| By News Desk,on October 29th,2011 WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced this week a settlement of its lawsuit alleging that Equity Homes Inc,PBR LLC,BBR LLC and Shane Hartung violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) by failing to provide features that would make their multi-family housing developments in Sioux Falls accessible to people with disabilities as required by the Fair Housing Act. [...] By Dennis Norman,on October 17th,2011 Freddie Mac released it’s U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for October this morning showing demand for rental housing on the rise and that the multifamily sector of the housing market is a strong positive signal for the U.S. Housing Industry. [...] By Thomas J. Lucier,on October 3rd,2011 Unfortunately,there are no cookie-cutter strategies,which will work for all investors in every single real estate market nationwide. And that’s exactly why,when you’re starting out in this business,you must take your time and carefully analyze a real estate investment strategy and take into account,the:[...] By News Desk,on September 27th,2011 Occupancy Surpasses Long-Term Average,and Rents Move Ahead of Pre-Recession Peak –Bay Area,Seattle,Austin and New York Lead Rent Growth The U.S. apartment sector again posted robust revenue growth in the third quarter of 2011,according to MPF Research,an industry-leading market intelligence division of RealPage,Inc. (NASDAQ:RP). National occupancy climbed 0.6 percentage [...] By News Desk,on September 21st,2011 WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced a $95,000 settlement to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the former manager of Park Towers Apartments in Waterloo,Iowa,sexually harassed female tenants at the complex. The lawsuit alleges that Michael Nieman,the former on-site manager of Park Towers,sexually harassed female tenants in [...] By Dennis Norman,on September 21st,2011 Owners of vacation rentals are reporting that the summer season was a successful one with 68 percent of them reporting occupancy rates of 76 percent or more over the summer,this according to a report released today by HomeAway,Inc. The vacation rental market suffered from the market downturn just like the rest of the [...] By Dennis Norman,on September 20th,2011 Trulia released the results of its American Dream survey today,which showed that,despite the tough economy and challenged housing market we are in,home ownership is still central to the American Dream. In fact,59 percent of renter’s surveyed said they aspire to own a home however,more than half of them,say saving [...] By Dennis Norman,on September 13th,2011 Las Vegas,Nevada is the best place in America to buy at rental property at this time according to the newly released “HomeVestors-Local Market Monitor Best Markets to Invest in Rental Property”report. According to the report,approximately 14 percent of the single family homes in the U.S. are being operated as rental properties. [...] By Dennis Norman,on September 8th,2011 Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke,while speaking at the Federal Reserve Board Policy Forum last week,discussed the effect on the housing market that properties acquired by banks and lenders through foreclosure (REO’s) and suggested that if some of this inventory was converted to rental property by the lenders,this may have a positive [...] By News Desk,on September 1st,2011 WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that New Orleans landlords Betty Bouchon,the Bouchon Limited Family Partnership and Sapphire Corp.,have agreed to pay $70,000 in damages and civil penalties to settle a lawsuit alleging they unlawfully denied housing to African-American prospective renters at a 16-unit apartment building located in New Orleans. The settlement [...] By Dennis Norman,on August 17th,2011 A report released by Trulia shows that,based on current market conditions,it is cheaper to buy a home than rent in 74 percent of major U.S. cities. At the top of the list is Las Vegas with a price rent ratio of 6 (the lower the number,the more affordable it is). At the [...] By Dennis Norman,on July 13th,2011 How many times have you found mail continuing to be delivered to your rental long after the tenant moved out? I know I have and even though I have seen bank statements,bills,etc in the piles of mail,I never gave it much thought in terms of how much the tenants were putting [...] By Dennis Norman,on June 24th,2011 A survey released today by TransUnion shows that more large property managers (201 or more units) were able to increase rents last year than small property managers (200 or fewer units) were able to. According to the survey,sixty-four percent of large property managers said they have raised rents,while only thirty-six percent of [...] By Dennis Norman,on May 6th,2011 According to the National Multi-Housing Council’s (NMHC) latest Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions,the apartment industry’s recovery continues briskly. The Market Tightness Index,which examines vacancies and rents,rose to a record 90 from 78 last quarter. For all indexes,a reading above 50 indicates improving market conditions. Almost four in five respondents (79%) [...] By Dennis Norman,on April 21st,2011 Eighty-two percent of independent landlords say they would rent to someone who lost a home in foreclosure,assuming the applicant traditionally had good credit,according to a survey released by The National