Phase Two Cityzenith CEO, Michael Jansen, says of the Las Vegas project: “The base twin is now complete, and in the second quarter of this year, stakeholders from Las Vegas will be invited to join phase 2 of the Digita

Airbnb is becoming more of a nomadic lifestyle hub than a vacation planning website. With the rise of remote work, many people are booking longer stays on Airbnb and taking their work with them, including Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky. He recently announced that he’ll be living on Airbnbs, and staying at a new place every few weeks. (1) Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. The pandemic has unleashed a big revolution in the way people live and work. While some people are looking for bigger single-family homes with yards, others are ditching the stay-at-home life altogether and becoming digital nomads. Airbnb caters to this lifestyle perfectly, with accommodations that can be as flexible as the remote worker schedule. Longer Airbnb Stays The Airbnb website shows how people are using short-term rentals as a way to travel while they work. In a news release about Chesky’s plan to live on Airbnbs, it says almost 50% of the rese

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 28th, 2022... the Fed’s rate hike plan, what investors are saying about 2022 challenges, and what buyers are doing to purchase a home more quickly. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week. All eyes were on the Fed for changes in monetary policy after the central bank’s two-day meeting. Worries about more aggressive action by the Fed to combat inflation didn’t seem to be evident. Fed Chief Jerome Powell said that committee members are “of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting” if economic conditions are appropriate for doing so. Wall Street economists are expecting a rate hike in March, along with three others this year, to control inflation. It’s now running at an annual rate of about 7%, but Fed officials still believe it will settle back down as the year progresses and supply c

Build-to-rent communities are one of the hottest trends in rental real estate right now! Many people who can’t own their own homes still want to live the single-family lifestyle. Demand is so hot, almost 80% of the renters participating in a RentCafe survey said they were “interested in living in a community of single-family homes.” (1) And with such a tight supply of existing homes, newly constructed rental homes are getting the attention of investors. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. The RentCafe survey includes responses from 3,300 renters, and 78% of them confirmed that interest is growing in single-family rentals. Rentcafe.com says that last year, in 2021, there were three times the number of searches for rental homes as there were the year before, in 2020. Demand Grows for Single-Family Rentals Single-family rentals have been a hot investment choice for more than a decade, so it’s not a new concept. The fir

The three top credit bureaus that have a strangle-hold on your credit score are getting a very poor performance report. A new analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says that Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are “routinely” failing to respond to consumer complaints about errors. Their performance is allegedly so bad that the CFPB says only “two percent” of complaints were addressed last year. (1) Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. As you know, a good credit score is extremely important for things like getting a credit card or buying a home. In the case of a home purchase, a higher credit score means you’ll get a lower interest rate, and save tons of money over the life of the loan. Credit scores can also play an important role in other kinds of decisions, such as the hiring of a new employee, the approval of a rental applicant, or the issuing of a new insurance policy. Whatever the game plan, the hig

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 22nd, 2022… higher mortgage rates, home prices, and single-family rents. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week. The weekly unemployment report shows a surge in the number of applications. They were up 55,000 to a three-month high of 286,000. As MarketWatch reports, it’s a sign that the current wave of covid cases is impacting businesses and triggering some layoffs. Economists say that some layoffs may also be due to the end of the holiday season. (1) On the home-building front, December was a busy month for construction activity. The U.S. Census Bureau says home starts were up 1% compared to November, and 2.5% compared to the previous December. Permits were also up, by a lot. They were up 9% in December but much of the increase happened in the Northeast as builders rushed to get permits before new r

Warnings about an “eviction tsunami” have yet to materialize. Extended moratoriums and rental assistance programs have delayed evictions in some areas, some housing experts had predicted 40 million evictions last fall. As reported by the news blog, fivethirtyeight.com, those experts are “still waiting.” Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Some renter protections are still in place or just now expiring in some states and jurisdictions, so an eviction surge could be looming in those areas. But housing experts had expected a U.S. eviction tsunami in September, after the national eviction moratorium was lifted. Although there’s been an increase in evictions, it hasn’t resulted in a tsunami, so far. Evictions at Low Levels The fivethirtyeight article cites information from a website called “Eviction Lab” which tracks eviction data that’s been made public. That data doesn’t cover the entire nation, but it shows that, as o

