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☆ Rents just fell to their lowest level in over a year as ballooning prices from the pandemic start to deflate, Redfin says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Rents in March declined to their lowest level in over a year, according to data from Redfin. That's largely due to the excess supply of multifamily units that were built during the pandemic. "Rents ballooned during the pandemic, and are now returning to earth," said a Redfin real estate agent. The trend is backed by earlier data from Moody's, which found that rents this year for multifamily units have declined in 76% of housing markets. In the previous two years, rents surged because incomes grew and millennials started families, Redfin explained.

☆ New home starts pull back in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, was down 17.2% from a year ago, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. After surging in February following five consecutive months of falling, March housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.420 million, down from the revised February estimate of 1.432 million. Single‐family housing starts in March rose 2.7% from the revised February figure, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 861,000. Housing starts had big drops in May and July last year, when spiking mortgage rates pushed many prospective home buyers to the sidelines. Starts bounced back slightly in August, but fell through January.

☆ Housing stocks are surging after data shows new home construction jumped in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF climbed Tuesday with shares of the country's largest home builders rising. Home construction fell 0.8% to a 1.42 million annualized rate, with a decline in construction starts of multifamily units. Despite the weakness in housing data, Bespoke outpointed that housing stocks have been rallying, pushing the ITB ETF close to 52-week highs. The ETF and housing starts data have tended to track each other over the past ten years. "They usually say the market looks six months forward, but in the case of housing stocks and housing data, recently it's been more like five," it said.

☆ Landlords pumped billions into apartment buildings during the pandemic. That bet could now go horribly wrong.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Big money investors pumped billions into buying up apartment buildings in the pandemic era. But fault lines have emerged for investors who paid top dollar for assets that depended on substantial rent increases and persistent low interest rates to achieve profitability. In those years, investors purchased $355.5 billion and $299.2 billion worth of apartment buildings, according to MSCI — unprecedented sums that far surpassed the previous $194 billion record of multifamily sales in 2019. "It's early, but it's going to become a bigger story, especially if interest rates stay high and lending standards are tight," said Alan Todd, the head of commercial-mortgage-backed-securities strategy at BofA Global Research. As these short-term debts come due, they will be difficult to swap with commensurately sized loans today, because of the falling values, higher interest rates, and lender caution.

"Weakness continues to develop in commercial real estate office," Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said on a call with analysts. Stress in the commercial real estate sector could have broad implications for banks and the economy, as losses emanating there can tighten credit availability and exacerbate a downturn. More than $1.4 trillion in U.S. CRE loans will mature by 2027, with some $270 billion coming due this year, according to real estate data provider Trepp. As the epicenter for the technology industry downturn, California's CRE market has been hit hard. Citigroup and Wells Fargo declined to comment for this article.

☆ The fallout from empty offices is coming. Here's where investors could see the pain
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

As concerns about regional banks roiled markets, investors weighed another threat: commercial real estate. Also, layered on top of the property value pressure, are the tightening credit conditions brought on by the recent turmoil in the banking sector. There is no doubt this scenario is a toxic mix for the capital-intensive real estate industry. At the moment, many experts say the real estate market isn't causing trouble for banks, but fears about the financial system are likely worsening conditions in real estate because liquidity is being reduced. The biggest concern is seeing how many other companies join Brookfield , Blackstone and Pimco in handing back the keys on office properties, Clancy said.

☆ Russia's war economy isn't as resilient as reports would have you believe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That brings us to today's main story — economists say the official data coming out of Russia isn't painting an accurate picture of Putin's wartime economy. "These are the things that businesses deliver and consumers purchase in an economy, and they have been absorbing the impact. Our tracker shows a contraction of the Russian economy ahead of the official figures release precisely because we use high-frequency indicators from the private economy." Vehicle sales, imports, credit growth, home prices, and other measures all point to a much less robust regime since Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine began. These four charts tell the story of how war has reshaped Russia over the last year.

☆ Demolish office buildings because demand isn't coming back, hedge fund manager says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Office buildings should be torn down as demand isn't going to bounce back, Kyle Bass said. Converting office space to apartments isn't practical either, he told Bloomberg. And despite the shortage in housing inventory, it's not practical to keep most buildings and convert office space to apartments, he added. You wouldn't want to live there," he told Bloomberg, citing the lack of light as an example. Others on Wall Street are also bearish on commercial real estate.

☆ Real-estate investor Anne Curry has built a 311-unit portfolio since obtaining her first rental property in 1997. She shares the no-money-down strategy she used to scale up— and how she eventually wor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anne Curry started her real-estate investing journey in 1997. She laid out for Insider in detail the method she used to scale up, starting with hard-money lenders. By the time they were ready to move out, the property had just about doubled in value to $124,000, Curry said. According to property tax documents viewed by Insider, she now owns a 59-unit property, a 30-unit property, an 14-unit property, and two 12-unit properties, as well as several smaller multifamily properties. Curry said the property was a good deal because big commercial real-estate investing firms weren't interested because it was considered affordable housing.

