One Big Thing For years, people wanted to live in places where it is the most difficult to build, driving prices in those regions up. Now, with remote and hybrid work a possibility, buyers are aiming their sights towards larger properties in the exurbs and builders are struggling to keep...
June 1st – Taking Aim
What I'm Reading Don't Call it a Comeback: 2021 has been a banner year for apartment rent growth thus far with rents nationwide rents now surpassing where they would have been had the pandemic never happened. ApartmentList Inside Deal: Real-estate agents are selling more homes to select customers while bypassing...
May 28th – Risky Business
One Big Thing Real Assets Adviser / IREI published an editorial that I wrote about some of the often-unseen risks in crowdfunded real estate transactions as part of their June edition: Warren Buffet famously said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” In recent...
May 27th – New High
What I'm Reading New High: The nationwide price to rent ratio has hit its highest level since at least 1975, taking out the 2006 peak. While I am still not sold on the idea that we are in a bubble, valuations are clearly very rich and we are clearly well...
May 26th – Piling On
What I'm Reading Piling On: The US Commerce Department has made a recommendation to more than double tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber in the midst of a housing affordability crisis that has been driven in part by soaring building costs. If the Biden Administration wanted to make the crisis worse,...
May 25th – Sending a Message
What I'm Reading Backlash: Ireland is trying to keep institutional investor firms from buying up its housing stock by imposing a 10% tax on a the purchase of 10 or more homes. The tax will apply to bulk purchases and cumulative acquisitions of 10 or more homes a year but...
May 24th – No Slack
What I'm Reading No Slack: Nearly every economic issue that we are currently experiencing is a result of the lack of slack in our system being a feature and not a bug. David Merkel sums the conundrum up perfectly: There's not enough slack in the system. We need more redundancy....
May 21st – Clogged
What I'm Reading Clogged: This week's housing starts number was a big disappointment, especially given the lack of supply that has helped lead to rising prices. It has a lot to do with a lack of finished lot inventory that has caused a major bottleneck, forcing builders to slow down. ...
May 20th – Shock Absorber
What I'm Reading Shock Absorber: Normal recessions often produce a vicious cycle of foreclosures. When rents and property values fall, building owners stop paying their mortgages and lenders foreclose, pushing prices into a further downward spiral. That hasn’t happened in this cycle as regulators allowed bank to delay loan payments...
May 19th – Center of Gravity
What I'm Reading Center of Gravity: While the Biden tax plan roiled markets over the past few weeks, corporate executives and lobbyists and lobbyists are confident that centrist Democrats in both the Senate and House will ultimately kill almost all of the proposed increases. Politico Burn Out: Mortgage demand has...