Follow Me on Twitter

Report says housing market recovery to be led by demand by investors for rental property

According to a new report, The Shifting Nature of U.S. Housing Demand, by The Demand Institute, average home prices will increase by up to 1 percent in the second half of 2012. By 2014, home prices will increase by as much as 2.5 percent. From 2015 to 2017, the study projects annual increases between 3 and 4 percent. This recovery will not be uniform across the country, and the strongest markets could capture average gains of 5 percent or more in the coming years. [...]

April rents up 5.6 percent from a year ago

In a report released by Trulia shows that, in April, rents were 5.6 percent higher than a year ago. Not surprising, the areas with the highest rent increases were those areas with increasing employment growth with Edison-New Brunswick, NJ at the top of the list with an increase of over 15 percent in rents. At the bottom of the list was Las Vegas. [...]

REO’s bolstering home prices as investors are rushing to the rental markets

The report also says that “the combination of lower vacancies, increasing rental rates, and affordable REO properties” has attracted investors to the rental markets. The potential of strong (and, in some instances, even “instant”) cash flows as well as the potential for future appreciation on home prices is luring more and more investors into purchasing and holding single family homes rather than “flipping” them or doing short-term holds. [...]

Market Conditions Improve For Apartment Industry

Fifth consecutive quarter of uninterrupted growth; Market still lacks widespread capital

Optimism continues for the apartment industry, according to the latest results of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions. The findings reflect a gradual recovery for the multifamily sector that faced a 50-year low in apartment starts [...]

Potential size of the rental market for REO’s this year is over $100 Billion

Wow, talk about opportunity! According to a recently released report from Corelogic, as a result of the FHFA’s (Federal Housing Finance Agency) implementation of the “REO to Rental Program” whereby Fannie Mae REO’s will be sold in bulk to investors for rental property, there will be potentially over $100 Billion of rental market REO’s in the coming year! The first of these sales was a lot of 2,500 homes sold in February with a market value reported to be around $314 million. [...]

Where are the best places to buy rental property?

Now that the real estate is showing signs of prices stabilizing in many parts of the country, investors are investing in rental property more and more. However, for many, the $64 question is “where should I invest”? Well, according to a survey of the “Best 100 U.S. Markets to Invest in Rental Property”, developed by [...]

“The flourishing rental market is the silver lining to the nation’s housing downturn

A report released today by Zillow shows that median rents rose 3 percent from January 2011 to January 2012 while, during the same period, home prices fell 4.6 percent. According to the report, over two-thirds (69.2 percent) of the metro areas covered saw year-over-year gains in rents but only 7.3 percent of the metros saw home values rise during the same period. [...]

How not to evict a tenant

After 33 years in the real estate business I pretty much thought I had heard, or seen it all until this story came along. It seems that a landlord, Paul Fagerlie Finman back in 2010 resorted to using a tractor to begin disassembling an occupied home in Idaho in an effort to evict the tenant. [...]

Justice Department Resolves Lawsuit Alleging Disability Discrimination in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

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. [...]

Rental housing on upswing

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. [...]

How to Choose a Real Estate Investment Strategy That’s Right for You

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: [...]

Report Shows Continued Strong Momentum for the U.S. Apartment Market in the Third Quarter

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 [...]

Justice Department Settles Housing Discrimination Lawsuit in Waterloo, Iowa

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

[...]

Vacation rental owners report high occupancy rates from the summer season

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 [...]

Fifty-nine percent of renters aspire to own a home

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 [...]

The best places to invest in rental property

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.

[...]

Converting REO’s to rentals could help housing recovery according to Fed Official

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 [...]

Justice Department Obtains $70,000 Settlement in Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Against New Orleans Landlords

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 [...]

Buying a home more affordable than renting in three out of four major cities

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 [...]

Ten Tips To Help Your Tenants Avoid Identity Theft When Moving

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 [...]

Size matters when it comes to property manager’s ability to raise rents

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 [...]

Apartment Industry Continues Brisk Recovery

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%) [...]

Most Landlords Say They Would Rent to People Who Lost Homes to Foreclosure

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.

[...]

Low prices and low mortgage rates spurred 2010 vacation home purchases

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.

[...]

Why tenants move and where they look for their new rental

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 [...]

Rental housing market weathering storm; more tenants former homeowners

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 [...]

7 Reasons to Rent Instead of Buy a Home

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.

[...]

Justice Department Files Fair Housing Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination at Royal Arms Apartment Complex in Ohio

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 [...]

Cities where home ownership is more affordable than rental

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.

[...]

HUD Publishes Proposed Fair-Market Rents for Section 8 for 2011

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 [...]