Census reports on rental vacancy rates
The Census Bureau recently released its report on annual housing vacancies. The report looks at vacancies for both units owned as rentals and units owned for owner occupancy. While it does not separate out...
Measuring Multifamily LEED Certifications
A report by RentCafe examines the extent to which the multifamily housing industry has adopted energy efficiency in its buildings. It uses LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification as the criterion for...
Another view of rent growth
Apartment List has issued their rent growth report for April, 2019. It shows a slower rate of rent growth in the 12 months to March, 2019 than in the equivalent period in the prior...
Facebook charged under Fair Housing Act
Following up on a complaint filed last August, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed charges against Facebook on March 28, 2019. The charges allege that Facebook’s practice of allowing advertisers to...
Is rent control coming to Illinois?
For now, a state-wide prohibition on rent control remains the law of the land in Illinois. However, the election of a new governor, Democrat Jay Pritzker, who has expressed support for implementing rent control...
Census releases housing construction data for February, 2019
The Census Bureau released its monthly new residential construction report for February 2019. The report shows a market with conflicting signals with permit issuance and building starts going in opposite directions.
Permits soften
Nationally, permits for...
Jobs markets show strength
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report for January was recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Its data on the parts of the job market of interest to the multifamily...
Seattle zones for affordable housing
The Seattle city council has passed, and the mayor has signed, new zoning laws that will allow higher density housing to be built in 27 Seattle neighborhoods. The plan will affect about 6 percent...
Opportunity Zones beckon
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Act) created Opportunity Zones in an effort to attract investment to economically distressed communities. New investments in Opportunity Zones made through Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOF)...
Rent control back in play in California
When California voters in 2018 soundly rejected a proposition to allow rent control to be imposed statewide, you would be excused for thinking that the issue would be considered settled for a while. If...
Continued strength in multifamily rentals
Yardi Matrix released its February report on the multifamily housing market. The report describes a market with healthy year-over-year rent growth and solid occupancy numbers.
Keeping the streak alive
Yardi Matrix reported that the average rent...
Trump administration releases FY2020 HUD budget proposal
On Monday, HUD released the outline of the Trump administration’s HUD budget proposal for FY 2020. It seeks to cut the agency’s budget by $8.6 billion, eliminating some programs while boosting spending on others.
Dead...
Katerra takes off
When we last checked in with Katerra, it was a company with lots of cash and big plans for disrupting the construction industry. They recently held their Katerra Take Off event in Las Vegas...
Construction material prices steady in February
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its producer price index report for February, 2019. It showed that overall prices for processed goods for intermediate demand rose by 0.4 percent from January after declining...
Census releases housing construction data for January 2019
The Census Bureau released its monthly new residential construction report for January 2019. If it seems like you were just reading about the December report last week, that’s because you were. Since the December...
