Good morning! Today is Friday, September 18. A federal judge blocked changes in U.S. Postal Service policies that slowed maily deliveries. Naomi Osaka pulls out of the French Open with a hamstring injury. Team USA’s Olympic surfers conclude a training camp to prepare for the sport’s first Olympics.
And in mortgage and housing news …
MISSED PAYMENTS: Roughly 11 million households fell behind on mortgage payments or rent, and 30 million Americans missed at least one student loan payment during the first three months of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
COLLEGE TOWNS: As colleges across the country operate completely or primarily online, fewer and fewer students are living in college towns – which means landlords are charging less rent in those neighborhoods.
RENTAL PROPERTIES: Rental property owners lost as much as $9.1 billion during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
HOME PRICES: The national median home price jumped 11 percent in August from a year earlier – the largest annual increase in more than six years, according to a report released by Redfin.
HOUSING STARTS: Single-family housing starts increased in August at its highest rate since February, the month before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States.
TAKING ACTION: During the 2008 housing crisis, many people didn’t know what to do and froze, not contacting their lenders and not paying their notes, which led to foreclosures. It’s a lesson learned for future housing melt downs.
CDC EVICTION PROTECTION: From state to state, and even judge to judge, a simple-sounding order by the C.D.C. on eviction cases is open to interpretation.
COVID SAFETY NET: About 1 million homeowners have fallen through the safety net Congress set up early in the coronavirus pandemic to protect borrowers from losing their homes, according to industry data, potentially leaving them vulnerable to foreclosure and eviction.
HOMELESS SHELTER SAGA: The de Blasio administration has paused moving people from the Lucerne Hotel as Legal Aid lawyers negotiate terms.
BUILDER CONFIDENCE: Builder confidence reaches 25-year high. However, the state of the lumber market may threaten future housing stock and prices.