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 14th, 2022... what the Fed is saying about tighter monetary policy, the latest rise in consumer prices, and where mortgage rates are right now. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week, and confirmation hearings for Fed Chief Jerome Powell. President Biden nominated him to continue in his role as the central bank’s Chairman. Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that super low interest rates are no longer needed to prop up the economy, and that short-term rates should go higher to control inflation. The Fed has penciled in three rate hikes this year, but Powell says the central bank is prepared to do more, if necessary. It’s a balancing act because hiking rates too much and too fast, could lead us into a recession, and job losses. But Powell believes that rates can go higher without hurting the job

Lumber prices are surging once more. You might remember when they hit a staggering level last spring. They aren’t back up to that level yet, but this new surge is, again, adding thousands of dollars onto the price of a new home and making homes that much less affordable. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. The National Association of Home Builders reports that lumber prices have almost tripled over the last four months. That’s adding more than $18,600 to the price of an average new single-family home, and about $7,300 to the market value of a multi-family home. The multi-family price hike translates into about $67 dollars a month more that tenants have to pay in rent for a new apartment. (1) Lumber Price Look-Back The lumber price roller coaster began at the start of the pandemic when sawmills shut down in step with the Covid lockdown. Back then, most people thought that the housing market would suffer as COVID spre

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 8th, 2022... we’ll look at the cost of buying vs. renting, new FHFA fees for jumbo loans and second homes, and the WeWork/WeLive founder’s new focus on apartments. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week. The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its December meeting with details about a more aggressive tapering plan and interest rate hikes. Fed officials plan to begin the tapering process after the first rate hike, which is generally expected to be in March. They are predicting the need for “three” quarter-percent rate hikes this year and another three next year. Possibly, two more after that. That would be a total of 2% if all eight rate hikes go into effect. (1) The number of people applying for state unemployment benefits rose last week, but it’s still extremely low. The Labor Department says th

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 1st, 2022... investor hot spots for single-family homes, insurance premium price hikes, and Zillow’s list of most popular search areas. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from the last week of 2021. The year closed with fewer people asking for unemployment benefits. Initial jobless claims were down to 198,000, which is close to a 50-year low. Continuing claims also dropped. Government figures show they were down by about 140,000 to 1.72 million people. The numbers reflect a labor shortage and companies that are not eager to lay anyone off because it might be difficult to replace them. According to MarketWatch, economists are predicting the labor shortage will continue in 2022, but will not be so pronounced. (1) Pending home sales for November were down for a third month in a row. The National Association of Realtors

2021 was a record-breaking year for housing and real estate. Redfin compiled a list of 10 housing records that we experienced last year. And some of these themes are expected to continue into 2022. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. It’s been an unusual year to say the least. It was the second year of the pandemic and one where many Americans have changed where and how they live because of the COVID-19 and a surge in remote work. That has also changed the kind of homes they buy and rent. Redfin Chief Economist, Daryl Fairweather, says: “The ongoing pandemic, including its seismic effect on the U.S. economy and the way Americans live and work, has made 2021’s housing market anything but typical.” He says: “Remote work, low mortgage rates, a shortage of building materials and wealth inequality that has allowed an influx of affluent Americans to buy vacation homes, to name just a few factors, have come together to cre

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending December 25th, 2021... why consumers are feeling optimistic about the economy, the latest surge in home sales, and which investors are getting a nice pay raise. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week and a busy Christmas holiday. There’s now just one week left to the year, and economists say the economy is showing signs of strength despite the current COVID-19 surge. Last week, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits held steady at just over 200,000 applications. That’s below pre-pandemic levels, which were averaging about 220,000 per week. The number of people already collecting checks shrank a bit, to 1.86 million, which is slightly higher than the pre-pandemic level of 1.7 million. Although the holidays could be skewing those numbers somewhat, Rubella Farooqi of High Frequency Economics f