☆ Some new offices are mini towns with their own restaurants, doctor offices, and hotels. Workers actually want to go.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The idea is getting replicated from the Bell Labs location, or Bell Works New Jersey, Keating said. The spaces run by Bell Works' own coworking brand, CoLab, are nearly 100% occupied. At Bell Works New Jersey, Zucker partnered with Toll Brothers to build a 185-home 55-and-over community. At BRIC, tenants can take advantage of a dozen art galleries, some of which show the work of building tenants. A lobby area near offices at Bell Works Chicagoland.

☆ Houston Apartment Owner Loses 3,200 Units to Foreclosure as Multifamily Feels the Heat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Will Parker | Konrad Putzier | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/houston-apartment-owner-loses-3-200-units-to-foreclosure-as-multifamily-feels-the-heat-fb3d0e75

☆ Landlords who bought thousands of apartments are facing a reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Investors showed outsize interest in apartment buildings during the pandemic. Rents and occupancy rates were rising, interest rates remained relatively low, and rental-property prices were climbing with no sign of letting up during a surge in housing demand. Laguna Point did not respond to a request for comment. Marc McDevitt, a senior managing director at Cred iQ, said it was possible Laguna Point had lost some, or even all, of its investment in the deal. While offices have been going through a paradigmatic shift as more workers do their jobs remotely, apartment buildings have experienced robust demand from tenants.

☆ Here are Wednesday's top analyst calls of the day: Disney, Apple, Amazon, Dutch Bros, Meta & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy Bank of America said Disney remains "best-in-class." Piper Sandler reiterates Apple as overweight Piper said its survey checks show Apple is still a top pick for teens. Bank of America upgrades Livent to buy from neutral Bank of America said the lithium company's "value proposition" has increased. " Wedbush upgrades Dutch Bros to outperform from neutral Wedbush upgraded the coffee chain and said it sees more upside. Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy Bank of America raised its price target on Apple to $168 per share from $158 and said it sees iPhone trends stabilizing.

☆ The commercial real estate market is showing some cracks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But before we get too intergalactic, this morning we're stopping off in the commercial real estate space. In the wake of March's bank tumult, commercial real estate has frequently been noted as the next domino to fall — and one corner of the market is already showing signs of stress. A few things to remember:Higher interest rates have made it more expensive for both American households and large commercial real estate owners to buy or refinance property. Small and medium-sized banks hold 80% of US commercial real estate debt outstanding. What are the biggest risks, in your view, facing the commercial real estate market for the second quarter of 2023?

☆ Commercial real estate loan defaults will rise in a credit crunch but a crisis like 2008 is unlikely, says UBS
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Defaults on commercial real estate loans will likely rise from a potential credit crunch, says UBS Global Wealth Management. Data from Trepp shows the delinquency rate for loans in the office market climbed in March. After the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month, investors searching for signs of further stress in the banking system are seeing problems brewing in the commercial real estate market. Roughly $5.4 trillion in CRE debt is outstanding, with $1.2 trillion set to mature this year and in 2024, said UBS, noting the figures exclude multifamily commercial real estate. The office segment among commercial real estatement sectors only represents about 15% of the total value of commercial real estate, she said.

☆ America's Parking Addiction Hurts the Economy, Drives up Housing Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Jeral Poskey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

A society committed to housing and feeding its people will ensure plenty of land is dedicated to homes and farms. According to the builder WGI, the average parking stall in the US costs $27,900 to build, more than the cost of many new compact cars. The money and resources dedicated to parking could be used for other purposes, but breaking our country's reliance on parking has been difficult. Parking accounted for about 27% of per-unit costs, regardless of whether the resident owned a car or not. Better transportation, better land use, better citiesEfforts are underway to finally rid America of its unhealthy devotion to parking.

☆ Big real estate landlords are finally starting to decarbonize, creating an $18 trillion market that this Blackstone portfolio company plans to profit from at every turn
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Blackstone portfolio company Legence wants to be a one-stop shop for landlords. A Real Estate Board of New York study found that the total penalties could top $213 million. Its ICS became the strategic planner, its CMTA, which designed the first net-zero school in the United States, designed the upgrades, and its Gilbert Mechanical installed the new heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting hardware. How to do itIt may still be a challenge to coordinate decarbonization processes, which don't come naturally to large-scale real-estate operators, Boland said. Legence plans to grow the business's geographic scope and increase its depth in current markets, including Colorado and California, Sprau said.

