Apartment Rents Rising as Vacancies Drop

ABC News and real estate research firm Reis report that across the country in many markets, the apartment rental business is very strong and that landlords have pricing power. Real estate experts have raised concerns about so called "Generation Renter" and this report speaks to that reality. A dilution of the first -time buyer pool is not bullish for housing prices, except if you're a landlord.

“Demand for apartments remains strong,” says the report. “There are a number of markets where rents continue to boom such as Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland-East Bay.” The building slump during the housing crisis meant little new supply and put landlords in a stronger position, allowing them to charge more. As the construction industry recovers, Reis expects vacancies to increase slightly in 2014 while rents rise by about 3.3 percent, on par with last year. Full story here.

In addition, the Atlantic reports that a growing affordability gap, even with historically low interest rates, represents a troubling trend. "The result is that according to the latest data, about half the 40.6 million American households that rent their home are what economists consider "rent burdened," meaning they spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing. More than a quarter are "severely rent burdened," meaning they spend at least 5o percent of their income on housing." Get the full article HERE.

At BuyerMLS, we're watching these trends and developments very carefully, especially as it pertains to the buyer market for housing.

WSJ's Mansion Section

Many of us consume tons of real estate related media on a daily basis. For my time investment, I love reading the MANSION section of the WSJ every Friday. A group of very talented (and in touch) reporters work this beat and they cover a wide range of real estate related articles, trends and developments with taste and a local knowledge that's unbeatable IMO.

Today, for instance, Sanette Tanaka writes about home staging and its impact on the impressions of potential buyers (HERE, no subscription required for this article). The topic is a scholarly paper and study, "The Impact of Staging Conditions on Residential Real Estate Demand," which has been accepted by the Journal of Housing Research for future publication at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. It features a study of 800 potential home buyers and their reactions to the home staging environment.

A WSJ subscription is one the investments I make each year and Mansion is one of the reasons they retain me as a customer. Check it out!

How BuyerMLS Helps Agents In A Softening Seller's Market

The American housing market has spent the past few months in the throes of a low inventory scenario with multiple offers and bidding wars being the standard way of doing business. That may start to die down some now that June saw a 'respectable' increase in listings. While it doesn't look like we'll enter a true buyer's market any time soon—for example: an agent I heard from this week said that last month they had two different homes sell with five and seven multiple offers, respectively—we just might see a softening in the advantages sellers have had this year. So how does a service like BuyerMLS fit into this new situation? It means it makes it even easier for real estate agents to do their jobs. Whereas in a strong seller's market BuyerMLS gives agents a greater chance of snagging a new listing because they can prove to the sellers that they have access to the buyers, a market with more inventory means BuyerMLS can make the matches happen faster. There might be less competition between buyers for the same house, but agents won't have to do as much work to woo them in. Since BuyerMLS provides a database of buyers ready to make offers the listing agents go there first. They scroll through the BuyerList before they invest in printing glossy brochures or expensive advertising. They can check and see if any buyers are a good fit for their listings in a matter of minutes—less time than it takes most of them to check their email each day. The softening seller's market is good news for those worried about possible price bubbles or market stagnancy but it is great news for agents in the BuyerMLS system since their jobs are about to get much easier.

BuyerMLS Has Arrived (at Times Square)

There have been so many milestones lately for this little start-up that could. First, we made it the final rounds of the prestigious Realogy Innovation Summit competition and now we're proud to share that a Times Square news crawl has BuyerMLS showing up on its screens. We've been piloting our product for the past two years, making sure that it worked well and adding upgrades like a BuyerList, heat maps, and a patent-pending matching system so now it's time to spread the word. Times Square, you're a dream come true.