Solar advocates are sounding the alarm on proposed changes to California’s rooftop solar program. The changes would reduce the savings that solar customers enjoy, and potentially add a new monthly fee to connect to the grid. Regulators say reforms are necessary because non-solar customers are paying too much to maintain the grid, but solar supporters say the changes will discourage people from installing solar and make it difficult to meet California’s green energy goals. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. The California Public Utilities Commission released the proposal on Monday, December 13th. (1) There’s a long list of changes that include a reduction in the discount consumers would get for installing a solar system. That would increase the amount of time it takes to recoup the cost of the system. The break even window would expand to about double what it is now or about ten years. New Fees, Reduced Sell-Back Am

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending December 11th, 2021... new FHFA conforming loans limits, tappable equity at a record high, and where drones may be used to inspect buildings. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week, including a report that shows inflation has hit a 39-year-high. The government reported a .8% increase in consumer prices last month. That puts the yearly rate at 6.8% which is more than 3 times the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Higher prices for gas, motor vehicles, housing, and food account for most of the increase. The Fed expects inflation to fall below the 3% level by the end of next year. Some economists expect it to take longer. (1) The latest unemployment report shows that initial claims dropped to just 184,000. That’s the lowest level since 1969. The government adjusts the numbers for seasonal employment so they may be sk

Real estate investors who pay cash could face more scrutiny from the federal government. The Treasury Department is proposing new regulations on shell companies, like LLC’s, as a way to crack down on money laundering through real estate deals. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Government’s Plan to Stop Money Laundering Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, discussed the government’s plan to fight corruption at the Brookings Institution. He addressed the issue by saying: “Corruption thrives in the financial shadows--in shell corporations that disguise owners’ true identities, in offshore jurisdictions with lax anti-money laundering regulations, and in complex structures that allow the wealthy to hide their income from government authorities.” (1) Adeyemo is proposing that countries around the world join this effort to separate the bad actors from the good ones, because many shell companies are perfectly

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending December 4th, 2021... the $2 trillion real estate milestone, the homebuyer’s search for suburban homes, and the brick-and-mortar store comeback. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week. Pending home sales surged higher in October. The National Association of Realtors says they were up 7.5%. That’s substantially higher than the .7% predicted by MarketWatch economists. Contract signings were higher in all four U.S. regions, but the Midwest had the biggest gain of 11.8%. (1) Home price growth has cooled off a bit. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city price index shows a 19.1% year-over-year gain in September. That’s a half a percent lower than it was in August, which is not much of a decline. Craig Lazzara of the S&P DJI says that housing prices continue to show remarkable strength. He describes the ch

Demand for manufactured housing is growing as a way to close the affordability gap. Factory-built homes were once viewed as a low-quality alternative to site-built homes, but that’s no longer the case. Factory-built homes are now built to similar standards but they cost less because it’s less expensive to build any kind of product in a factory. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Manufacturing housing is enjoying a rebirth of sorts. Factory-built homes were known as “mobile homes” in the 1970s, and there are plenty of them still in existence today. But the newly designed and produced manufactured homes are quite different, according to industry experts. Site-Built vs. Factory-Built Jim Ayotte is the executive director of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association based in Tallahassee. He recently spoke with the Tampa Times about today’s manufactured homes and how they compare to site-built homes. (1) He told the T

A lot of the nation’s empty commercial space is being put to good use. A recent report by RentCafe shows a huge surge in the conversion of vacant commercial buildings into apartment complexes. This so-called “adaptive reuse” trend began more than a decade ago, but accelerated substantially this past year, especially for the conversion of unused office space. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. A recent report by RentCafe says that, by the end of this year, developers will have created 20,100 residential units within old commercial buildings. Add that number to the 12,000 units created last year, and the decade kicks off with a total of 32,000 apartments created by converting commercial buildings into apartment homes. Decade-Long Trend According to RentCafe, it’s a trend that began in 2010 with 5,200 conversions. Back then, hotels were the most popular kind of building to convert into apartments. Old factories and of