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☆ Commercial real estate is struggling with rising rates and bank woes, but the cohead of a $21 billion lender said it's the best time in his more than 20 year career
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

High interest rates, office woes, and less bank funding are chilling commercial real estate. But a top commercial real estate lender said there's never been a better time for firms like his. It's a bleak time in commercial real estate, and it can be hard to find any rays of sunshine. One Bank of America analyst just warned commercial real estate presents a major risk regional banks that own a disproportionate 68% of the sector's loans. While interest rate uncertainty is clouding the commercial real estate outlook, some transactions could provide clarity to the market, de Haan said.

☆ U.S. cities are filling up with luxury apartments despite 'housing recession'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Carlos Waters | In Carloswaters | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Scores of luxury homes are coming to major cities across the United States. "You often see new housing branded as 'luxury,' in part because it's new," said Ethan Handelman, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "When you get to affordable housing, we need to be providing some additional capital and/or rental assistance to help make that housing affordable to the people who need it most." Builders say the high cost of housing in the U.S. is related to the large amount of regulation in the housing sector. In 2022, the Biden administration announced a housing action plan that aims to shore up housing supply within five years.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWhy cities are filling up with luxury apartmentsAn apartment building boom is unfolding in the U.S. This is a welcome signal as many cities remain stuck in a housing shortage. The shortfall in home supply has pushed many people into budget-stretching rents. Many of the new multifamily structures feature "luxury" amenities, such as pools and easy access to transportation. Washington policymakers are now attempting to address regulations that slow the pace of homebuilding, in an attempt to resolve rent inflation concerns.

☆ 20-year-old college dropouts explain how they built a 28-unit real estate portfolio with less than $1,000 in savings combined
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Caleb Hommel and Chuck Sotelo didn't have any savings when they decided to invest in real estate. It was during the thick of the pandemic that they started thinking about investing in real estate. If they can invest in real estate, anyone can, emphasized Sotelo: "We had no experience in real estate. We didn't have any credit, we didn't have any money, and we didn't really have any connections before we started networking during junior college. A lot of people are in better spots than that, so I definitely think anybody can get started in real estate.

☆ It's not easy being a bicyclist in the US. Better infrastructure could help.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Eliza Relman | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Advocates are asking for more funding for bike safety measures, in addition to e-bike tax credits. The best way to address biking safety concerns, advocates say, is to build better bike infrastructure, including a robust system of bike lanes. If passed, the law wouldn't directly address the most pressing safety and infrastructure concerns facing bicyclists, but advocates say it could help. At the same time, this growing community of new bicyclists would likely demand better bike lanes and other infrastructure. Ultimately, advocates say it's about return on investment: More bikes, and better bike infrastructure, could lead to big savings for commuters and a rethinking of how everyone navigates their landscape.

☆ Commercial real estate loans are the next major risk for banks, a top analyst said. Here are the top 20 institutions exposed to property debt.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Alex Nicoll | Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Silicon Valley Bank's historic collapse this month helped trigger the failures of a few other financial institutions and weeks of chaos in the world of finance. On Friday, a Bank of America analyst pinpointed commercial-real-estate loans as the next major risk for banks. Regional banks like Silicon Valley Bank hold 68% of all commercial-real-estate loans, many tied to struggling sectors, like office buildings. Even more worrisome, a massive $450 billion in commercial-real-estate loans is maturing this year, and most of that is held by banks. Silicon Valley Bank wasn't a major lender to the sector, but the failed Signature Bank, the 10th-largest lender on this list, was.

☆ A senior economist at Interactive Brokers shares why home prices across the country will fall another 11% over the next year — and why a 2008-size crash he had expected won't come after all
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Interactive Brokers Senior Economist José Torres says home prices will drop 15% peak-to-trough. The weakening in the housing market will continue into Q4 of this year or Q1 of 2024, according to José Torres, a senior economist at Interactive Brokers. Affordability is measured by home prices and mortgage rates relative to incomes. Yardeni ResearchTorres thinks affordability will stay at relatively depressed levels in the months ahead because he sees mortgage rates staying high. As for mortgage rates, consensus among firms like Goldman Sachs, the Mortgage Bankers Association, Moody's, and others is that 30-year rates will remain above 5%.

☆ Premarket stocks: Commercial real estate is in trouble. Why you should be paying attention
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Economists are growing concerned about the $20 trillion commercial real estate (CRE) industry. After decades of thriving growth bolstered by low interest rates and easy credit, commercial real estate has hit a wall. Before the Bell spoke with Xander Snyder, senior commercial real estate economist at First American, to find out. Before the Bell: Why should retail investors pay attention to what’s going on in commercial real estate right now? So the health of the market has an impact on the larger economy, even if you’re not interested in commercial real estate for commercial real estate’s sake.

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