By TOBIAS PETER, KEVIN CORINTH, and ED PINTO
It is an election year and Congress will soon consider two bipartisan bills to address high rental costs for many renters. The first is the Workforce Housing Tax Credit (WFHTC) and the second would be an expansion of the existing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).
The WFHTC would extend eligibility for subsidized units to tenants earning below the area median. On a combined basis the two credits would expand eligibility to about three-quarters of the nation’s renters.
Both programs would offer generous federal government subsidies for building new apartments. Such a massive expansion of the state would waste taxpayer money, crowd out more private builders, and deter many families from advancing economically.…
Gen Z is reviving urban hotspots assumed to be dying out due to Covid-19, a new report from RentCafe found. Gen Z is the only generation to see a spike in renting activity in the last year, up by 21% while the share of rent applications from all other generations dropped. They account for a quarter of all rent activity nationwide and pushed the number of applications for apartments from renters of all generations up an average of 10%. In 2020, Zoomers were stuck in their families’ hometowns or in their college towns. But now, following promises of job opportunities and vibrant living, they’re renting in cities once thought doomed in the wake of the pandemic. Compared to 2020, there…
By SCOTT KIMBLER Across the country, especially in urban metropolitan areas, it’s becoming as difficult to find a rental property as it is to buy a home. “It’s just going to keep happening,” said economist Roy Black of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “It is the perfect storm: Supply chain issues, inflation, gas prices going up. It is everything happening from different angles. The middle class, even the upper middle class, is being squeezed. Prices are squeezing the people whose salaries are not increasing at the pace of the cost of living. About the only thing people can do is bargain-hunt until they find something or move farther and farther out where the rents are cheaper.” Elizbeth Rose with Mortgage…
Strong demand and the labor market are fueling single-family rent price increases which remain at record highs. September data from CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index shows rents increased 10.2% year-over-year (YOY), compared to a 2.6% YOY increase in September 2020. Rents increased across all four tiers of rental prices used by CoreLogic. Lower-priced rentals (less than 75% of the regional median) saw an increase of 8.3% YOY, while rents in the lower-middle price range (75%-100% of the regional median) rose 9.3% YOY, both more than doubling their growth from the same time in 2020. Rents for higher-priced properties broke 10%, with higher-middle priced (100%-125%) rents climbing 10.5%, compared to 2.4% in September 2020. Higher-priced rentals (125% or more of the regional…
Airbnb is predicted to increase its inventory by 25% in 2022, giving it huge leverage to impact the residential real estate market next year, according to analyst Chris Linsell. During a presentation at the 2021 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, Linsell, senior real estate writer for TheClose.com, said Airbnb’s expansion will likely negatively impact housing affordability and inventory. “Airbnb (is) not just selling their product to consumers, they are selling to the providers of the product. They are selling twice without holding their own inventory. This unique model opens up an incredible level of scalability,” he said. “Many of those housing units are going to come from the residential real estate market.” He noted that the impact on residential housing could…
A wave of evictions could mean more options for homebuyers, but fewer rental properties on the market. Today, the Supreme Court lifted the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium, declaring that it is almost certain the Centers for Disease Control exceeded their authority by imposing it. The ruling exposes millions of Americans who are late on their rent to the possibility of eviction, and could impact an estimated 3.6 million households. It is unclear exactly how many evictions will take place. Many local governments have their own eviction moratoriums in place. Some landlords may decide instead to work out repayment plans with their tenants rather than risk their property sitting empty. But if evictions do happen, the booming housing market could be…
Federal efforts to help renters cover their monthly payments have largely failed, as theTreasury Department reports just $1.7 billion of the $46.5 billion rental aid program’s funds have been disbursed, leaving 89 percent untouched. “About a million payments have now gone out to families — it is starting to help a meaningful number of families,” Gene Sperling, who oversees the operation of federal pandemic relief programs for President Biden, told the New York Times. “It’s just not close to enough in an emergency like this to protect all the families who need and deserve to be protected. So there is still way more to do and to do fast. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was created to provide funds to…
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. A study released Thursday by Zillow found that the average rent in college areas has fallen 1.2 percent since February – while rent has increased 1.4 percent in areas with fewer college students. “The softening rental market across the country is more stark in college neighborhoods as pandemic-mandated campus closures and opportunities to complete courses online have provided motivation for young people to move back home,” Zillow senior economist Cheryl Young said. “With many leases ending at the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall, we can expect…
By Jim Perskie The short-term rental market is bouncing back quickly, with travelers taking advantage of lockdowns ending just as the summer tourism season starts across the country, according to a report released Wednesday by AirDNA. There was a 202 percent increase in rental bookings on Airbnb and Vrbo in the United States between April 5 and May 18. “After weathering a flood of cancellations and scrambling to market themselves as immaculate, virus-free stays, it seems like the suffering may be somewhat short-lived,” AirDNA concludes in the report. The report also found, “After the multi-month lockdown brought global travel to a standstill, it now seems that — whether or not we’re ready — the road to economic recovery is clearly taking shape.…
