A report from Myrtle Beach Sun News in South Carolina. “An apartment complex near Coastal Carolina University will soon have a new management company as the property remains at the heart of a $24 million legal fight. In November, U.S. Bank started the foreclosure process on The Provincia. The bank claimed that Coastal Ventures LLC owed about $24 million for construction of the housing complex. On Wednesday, a lawyer for U.S. Bank was in Horry County court for a hearing. Christopher McCurry Towery said that the sides agree to have the Priess Company appointed as a receiver for the complex. The Provincial has 440 units on an 8-acre site about 200 feet away from CCU.”
“U.S Bank says Coastal 544 Ventures was loaned $23 million for the property. Today, Coastal 544 Ventures owes more than $24 million after fees and interest, U.S. Bank claims. The housing company did not make its May and June payments on time, but when they did pay, the owners failed to pay interest, according to the bank.”
The Tennessee Ledger. “The Middle Tennessee State University Business and Economic Research Center report says total home permits dropped almost 5.2% amid a 25.8% decrease in multi-family permits,. Homeowner and rental vacancy rates have shown sharp increases for the quarter, the report found.”
From Queens News in New York. “A recent report found that while home prices are stabilizing, the number of rentals offering concessions in Queens were on the rise last month. Of all the boroughs analyzed in the report, Queens was the only one that saw an increase in price cuts. Throughout the borough, one in ten houses on the market saw a price cut, raising two percentage points year-over-year.”
“The number of landlords offering concessions is Queens were also increasing compared to last year. Borough-wide the share of concessions rose to 15 percent last month. In northwest Queens, 21 percent of rentals advertised concessions last month, a 6.7 percent increase year-over-year.”
“‘Landlords offering free months of rent for tenants signing new leases is a great way for them to fill their units quickly without having to reduce the monthly check they’ll be receiving,’ says StreetEasy Economist Nancy Wu. ‘The uptick in concessions shows that even though rents are still climbing, tenants should never shy away from negotiating other incentives with their landlord, like free months of rent, waived amenity fees or other deal sweeteners.’”
The San Mateo Daily Journal in California. “Zumper rent analyst Crystal Chen said San Mateo is especially susceptible to changes in cost due to the constrained housing market, which is incapable of keeping up with demand. Illustrating her point regarding cost fluctuations, some of San Mateo’s rents actually dropped recently according to the report which showed one-bedroom units decreased by 5% from the month prior.”
“The monthly dip would follow trends also seen in more expensive locales, according to the report which showed rents in Menlo Park slipped to $3,100 for one-bedroom units last month and $4,320 for two-bedroom units. Those prices amount to a 3% drop over the month, and nearly 5% drop over the year for one-bedroom units and a 3.6% drop over the month for two-bedroom units. Similarly, Redwood City one-bedroom units dipped in price by 5% over the month and 8% over the year to $2,880, while two-bedroom unit costs declined 2.4% over the month to $4,070.”
The Ventura County Star in California. “Rents mostly increased in Ventura County cities between November 2018 and November 2019, with one key exception. The median rent in Ventura is down over the past year. The median rent in Ventura fell by 2.9% over the past year, with the median one-bedroom now at $1,531. The report notes that rent growth typically slows toward the end of the year, but growth this year slowed down even earlier than normal.”
“‘Rent growth tends to be slower in the fall and winter months due to seasonality in the market. This year though, rent growth began to slow before the summer was through. This early end to the summer rent spike signaled a return to the stagnant rent growth that characterized the market at the beginning of the year,’ reads the report.”
From NBC San Diego in California. “Good news for renters comes this month with word that rents have stabilized or dropped slightly in San Diego County. The Southern California Rental Housing Association reported that overall rents in San Diego County declined slightly for the first time in the past five years, with vacancy rates rising from 4.1% to 4.7%.”
“‘In general, a vacancy rate of 5% is viewed as healthy for the San Diego market, indicating a reasonable supply of rental housing inventory, so this upward trend in vacancies is positive news,’ the Rental Housing Association said in its Fall Rental Rate Survey.”
The Orange County Register in California. “Southern California home-price appreciation has hit a seven-year low, by the math of one curious yardstick. Since 1943, the Cal Poly Pomona-based group has tracked local home-value movements twice a year by having volunteer appraisers re-evaluate a set of 308 single-family homes across seven Southern California counties to gauge pricing patterns. Local home values were appreciating at an annual rate of 2.8% in October, according to this novel index.”
“How does that gain stack up? It’s the smallest increase since the last of Great Recession-led declines in April 2012. Below the 5.3% found in April. Below the 7.2% seen in October 2018. 65% below 7.9% averaged since October 2012. Looking at CoreLogic/DQ stats for their six-county SoCal region, derived from tabulating every closed purchase of all residences, gains in October were averaging over six months 1.2%. That’s below 1.3% of April; 6.1% of October 2018 and 87% below the seven-year average gain of 9.1%. Or, simply put: Appreciation has been evaporating.”
“More importantly, shrinking appreciation brings fears of depreciation. And for all the talk of a need for ‘cheaper housing,’ nothing scares off house hunters more than the prospect of price losses. It’s housing’s conundrum: everyone wants a discount, except on the home they (may) own.”
The Oregonian. “The number of homes for sale in the Portland area continues to shrink. New listings in November tumbled 30.9% from October, according to the local listing service RMLS. Contracts for home sales that will close over the next couple of months, although about 20% higher than last November, were 11.7% less than last month, and there were 15.3% fewer homes sold across the metro area this November compared to October.”
“‘Inventory is low in general and it has been that way for quite some time in west Portland,’ said Blake Ellis of Windermere Realty Trust. ‘Within particular markets, you will see strengths and weakness more than the overall data shows.’”
He said that at a certain price point in Northwest Portland, there might be 20 listings on the market now, where this same time last year there were 10 and at a different price there might only be five. ‘Units in buildings that usually take longer to sell sold in a week while another home has you wondering, ‘Why is it taking so long? It’s a great house in a great neighborhood,’ said Ellis.”