What I'm Reading Expect Delays: NMHC's latest Construction survey found that a whopping 98% of multifamily developer respondents reported being impacted by a lack of materials, the highest share since the survey began. In addition, 83% of respondents reported delays in permitting and starts, 72% reported deals being repriced by...
September 14th – Chop Shop
What I'm Reading Chop Shop: Single family rental platforms are increasingly allowing investors to buy shares in homes for as little as $10. The Real Deal IMO, this trend is a governance nightmare waiting to happen. Small investors would be far better served buying shares in Invitation Homes or American...
August 27th – Failure to Launch
What I'm Reading Failure to Launch: Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned the eviction ban in a 6-3 vote, as expected. New York Times The real story here should be how poor of a job we have been doing with rent relief. Only $4.7 billion of almost $47 billion appropriated by...
August 26th – On the Docket
What I'm Reading On the Docket: The Supreme Court could rule on the new CDC eviction ban as early as September. A majority of justices have questioned the constitutionality of the previous extension. However, the current iteration was crafted to address some of these concerns. Globe Street Topping Out? New...
March 30th – Game Over
What I'm Reading Game Over: Massive crowdfunding sinkhole Prodigy Network has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company, which had raised a reported $690MM from investors was overleveraged and besieged by lawsuits when its founder died suddenly in May and investor communication ceased. This is a tragic reminder of the...
March 24th – Deep Cuts
What I'm Reading Flush: Lenders who are desperate to generate yield are pouring capital into financing the white-hot home flipping market. This is not really a concern for now as competition is pushing rates down at a time when profits are near all-time highs. However, it could become problematic when...
February 23rd – Showing My Age
One Big Thing One of my blogging topics is narrative violation. A narrative violation what happens when a piece of data runs counter to a popular story or trend. The classic example of this was the whole “millennials never want to own homes or cars” thing that was making the...
January 28th – Storm Clouds
What I'm Reading Storm Clouds: The apartment sector has been a bright spot during COVID-19 but that is starting to change. Enhanced eviction protection, lower rent collections and unprecedented declines in asking rent in some urban markets are taking their toll on apartment owners. During the pandemic, the share of...
January 25th – Rocket Fuel
What I'm Reading Rocket Fuel: Morgan Housel's latest piece about how COVID has substantially accelerated wealth and income inequality is an outstanding read and makes a strong case for an economic boom in the coming years - at least for some. This section on mortgage refinancings and the accompanying chart...
January 22nd – Deluge
What I'm Reading Deluge: Office occupancy losses hit record lows in 2020, totaling 84MM square feet with more than half of the losses occurring in CBDs. Expensive markets with a high concentration of tech-and energy-companies were the most impacted. The only relative bright spots were secondary and tertiary markets, which...