A report from the Los Angeles Times in California. “In the 90210 ZIP Code, based on 30 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $4.518 million, down 27.1% year over year, according to CoreLogic.”
The San Diego Downtown News in California. “Despite a slight decrease in rents since the pandemic began and new regulations, San Diego remains an enticing market for real estate investment. Council member Chris Ward said Downtown has long seen a reverse commute from residents in Downtown going to Carmel Valley and other areas each day for their jobs. As the industry grows, he is not concerned that housing those professionals could exacerbate the housing crisis.”
“‘We have an abundance of luxury housing Downtown that’s already built, some of which — it’s really difficult to pin down the number — may not even be filled right now, don’t even have residents down there. So we don’t see a net replacement of affordable housing units that are in the Downtown area,’ Ward said.”
From Socket Site in California. “While the vacancy rate for larger, multi-unit apartment buildings in San Francisco had ticked up to around 6 percent in the second quarter of the year, representing around 9,000 vacant units as of the end of June, said rate was approaching 9 percent based on a review of 3,000 units, spread across ten buildings, that we compiled last month. The average vacancy rate in those same ten buildings is now over 10 percent and climbing, with the vacancy rate in one big building, which had been fully occupied, having jumped from 5 percent to 16 percent over the past month and on-track for ‘a vacancy rate of 20 percent by the end of November,’ as we projected last month.”
“Rising vacancy rates continue to drive rents and investment property revenues down, with the average asking rent for a one-bedroom in San Francisco having dropped to under $2,800 a month for the first time since 2013 and the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in the city already down 23 percent on a year-over-year basis and 27 percent below the markets 2015-era peak.”
From WTOP. “Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Smith, one of the largest owners of commercial real estate in the Washington region, posted a quarterly loss, largely from COVID-19-related rent deferrals for office and retail tenants and other pandemic-related expenses. JBG Smith owns almost 21 million square feet of office, apartment and retail real estate in the Washington region, including Amazon’s current and future HQ2 buildings in Arlington.”
“The company posted a quarterly net loss of $22.8 million, compared to net income of $9.4 million for the same quarter a year ago. It said results were impacted by $14.8 million associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including lower occupancy, lower rents, higher operating costs and rent concessions and deferrals. Funds from operations, a measure of income that better reflects financials of real estate companies, was $32.4 million, down from $45.6 million in the same quarter a year ago.”
From Boston.com in Massachusetts. “Although Cambridge’s median rent has dropped 15 percent year over year, the city remained the most expensive community for renters in October, according to a report the online real estate site Zumper released Wednesday. Brookline ranked second (down 10 percent), and Boston, which saw a 12.6 percent decrease, was third. The city that experienced the biggest year-over-year price drop was Revere (18.1 percent), while Lynn and Brockton posted the biggest jumps, 15.7 percent and 15.6 percent respectively.”
“From September to October, however, the median rent in Brockton fell 6 percent, the biggest month-over-month drop in the cities surveyed, followed by Lowell (5.3 percent) and Waltham and Revere, which were down 5.1 percent.”
From Bisnow on Texas. “Occupancy and rental rates held firm in Dallas-Fort Worth in October as landlords relied more heavily on concessions to attract tenants, new data from ApartmentData shows. The October 2020 data shows rather than rental rate declines, apartment operators in every product type leaned more heavily on concessions to attract renters.”
“Across the Metroplex, 312,980 apartment units, or 41% of all inventory, offered concessions last month either in the form of move-in specials, months of free rent or floor-plan offers from operators. About 60% of all Class-A inventory, or 139,000 units, came with concessions last month, followed by 38% and 33% of Class-B and Class-C inventory, respectively.”
From My Northwest in Washington. “Four Yakima County landlords suing Governor Inslee with the support of the Washington Business Properties Association in the latest lawsuit over his pandemic eviction moratorium say the emergency order is devastating for mom-and-pop property owners. The federal lawsuit seeks injunctive relief from the moratorium. This comes after a similar lawsuit was filed in Seattle last month.”
“Yakima property owner Enrique Jevons, one of the plaintiffs, derives his sole income from his 88 rental units. He said more than 10% of his renters are paying less than they owe. While those who have been affected financially by the pandemic have been great about working out a payment plan, he said a couple of people who do have jobs are taking advantage of the blanket moratorium.”
“‘Unfortunately, the way the governor’s order is written, we do have a couple of people who are just flat-out not paying,’ Jevons said. ‘One person in particular simply told us, ‘I’m not going to pay because I don’t have to pay.’ And that individual is still employed.’”
