What I'm Reading Thin Air: Mortgage payments are getting more unaffordable as record home price growth erases savings delivered by historically low interest rates. Wall Street Journal The affordability problem will continue to get worse if / when interest rates continue to rise. Borrowers have record equity in their homes...
September 3rd – More Help Wanted
What I'm Reading Help Wanted: Labor shortages are helping to keep more homes from being built, making housing even less affordable. The problem does not appear to be going away anytime soon. The Economist Surprising Result: About half of US states ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early. So far, they...
August 31st – Double Edged Sword
What I'm Reading Double Edged Sword: Almost everyone claims to want more affordable housing but there is little will to actually achieve it. In reality there is no widespread affordable housing without a decline in property values and no politician gets elected to statewide office by promising to slash real...
July 26th – Front Row
What I'm Reading Front Row: As boat sales continue to soar and manufacturer backlogs grow, waterfront homes with private docks are becoming even more valuable. In other related news, its a great time to own boat storage facilities and non-seasonal marinas. Wall Street Journal Sweet Spot: NMHC's July Apartment Market...
July 1st – Hiding in Plain Sight
What I'm Reading Hiding in Plain Sight: It's well known that US infrastructure from roads, to bridges, to tunnels is falling apart. The tragic Florida condo collapse this week highlights another type of private infrastructure disaster that may be much more widespread than we currently think. Justin Gillis highlighted the...
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...
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...
March 17th – Lifeline
What I'm Reading Lifeline: Of the three relief bills passed by Congress over the past year, the latest is probably the most beneficial to the CRE industry. Here's a summary of what the bill contains that will help the industry: $40 billion for rental assistance $25 billion in restaurant industry...
January 21st – Misplaced Priorities
One Big Thing President Joe Biden comes into office with a housing plan that includes a $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. IMO, encouraging first time homebuying is a worthy goal but doesn't really solve our current problem - not enough houses are getting built to satisfy existing demand, which would...
January 11th – Wait and See
What I’m Reading Wait and See: NNN lease investors had assumed that Republicans would win the Georgia Senate special election and the 1031 exchange would be safe. Now that the Democratic party candidates have prevailed, those investors are anxiously awaiting President Elect Biden’s first 100 day agenda to see if the...