Apartments: Market Conditions Tighten

The Market Tightness Index, which examines vacancies and rents, rose to a record 90 from 78 last quarter. For all indexes, a reading above 50 indicates improving market conditions. Almost four in five respondents (79%) said markets were tighter (lower vacancies and/or higher rents) and—for the first time ever—not a single respondent thought conditions were looser.

Resurgent USA: New Households Form at Fastest Rate Since ’07

New Households Form at Fastest Rate Since ’07 in Resurgent U.S. By Steve Matthews – May 1, 2011 6:01 PM CT Millions of young adults like Webb are starting to leave their parents’ homes, creating households at the fastest rate since 2007. They’re helping to provide a so-called shadow supply that may boost U.S. housing starts more than 50 percent by next year and spur consumption at a rate...

Apartments: Increased Occupancy, Rents, and Net Income

April 26, 2011 From the Associated Estates Realty Corp (AEC) conference call, an apartment REIT in IN, OH, MI and PA (ht Calculated Risk): Looking at certain performance metrics throughout our portfolio, we continue to see residents staying longer – on average, 18 months. Also, it has been well publicized, households have a greater propensity to rent versus own as renting allow for...

Price-to-Rent Ratio (Owners Equivalent Rent)

This graph shows the price to rent ratio. The Composite price-to-rent index is just above the May 2009 levels, and the CoreLogic index is back to January 2000. Owners’ Equivalent Rent (OER) is at about the same level as two years ago – so the price-to-rent ratio has followed changes in house prices since then. Rents have been increasing again, so the OER will likely show an increase...

Las Vegas: Might see 1/3 appreciation if you buy now.

More than half of this year’s purchases were all-cash transactions, a sign that investors are finding bargains at the low end of the market, said Robert Lang, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.… “Prices are below the cost of materials and labor,” said Lang, also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “If you’re betting the U.S. economy won’t go back to Armageddon, you might see one-third appreciation if you buy now.”

Nearly half of the housing market is now distressed properties

HousingPulse Distressed Property Index Rises for Month; Homebuyer Traffic Flattens WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 25) – The HousingPulse Distressed Property Index (DPI), a key indicator of the health of the U.S. housing market, rose to 48.6 percent in March – the second highest level seen in the past 12 months. In another potentially significant development, the HousingPulse Homebuyer Traffic Index...

USA rents could rise 10%

Renters beware: Double-digit rent hikes may be coming soon. Already, rental vacancy rates have dipped below the 10% mark, where they had been lodged for most of the past three years. “The demand for rental housing has already started to increase,” said Peggy Alford, president of Rent.com. “Young people are starting to get rid of their roommates and move out of their...

House Prices: Price-to-rent, Price-to-median Household Income

There is no perfect gauge of “normal” house prices. Changes in house prices depend on local supply and demand. However I’ve found the three most useful measures of house prices are 1) real house prices, 2) the house price-to-rent ratio, and 3) the house price-to-median household income ratio. These are just general guides, but they are still useful (these are national numbers,...

Apartment Rentals Surge in U.S

The number of occupied apartments increased by 215,000 in the 64 largest U.S. markets in the first half, according to MPF Research. That’s almost double the units added in all of 2009 and the most since the firm began tracking the data in 1992. The vacancy rate declined to 6.6 percent last month from 8.2 percent in December. “Demand is pretty stunningly strong in the first half,” Greg Willett, a vice president at the Carrollton, Texas-based apartment-industry research firm, said in an interview.

Double-digit rent hikes are on the way

Apartment dwellers could be facing double-digit rent increases in the coming years as a shortage of new multifamily units coupled with a rise in prime renter-age households gives landlords clout they haven’t see since the mid-1990s, development experts said Thursday. “Demand pressures are building. It’s not bad today because rents have been down the last two years,” said William McLaughlin, an executive vice president with AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) in the Northeast. “But it feels a lot like 1992, when we were coming out of a deep recession … and we ended up seeing double-digit rent increases after that,” he said.

CNBC: Making money on USA foreclosed homes.

In this video, prominent US hedge fund manager Aaron Edelheit tells CNBC’s Diana Olick how he’s making money in foreclosed single family homes. This is precisely what American Full House is doing for investors, one at a time!

Foreign Investors See Opportunity of a Lifetime

At one time, these people would have invested in the U.S. stock market. Now they see the opportunity of a lifetime in the nation’s debilitated housing market. The idea is to rent out the properties and then sell them once the economy turns around.