“He said he is not getting any breaks in property taxes or mortgages, as forbearance programs apply to individual homeowners rather than landlords. He fears if the eviction moratorium goes on much longer and he has to go many more months with this reduced income, his properties will go into foreclosure. ‘I’m becoming very fearful of being put out on the street, losing my properties,’ he said.”
From Block Club Chicago in Illinois. “West Side legislators invited housing leaders, tenants and landlords to a virtual forum to discuss possible solutions to the looming crisis. Landlord Serethea Reid said she’s been put in a pinch by the moratorium and is at risk of not being able to afford her mortgage since she’s not getting any income from several tenants. ‘I’m definitely understanding. People need to have housing, I fully understand that. Yet I can’t survive people not paying me for a year,’ Reid said.”
From CTV News in Canada. “A Newmarket, Ont. man says he is ‘couch surfing’ at a friend’s home and sleeping in his truck because the woman who is renting his house refuses to pay rent and leave. ‘I am homeless because I have a tenant who is in my home in defiance of a N-12 properly served through the Landlord and Tenant Board. That’s paperwork that says I need the house back for my purposes,’ Brown said.”
“Nana Boateng of Alliston, Ont. bought a condo as an investment to rent out. Boateng said the tenant hasn’t paid the rent in seven months and now he just wants to sell it, but the tenant won’t leave or let potential buyers in to see the unit. ‘She is refusing to move out again and it is quite unfortunate. These tenants are almost being professional these days and COVID-19 has made it worse,’ Boateng said.”
“Frustrated landlords in Sudbury held a protest last week over hearing delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board. ‘We are not heartless, we are not wanting to throw the people (out) who are poor. We are trying to evict people who are not paying because they don’t want to pay,’ Sudbury landlord Carole Legault said.”
“According to Kayla Andrade of Ontario Landlords Watch, a landlord advocacy group, the current backlog at the Landlord and Tenant Board has become ‘a mess. ‘Landlords are at a loss for words … they can’t get someone out of their home, who is also damaging their home and preventing them from selling their property,’ Andrade said.”
From CBC News in Canada. “In the wake of COVID-19, real estate experts say more and more people are leaving prime Toronto neighbourhoods in search of more space. The exodus is one of the reasons why there are more rental units on the market, real estate experts say. New third quarter numbers from the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) show there are now 113 per cent more units available for lease on the market than in the third quarter of last year, when there were 16,350 units up for rent. Now there are nearly 35,000 available in the Greater Toronto Area.”
“Most renters now have their pick of units, says Corey Ash, a real estate agent with North Group who has been focusing on rental properties for the last two years. ‘Landlords are giving incentives; they’re offering tenants one month free,’ said Ash. ‘Last year, I’d be going into bidding wars for my clients.’”
“The smaller 500-square-foot units are also getting harder to rent. Ash says two-bedroom condos and apartments are more appealing since people are looking for the extra space. ‘Clients are finding two-bedrooms for a little more than what they would have paid for a nice one-bedroom last year,’ said Ash.”
“Real estate agent Ivana Rezo says one-bedroom units are still moving on the market, but only if they’re on the bigger side and have something extra to offer like a view, storage or a large outdoor space. The ones that don’t are staying on the market for months at a time. Prices have also gone down for one-bedroom units across the city. TREB’s numbers show that this time last year, the average one-bedroom was going for $2,262, whereas now they’re renting for $2,012.”
“The new short-term listing regulations that came into effect in September are also affecting the rental market, since those would-be Airbnb units are now being listed as long-term rentals, says Rezo. In addition to that, immigration has ground to a halt due to the pandemic. ‘Usually, during the summer, I was getting a lot of clients moving into the core because they were coming here to study, whether it was undergrad or post-grad,’ said Rezo. ‘Now, there’s no one. I used to also lease out some of my rental properties to people coming to work in the city on movie sets; that’s also dried up.’”
“In high-demand areas like Liberty Village, King West and Corktown, condos are still going up and the investors who bought properties are starting to list them on the rental market, adding to the sizeable pandemic inventory. That means rents will keep dropping if the situation doesn’t change. So what’s the future hold for Toronto’s once soaring rental market?”
“John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty, says it depends on several different factors. ‘How long [the pandemic] lasts, how low rents go and how well financed investors are,’ said Pasalis. ‘Some investors are going to be forced to sell, and condo sales are already down in Toronto.’”