💼 More Housing Pls

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Let’s kick off this week with some trivia…

In real estate, a property that is sold for less than the debt secured by the property is known as what kind of sale

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NATIONAL THUMBS UP 👍👍🏾👍🏼

A recent Pew survey revealed a resounding 'Yes!' from Americans on various zoning policies to boost housing availability and affordability. Here are some of the key takeaways for real estate watchers:

✂️ Overwhelming Support for Expedited Permitting: The survey revealed that a striking 86% of Americans favor faster permitting processes for new housing. This overwhelming support underscores a nationwide urgency to streamline housing development procedures.

🤝 Bipartisan Agreement on Housing Policies: An interesting aspect is the broad, bipartisan support for housing policies, transcending political, regional, racial, income, and gender lines. The eight most popular proposals saw clear majority support from Republicans, Democrats, and independents, highlighting a rare political unity in addressing housing issues.

Wait, Republicans and Democrats agreeing on housing policies? Now that's rarer than a unicorn at a donkey and elephant’s wedding! Who knew it just took a housing crisis to bring everyone together.

🐌 Incremental Changes Favored Over Major Overhauls: Respondents preferred policies that add housing primarily in commercial areas, with minimal impact on single-family residential neighborhoods. Over 70% support policies like simplifying permits and allowing accessory dwelling units. In contrast, more substantial changes like reducing minimum lot sizes on single-family lots received lesser support, indicating a cautious approach to altering established residential areas.

These findings reflect a significant shift in public sentiment towards more proactive housing policies. The data points to a national consensus on the need for practical and incremental policy changes to tackle the housing affordability crisis.

HEADLINES

Meet TOD: British Columbia's transit-oriented development (TOD) legislation is groundbreaking for Metro Vancouver, targeting increased housing density near rapid transit. This legislation mandates higher building heights and densities, particularly around SkyTrain stations, aiming to transform low-density areas into vibrant, connected communities. While the impact on existing urban policies like Vancouver's view cone rules remains unclear, the approach promises more accessible, sustainable living spaces (Daily Hive).

Real Estate Rumble (Which Round Are We On Again?): More from the DOJ vs. NAR showdown! The legal tussle between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is heating up. The DOJ is not backing down, appealing a court ruling favoring NAR, which challenges limits on probing NAR's policies about buyer broker commissions and pocket listings. A settlement was reached in 2019 under Trump's DOJ, but Biden's DOJ withdrew from the deal in 2021. NAR's standing firm, confident in their stance, while DOJ's all geared up to make its case in the appeals court. Despite this courtroom drama, other antitrust lawsuits against NAR remain on the roll (Inman).

Housing Hustle: Last week's revised US GDP report dropped a bombshell: for the first time in over two years, residential investment added to the economy's growth. Surprising? Absolutely, especially since the housing market boomed despite 30-year mortgages hitting a 20-year high at 7%. Builders are apparently borrowing like there's no tomorrow, boosting construction jobs to record highs (hello, 8 million workers!). But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The commercial real estate sector's feeling the squeeze, with transactions plunging 50% year-over-year. While residential construction's still kicking, high mortgage rates are crushing existing home sales, dragging down everything from furniture purchases to home goods. Yet, builders are getting crafty, using teaser rates to keep buyers interested, and strong employment plus rising wages are keeping the dream alive (Bloomberg).

BY THE NUMBERS

3.6 Months: That’s the month’s housing supply in America, sitting at about half of what would be considered normal market conditions. This keeps upward pressure on prices, which were reported to have increased by 3.9% in November (S&P).

7.17%: Mortgage rates fell to 7.17%, the lowest since August 2023, due to slower inflation and expectations of the Fed's hiking cycle ending. This led to a 2.8% increase in mortgage loan applications week-over-over, with the Refinance Index up 14% from the previous week and 10% higher than last year (MBA).

$1,499: Buying a home is now more expensive nationwide than renting, as the national medians for both one- and two-bedroom homes have experienced a decline for the second consecutive month. The latest data reveals that the new national median for a one-bedroom home is $1,499, indicating a month-over-month decrease of 0.4%. Similarly, the median price for two-bedroom homes has also declined, reaching $1,856, representing a month-over-month decrease of 0.3% (Zumper).

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