Tag Archives: Rent prices

The year 2012 was a big year for certain markets as prices grew by leaps and bounds after seeing declines in 2011. On Thursday, Trulia released a report revealing changes in asking prices in 2011 and 2012 among the 100 largest metros. After measuring improvements over the two years, Trulia ranked Las Vegas as the top turnaround market based on its recovery in asking prices. Trulia also found nine out of the top 10 turnaround markets were located West and Southwest, and the top six saw double digit increases.

As Zillow continues to grow its rental offerings, the company announced it's providing a free service to help rental professionals grow their business. The company added Property Management Websites to Zillow Rentals.

Home values still rose into November, marking more than a year of monthly price gains, while national rents fell flat, according to data from Zillow. On a monthly basis, home values inched up by 0.6 percent from October, with the Zillow Home Value Index at $156,200 for November. For 13 straight months now, prices have displayed monthly gains. As home values rose, national rents averaged a slight 0.1 percent month-over-month drop, falling to a value of $1,278 in November, according to the Zillow Rent Index. Over a one-year period, rents still increased by 4.5 percent.

With fluctuations in rental and owner markets over the past few years, it can be difficult to determine whether one is better off renting or owning. In Manhattan, renting is currently the more financially viable option, according to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

As household formation mends and grows, the housing recovery will benefit overall, but the rental industry is expected to come out as the biggest winner, according to a report from Capital Economics. ""[W]ith the overwhelming majority of newly forming households over the next few years set to rent rather than own their home, the rental sector will be the disproportionate beneficiary,"" wrote economist Paul Diggle in the report. The analytics firm expects household formation to soon meet or exceed the rate of 1.1 million per year.

Rental income of residential properties, which CoreLogic defines as ""gross rents for homeowners and renters minus the associated cost of financing and other expenses,"" rose 12 percent from September last year. Furthermore, ""[t]his growth shows no signs of slowing down,"" according to CoreLogic. The data provider attributes the 12 percent growth to ""fundamental shifts in the housing market, driven by a large increase in affordability and rising rents.""

With about one-third of the American population residing in rental housing with climbing rents even despite largely stagnant incomes, the Center for American Progress argues for continued participation of the federal government in the multifamily housing market. Specifically, the organization supports a federal guarantee on multifamily mortgages. CAP says the Federal Housing Finance Agency ""appears poised to pursue plans to privatize the multifamily mortgage market."" However, CAP says doing so would ""be a big mistake.""

With much focus in the industry on the single-family mortgage market and the challenges it currently faces, the Mortgage Bankers Association created a task force to address policy concerns in the multifamily market. With more than one in seven households residing in multifamily rental housing, the MBA task force says ""ensuring a vibrant and stable multifamily finance system is equally important to the public dialogue."" The MBA task force outlined a five-point plan for the GSEs.

National gains for rentals still grew faster than asking prices for homes in November, but in certain metros, the trend was reversed, Trulia reported Tuesday. According to data from Trulia, rent prices in November increased by 5.6 percent year-over-year, while asking prices for homes were up 3.8 percent, representing the biggest increase so far this year. Even though rents stayed ahead with bigger improvements, asking prices in 14 of the 25 largest rental markets managed to post greater increases compared to rents, the data provider revealed.

The multifamily sector may not see much of a decrease in its vacancy rate over the next year, but the market is still considered to be tight and there's still room for growth, according to a report from National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR offered projections into four areas of commercial real estate: office, industrial, retail and multifamily markets. Out of all four sectors, the vacancy rate for the multifamily sector is expected to decline the least and fall by just 0.1 point. Despite the small decrease, NAR said the multifamily sector still has the ""tightest availability"" and the ""strongest rent increases.""