Association of Independent Landlords. [...] By Dennis Norman,on March 31st,2011 More than half a million vacation homes were purchased last year,fueled by low real estate prices,attractive mortgage rates and the potential for price appreciation according to research done by the National Association of REALTORS for HomeAway. [...] By Dennis Norman,on February 25th,2011 Apartments.com conducted a national survey of renters which revealed some interesting information with regard to the present-day tenant. To begin with,many more tenants today are former homeowners than in that past,in fact,according to the survey,20 percent of respondents looking for an apartment this year said they are current homeowners. Of the [...] By Dennis Norman,on November 18th,2010 According to a survey just released by Transunion,Landlord’s and Property managers appear to be making it through the Great Recession and are seeing improvement in the market from their perspective. In fact,seven out of 10 property managers said their rental properties have no vacancies,an increase of almost 17 percent from a year [...] By Joe Plemon,on October 25th,2010 Joe Plemon,ChristianPF.com Owning your own home may still be the great American dream,but,the influx of foreclosures in recent years has made it a nightmare for millions. If you are considering purchasing a home,I challenge you to at least think through the advantages of renting before you buy. Here are a few. [...] By News Desk,on October 20th,2010 The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week against the owner and manager of Royal Arms Apartments,a 26-unit apartment building in Ravenna,Ohio,for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating on the basis of familial status in the rental of apartments. The lawsuit,filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District [...] By Dennis Norman,on October 8th,2010 Dennis Norman Today,Trulia released it’s “Rent vs. Buy Index”which established a price-to-rent ratio for the 50 largest cities in America (by population),then,based upon that ratio,determined which cities it makes more sense (financially) to rent versus buy. [...] By Dennis Norman,on August 26th,2010 Dennis Norman Annually,HUD determines “fair market rents”which become effective October 1st each year and are used to determine rent amounts under the Housing Choice Voucher program,Housing Assistance Payment Contracts,Moderate Rehab programs as well as other Section 8 programs. Earlier this month HUD published in the Federal Register it’s proposed fair [...] By Dennis Norman,on August 2nd,2010 Dennis Norman Report looks at impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on Florida Coastal home values According to a report released this morning by CoreLogic the impact of the BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill on home values in the coastal area’s along the Gulf coast is expected to range from $648 [...] By Dennis Norman,on July 2nd,2010 Dennis Norman With all the negative things I have been discussing about the real estate and housing market lately,it is refreshing to actually get to write something positive for a change. Last week HUD released it’s Housing Market Report for 1st quarter 2010 and it contained some reasonably good news for investors,or [...] By Dennis Norman,on June 3rd,2010 Dennis Norman Last month I did an article,“Rental Market Looking Strong;..“,in which I discussed a survey that was done by the National Apartment Association indicating 76 percent of consumers surveyed believed renting to be a better option than home ownership. Well,today Trulia released it’s new “Rent vs. Buy Index”which established [...] By Dennis Norman,on May 17th,2010 Dennis Norman As the real estate market and industry continues to struggle to try to pull out of the dumps,another blow could come soon from Congress in the form of new tax burdens on real estate. Congress is proposing that all owners of rental properties be required to complete and file 1099 forms [...] By Dennis Norman,on May 13th,2010 Dennis Norman Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 24 percent in first quarter 2010 compared to the same period a year earlier,according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®. A total of 38,846 existing homes sold statewide in 1Q 2010;during the same period the year before,a total of [...] By Dennis Norman,on May 7th,2010 Dennis Norman The apartment market continues to rebound from the “Great Recession”according to the April 2010 Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions conducted by the National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC). According to respondents to the survey,sales volume is up,debt and equity are more available and the rental markets are getting better. The [...] By Dennis Norman,on April 29th,2010 Dennis Norman According to a report released earlier this week by the U.S. Census Bureau,rental vacancies for the first quarter of 2010 in the U.S. are almost 5 percent higher than they were a year ago. The rental vacancy rate in the U.S. for the first quarter of 2010 was 10.6 percent,up [...] By Dennis Norman,on April 20th,2010 Dennis Norman Recently, Apartments.Com conducted a survey of it’s website website visitors across the country and found that the majority of apartment seekers want to live in an apartment community that caters to a sustainable lifestyle. According to the survey results,89 percent of respondents said they would prefer to live in a “green”[...] | |