What I'm Reading Called It: About a year ago, there was a lot of handwringing over what would happen to the millions of homeowners in forbearance once accommodations expired. I pointed out (on the old blog) that we wouldn't see any meaningful distressed sales because borrowers were equity rich. Instead,...
June 15th – Round Trip
What I'm Reading Out of Balance: A recent study by LendingTree found that median housing costs were lower for renters than for homeowners with a mortgage in all 50 of the largest US metro areas. Lending Tree Backed Up: The primary driver of the inflationary spike that we are currently...
June 14th – Churn
What I'm Reading On the Move: Most multifamily management companies set retention goals for the properties that they manage of 50% or higher. However, the majority are falling far short of this goal according to a new manager survey from manager software platform Zego. The most interesting part? C projects,...
June 11th – Sweet Spot
One Big Thing Topping Out: Economic data is beginning to show signs that the recent surge in US inflation is peaking, despite higher than expected CPI readings that were heavily influenced by massive inflation in used cars. Capital Spectator The second half of this year could be really interesting if...
June 10th – Leap of Faith Part 2
One Big Thing Yesterday, I wrote about multifamily development getting more speculative because of uncertainty about cost inflation. Today, let's take a look at the for sale housing market. If you want to get an insider's view of housing, Bloomberg's Odd Lots Podcast with Zonda's Chief Economist Ali Wolf from...
June 9th – Leap of Faith Part 1
One Big Thing Construction prices are soaring and eating into the yields of multifamily developers. In an environment like this, its nearly impossible to forecast costs over the typical 2-3 year build cycle for most large multifamily buildings. As a result, developers have to gamble that rent increases will keep...
June 8th – Slow Out of the Gate
What I'm Reading Slow Out of the Gate: Another meh jobs report shows that the summertime economic boom that many anticipated with reopening may not be quite so hot: "To the degree that the labor shortage is caused by expanded jobless benefits or schools that are closed, it should go...
June 7th – Not As It Seems
One Big Thing As you can see from the Chart of the Day Below, we are finally back to 1970 levels when it comes to housing production in the United States (h/t Taylor Grant). Hooray, I guess. While things are certainly better than they were a few years ago, this...
June 4th – Hitting the Water
What I'm Reading Hitting the Water: The National Marine Manufacturers Association says powerboat sales hit a 13-year high in 2020, with 310,000 new vessels sold, up 12 percent from the previous year. Difficult as it is to believe, 2021 is looking even better. As of February, shipments of new powerboats...
June 3rd – Another One Bites the Dust
What I'm Reading Another One Bites the Dust: Katerra, a SoftBank backed startup that said it could slash the cost of building and renovating apartments with offsite construction, is going bankrupt and may not even have enough cash to pay severance. This is the latest edition to the graveyard of...