SFR Housing market institutional freeze
Just as national home prices were bottoming in early 2012 following the crash that started in 2007, institutional buyer Invitation Homes (owned by Blackstone at the time) was entering the U.S. housing market and...
Public Storage to acquire Simply Self Storage for $2.2 billion
Self-storage operator Public Storage has moved to buy Simply Self Storage from Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust for $2.2 billion. Demand for storage space has waned from the heights of the pandemic as people...
Fitch downgrades U.S. credit rating
Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating weeks after President Biden and congressional Republicans came to the brink of a historic default, warning about the growing debt burden and political dysfunction in Washington. The...
Groups urge Supreme Court to overrule pro-bureaucracy rule that aids administrative state
Limited-government advocates are urging the Supreme Court to overrule “Chevron deference,” a bureaucracy-empowering legal doctrine they say has distorted the U.S. system of government for decades at the expense of everyday citizens. The court’s ruling...
Incandescent bulbs banned (again)
The Biden Administration has implemented a ban on incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient bulbs, following a years-long bipartisan effort to phase out the bulbs after earlier regulations and standards were blocked by...
The Great Purpling
The sky over the city of Vancouver was the color of a television tuned to a Prince concert. OK, maybe not the whole sky. But enough of it that people noticed. A bunch of streetlights—a...
Young hires of 2023 ill-prepared
The effect of years of remote learning during the pandemic is gumming up workplaces around the country. It is one reason professional service jobs are going unfilled and goods aren’t making it to market....
American Homes 4 Rent, Invitation Homes strike separate expansion deals
For all the concerns about the rental housing business, American Homes 4 Rent and Invitation Homes are expanding. Single-family home rental REIT American Homes announced in the course of its Q2 2023 earnings results a...
A changing housing market has led to the rise of “attainable” housing brands
It’s no secret that housing costs have gone up in the last few decades—a lot. Buying a home has become extremely expensive in many cities around the country, and with ongoing high interest rates,...
FHA increases threshold for large multifamily loans
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has increased the threshold at which a multifamily loan is considered a large loan from $75 million to $120 million. This is the first increase in the threshold since 2014...
Housing’s recession already happened?
A lot of people still expect the U.S. to fall into a recession. But for the housing market, the recession could already be in the rearview mirror. Builders are sounding less downbeat than they were...
Rent control renaissance
Failed attempts to implement rent control remind us there is really only one way to lower housing prices when there is a shortage: build more housing. If one needed any more proof that rent control...
Making it to morning
“Tell us about the American miracle,” someone yelled breaking the crowd’s silence. It was 1981. The event was an international economic summit in Canada, and America was firing on all cylinders. The country was entering...
Hope and uncertainty
Better times might be just around the corner for apartment investors stressed by the highest interest rates in years. Or interest rates could easily keep rising as federal officials try to smother price inflation. The uncertainty...
The great setting of expectations
Good customer service begins with onboarding. Studies have shown that residents who are satisfied at move-in tend to remain satisfied through renewal and those who are unsatisfied tend not to renew. But resident onboarding is...
