A report from Malibu Magazine in California. “Tom Clements, a Sotheby’s agent with 35 years of experience in sales and investments. ‘The 2019 statistics have been daunting. The number of sales from the first 6 months of 2019 were down 50% from 2018! The dollar sales volume through November of this year is down 40% from a year ago. $892,173,444 through November, 2018 to only $622,717,595 for 2019. As you can see we have a long way back. Currently there are 180 single family homes on the market in Malibu, both the beach and landside. And only 15 homes currently In Escrow with an Accepted Offer.’”
“Shen Schulz, is Sotheby’s Malibu’s #1 broker, with over $1 billion in sales. ‘It takes four to six months [to sell], sometimes up to a year out here. Sellers should be price conscious to adjust their prices sooner than later. Within six weeks consider a price reduction. Every other part of Los Angeles does that. Sellers in Malibu tend to wake up at around 6 months and consider a price reduction after they’ve already languished on the market. Buyers that come from other areas looking into Malibu, when a home’s been on the market for 6 months, which is the average time out here, they don’t know that; they wonder what’s wrong with the house. So it’s better to adjust their price sooner than later and I recommend doing that in the first six to eight weeks.’”
The Kern Valley Sun in California. “Issues surrounding fire insurance plans and their policies provided under the California FAIR Plan, and other insurance agencies, are becoming complicated for many residents of California who are considered to be in at-risk areas where wildfires are prone to create devastating loss. Essentially, this is a risk insurers do not want to take and little can be done to prevent the rise in rates attributed to the premiums. Many Californians, especially those of us who rent and own in the Kern River Valley, are deciding to opt-out of living in the area where wildfires are prone.”
“Many people are selling their properties cheap or deciding not to purchase homes in the KRV.”
The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “Builders are putting the squeeze on new homes to lower costs. The average new home size across the country is declining in response to higher house price tags and more buyers wanting to downsize. But the typical new home still has plenty of room at about 2,500 square feet last year. ‘It peaked at 2,689 square feet in the 2016,’ said Rose Quint, a top researcher for the National Association of Home Builders. ‘In the last four years, we have seen the average size of new homes decline every year. It’s the smallest house size we have put in the ground since the year 2011 in this country.’”
“Homes being built in the U.S. are about the same size as what builders were providing before the Great Recession. But the price tags are much higher. In 2005, the median price of new houses in Dallas-Fort Worth was about $176,000. Now a midpriced single-family home in the area costs around $350,000. With similar price increases in most states, builders are worried that they are pricing buyers out of many markets. So builders are trimming sizes and reducing frills to rein in costs.”
“In 2019, the average new home sold in North Texas was 2,774 square feet, according to housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. D-FW home sizes have fallen from the record 2,910 square feet average set in 2015. One way for builders hold down costs is to downsize the number of bedrooms. Less than 45% of homes built nationally in 2019 had four or more bedrooms, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ latest studies. ‘It’s been edging down in the years’ since the recession, Quint said. ‘It’s the smallest share since the year 2012.’”
“Consumers are also doing their part, turning their noses up at over-the-top home features. You’ll find fewer of those grand two-story entries and family rooms in new houses. ‘A lot of consumers consider those high spaces difficult to heat and cool, so builders are shying away from them,’ Quint said.”
The Wall Street Journal on Texas. “A group of Texas businessmen that launched a $1 billion plan to redevelop the Plano, Texas, headquarters of J.C. Penney Co. say they have been tripped up by the reluctance of lenders to get involved with a project that depends heavily on the health of the struggling retailer. The group led by Sam Ware and Jeffrey Blakeley bought the 1.8 million-square-foot building and about 45 acres of land from J.C. Penney three years ago in a deal valued at $453 million, including planned upgrades. Its strategy was to improve the sprawling building and add over $500 million of new retail, housing and hotel development. J.C. Penney agreed to continue to occupy and pay rent on two-thirds of the building until 2032.”
“Now the project, named the Campus at Legacy West, is running into trouble refinancing $384 million of debt because prospective lenders are concerned about J.C. Penney’s future. Mr. Ware predicted that his group would be able to refinance the debt and that the project would be a success. ‘We’ve got a spectacular asset,’ he said. ‘Anybody on this planet would love to own it.’”
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle in Montana. “Pleased to see that Andy Holloran continues his quest to address Bozeman’s shortage of $1.7 million apartments. Holloran says he has learned ‘what the buyers like’ and ‘is responding to what people are looking for in downtown.’ Obviously Holloran believes that others will help address ‘a shortage of housing and affordability’ while he specializes in providing ‘the next kind of generation of downtown living.’”
From Westchester Magazine in New York. “What does the eye-catching landscape of the Yonkers riverfront have in common with the top of a hill that overlooks the city of Peekskill? What about the sprawling downtowns of New Rochelle and White Plains and a former movie theater in Harrison? If you’re a developer, these are each prime locations to capitalize on one of the biggest trends in Westchester’s real estate market: amenity-laden apartment complexes.”
“In 2017, the City of Yonkers approved development projects comprising more than 3,000 apartment units, up from 2,800 in 2016. White Plains in 2018 gave the green light to almost 1,700 units over the course of the year. That same figure topped 2,500 in New Rochelle. Some developers estimate there could be as many 10,000 apartment units in various stages of development across the county.”
“But with the influx of rental units, both established complexes and those in the pipeline, it begs the question: Is the market nearing a point of oversaturation? ‘A lot of people say you must be concerned about competition, but absolutely not,’ AvalonBay’s Matthew Whalen says. ‘I think it’s great, and I think that there’s room for all of us.’ ‘Right now, I don’t think we’re even close,’ adds Randy Salvatore, CEO of RMS Companies. ‘I think we have a long way to go.’ Bridget Gibbons, director of economic development for Westchester County agrees. ‘The issue was that there weren’t enough’ rental apartments previously, she says. ‘This is filling a need. It’s not over saturating the market by any means.’”
“After considering numerous large-scale development proposals, Mamaroneck put a construction moratorium in place in last year, effectively halting all new construction on residential buildings with three or more units.”
The Oregonian. “After a decade of rising apartment rents and competition-crushing low vacancies in Portland, the pendulum has swung slightly in favor of tenants. New units flooding the market come with offers of up to eight weeks of free rent plus a $1,000 move-in gift card and other incentives like a $99 deposit with no lease length.”
“These price-lowering concessions are matching rents typical of older, upper-end apartments and putting pressure on owners of neighboring multifamily housing, according to Patrick O. Barry, an apartment appraisal specialist with Portland-based Barry & Associates. ‘It’s not too hard to pack up a one bedroom and move across the street to save $200,’ he said.”