What I'm Reading Jumping In: Big landlords are increasingly getting into the homebuilding business as demand for single-family rentals continues to surge. CNBC This is exactly what one should expect will happen given that the monthly cost of home ownership has doubled since January 2021. Priced Out: The cost of...
January 10th – Misdirection
One Big Thing The following is not tax advice. There are several things that we can say definitively about disgraced WeWork co-founder Adam Neuman. Here are a few: He is a massive self promoter He is generally full of shit. Like it or not, he is one of the great...
October 21st – Stacked Deck
What I'm Reading Stacked Deck: Perhaps the biggest reason for the current truck capacity shortage is the surge of goods moving west to east. Simply put, there is too much freight exiting Southern California and too little coming into the area. The problem will persist until the imbalance eases. Think...
September 28th – Hoarding?
What I'm Reading Hoarding: Panicked American shippers may be overbuying goods in an attempt to build inventory to provide a cushion in the event of another global crisis. They are making the current container crisis worse. Splash Its Bad Everywhere: There are over 60 container ships full of import cargo...
July 28th – Sitting it Out
What I'm Reading Sitting it Out: Foreign purchases of U.S. residential real estate were down 27% in the year ended in March, a new low since the end of the Great Recession. As insane as the housing market has been, the boom has taken place with little foreign interest compared...
June 22nd – Scapegoat
What I'm Reading Wishful Thinking: Public pension funds are pouring money into alternatives thanks to low yields (and the fact that they still haven't lowered absurdly high return expectations). However, merely investing in alternatives doesn't necessarily generate higher returns. This quote from Jason Zweig sums it up perfectly: "The message...
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...
April 29th – Liftoff
What I'm Reading Liftoff: Apartment List's national rent survey for May showed its largest monthly jump going back to 2017 as coastal markets rebound and midsized markets that soared in 2020 show few signs of slowing down. This further backs up the story we posted yesterday about OAR picking up. ...
April 15th – Out of Balance
What I'm Reading Out of Balance: Garden style apartments make up 49% of existing inventory in the US and typically consist of more affordable B and C properties that appeal to working class tenants. However, thanks to the high cost of materials and land, only 3.6% of all apartments in...
April 6th – Take My Money
What I'm Reading Bidding War: Yield-chasing investors are snapping up single family homes, competing with homebuyers and driving up prices. The wave of institutional capital hitting this space is massive and has created an environment where prices are rising much quicker than incomes, prompting JBREC to issue a report concluding...