By KIMBERLEY HAAS
A California apartment building owner who suggested a couple move into a bigger unit to accommodate their growing family is being charged with discrimination by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials.
Melinda Teruel is accused of making repeated efforts to convince the couple to move into a larger apartment in the city of Burlingame even though they told her they could not afford it. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination against families with children under the age of 18.
“As HUD prepares to commemorate Fair Housing Month during April 2023, this charge of discrimination is a reminder that the fight for fair housing must continue,” Demetria McCain, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing…
By CHUCK GREEN Next time you run into someone in the local Starbucks who happens to have their home on the market, be a sport and plop an extra scone into their bag, huh? A little butter and jam, too? After all, sellers probably aren’t riding the wave of a sugar high induced by whatever they will pocket in their real estate transactions as experts say the price of an average home in the United States is decreasing. The cities expected to be the most heavily hit include: San Francisco: -10.36% Seattle: -9.55% San Diego: -7.24% Los Angeles: -5.61% Denver: -5.60% Dallas: -4.34% Portland: -4.25% Las Vegas: -3.69% What is contributing to the drop in housing prices? B. George Ratiu,…
By CHUCK GREEN There are those who downright groove to the tune of a lifestyle embedded squarely in the middle of the action. You know, the big city, the vibe of being at the nexus of it all. Downright intoxicating. Conversely, others are swayed by the tranquility of a smaller city or town, finding it as relaxing as, oh, say, a running tab on hot totties. Oh, yeah. Pure nirvana. Now, for those who prefer to be where life can be chill but also gyrate to the beat of maintaining relatively close proximity to where it can be a regular buzzsaw of activity as well, the concept of adjacent cities just might speak their language. Adjacent towns or cities share…
By CHUCK GREEN Now, how about a little, um, pop-up pop quiz? You. Put…the…iPhone….down. Okay, then. What did Marilyn Monroe. Elizabeth Taylor and, oh, say, Tennessee Williams, have in common? Whether compelled by business reasons — or simply because it was how they rolled – the trio lived in hotels. Probably beat the price of real estate. Even back then. Even for them. Seems they were onto something. Today, at least temporarily, a number of individuals – you know, us regular joes – also call hotels or motels la casa. Perhaps they’re working on location for a relatively limited time on a short-term out-of-town job and, given the paucity of housing in many parts of the United States, other accommodations…
Home price appreciation is leveling out on a national level, but zooming in on price points and regions reveals a more complex picture, according to new data from the AEI Housing Center. The center looked at how home price appreciation is changing, first by price tier and then by specific metros and geography. While June home price appreciation dropped to nearly zero month-over-month nationally, the story is completely different when analyzing these two metrics. In the first, the Center divided home sales into four price tiers based on their access to leverage. Doing so revealed that appreciation is slowing across all tiers, especially when it comes to the highest level. High-price tier homes were the first to show a negative…
By CHUCK GREEN Office vacancy rates are being monitored closely as the commercial space industry continues to grapple with COVID’s effects on the workplace. In Los Angeles, office activity stagnated in the first quarter of 2022. One-fifth of total inventory remained vacant and rents remained unchanged, according to Greg Cornfield at Commercial Observer. Other major metro areas, including New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago, also continue to experience double-digit vacancy rates. Stemming from remote work due to the variant, San Francisco and DC reportedly kicked off the year with vacancies approaching 20%. In major U.S. markets vacancies of around 60% were recently shown by Kastle Systems, which measures occupancy by looking at foot traffic into offices.…
U.S. home prices have broken another record: 8% of homes (6 million) are now worth $1 million or more, according to a new report from Redfin. That is nearly double the share from before the pandemic when the share was only 4.8% (3.5 million). The Bay Area has the biggest share of million-dollar homes, with nearly nine out of 10 properties in San Francisco and San Jose making the list. This isn’t surprising given its long history of being the most expensive place to buy a home in the U.S. Anaheim, CA, saw the biggest increase, with its share of million-dollar homes jumping to 55% from 27% two years ago. California dominated the top five, following up with Oakland (55.1%),…
By DOUG OHLEMEIER Despite many employees working from home and companies adopting hybrid work models, investors are still attracted to the land of cubicles. While office suites aren’t as packed with workers as before the pandemic, the commercial market remains strong. “There is investor interest in office properties,” said Stephen Newbold, National Director in the U.S. office of research for Colliers International, a Toronto, Ontario-based global real estate services and investment management company. “We are at a stage where we can fairly confidently say that we’re not going back to those (2020) levels. It may fluctuate a little, but my overarching view is we are stabilizing on vacancies and space on the market.” Observers aren’t sure how the new work…
Despite challenging conditions for first-time homebuyers, Millennials are actively engaging in the housing market, especially in the nation’s largest metros, according to a new analysis from LendingTree. The analysis found that Millennials– people aged 25 to 40 in 2021– make up a majority of homebuyers in most of the US’s largest metros, especially Denver, Seattle, and Boston. Of mortgages offered in Denver, 63.3% were offered to Millennials. In Seattle, 61.35% were offered to Millennials, and in Boston, 61.08%. Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa have the smallest share of buyers in this age group, at 46.54% across all three markets. San Francisco, New York, and San Jose have the greatest portion of older Millennials, with an average age of 33.51%, while Indianapolis,…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A report released this month suggests that despite rising home prices it is more affordable to own a median-priced house than to rent a three-bedroom property in a majority of the United States. ATTOM’s 2022 Rental Affordability Report used fair-market rent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and sales deed data in 1,154 counties to find that home ownership will be more affordable in a majority of the country again in 2022. Todd Teta, Chief Product Officer at ATTOM, said home ownership still remains the more affordable option for average workers because it takes up a smaller portion of their pay when the math is…
