Rents fall behind inflation
Tracking rents is important for understanding the dynamics of the housing market. For example, the sharp increase in rents helped me deduce that there was a surge in household formation in 2021 (September 2021:...
Increasing apartment supply is slowing new lease-up velocity
Increasing apartment supply is slowing new lease-up velocity, said Madera Residential head of investment strategy and research Jay Parsons. Leasing velocity for newly built apartments is at its slowest pace in recent...
Affordability is re-emerging as a tailwind for market-rate apartments.
Affordability is re-emerging as a tailwind for market-rate apartments. One takeaway from data discussed on a RealPage podcast this week is that rent-to-income ratios have returned to pre-pandemic levels, suggesting affordability issues...
The housing theory of childless cat ladies
Would a YIMBY building boom rejuvenate urban family life or produce sterile, megacity hellscapes?
Housing Boom = Baby Bust?
America’s low birth rate is in the news again, thanks largely to Vice Presidential candidate Sen. J.D....
Market demand sets stage for few rent hikes
While asking rents for new leases nationally are running nearly flat over the past 12 months, those figures are heavily influenced by the Sunbelt, where record-high supply has turned rent growth negative in some...
“Sitting empty:” Vast expanse of federal land eyed for new housing
The White House and the Republican National Committee agree on one thing at least: The sale of surplus federal land could help alleviate a crushing shortage of affordable housing.
Proposals to sell federal land to...
Investors circle overleveraged apartments
Rescue capital is available for apartment borrowers that need it, but relatively few owners of over-leveraged apartment properties are willing to pay the price—so far.
High interest rates have stranded the owners of over-leveraged apartment...
Paying the fox to watch the chickens: The war on private housing
Despite the rise in homelessness, the federal government continues to raise the barrier to creating shelter for those without permanent housing. Infusing bad actors with HUD money is another layer.
In September the Biden admin....
Costco life
Costco has jumped into the nation’s affordable housing crisis. The warehouse retailer, which operates more than 500 stores across the U.S., broke ground on a different type of superstore in September—one that will include...
Deal watch
Oliver Emerson Development, a father-son duo, wants to turn the former Rockford Watch Co. factory in Rockford, Illinois, into affordable housing.
“To be able to do it with my father and be able to contribute...
Rules that make dishwashers, wash machines perform worse also illegal
Plaintiffs argue that the Department of Energy has no legal authority to impose its own water use limits on energy-consuming home appliances.
The federal regulations that make dishwashers and washing machines worse are also illegal....
San Francisco city council targets free speech to cover up its own housing failures
The San Francisco city council is smashing the mirror because it doesn’t like the face staring back at it.
The council just approved a ban on websites that offer data about local rental markets and...
California to turn unused school land into millions of housing units
In an effort to address a lack of housing that officials say has contributed to a shrinking teaching workforce, the California Department of Education is planning on converting undeveloped school lots into affordable housing.
State...
Vitruvius: The Roman architect who laid the foundation of western architecture
In 2007, a survey by The Harris Poll found that 72 percent of Americans prefer classical federal buildings to modernist ones. A smaller 2020 study reached a similar conclusion.
Besides a general dislike of their...
Is land-use regulation holding back construction productivity?
Ed Glaeser is perhaps the pre-eminent urban economist working today, and I’ve cited his work repeatedly when looking at land-use restrictions and burdens on new development.
So I was very interested to see he’s coauthored...
