SoCal: “Southern California apartment rents are expected to keep falling,” by by Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2010
Apartment rents are expected to fall as much as 3.5% in Los Angeles County this year, according to a study released Wednesday, as landlords compete for tenants in a market battered by stubborn joblessness and saturated with freshly constructed housing units.
For apartment dwellers, falling rents have been the housing bust’s thin silver lining: During the boom, rents had climbed in tandem with housing prices.
Southern California’s high number of foreclosures and the rampant overbuilding during the housing bubble has resulted in a glut of rentals as demand has slackened with high unemployment, according to the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast.
San Francisco: “Landlord sued by city, tenants: ‘Nothing wrong,’” by C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle, April 8, 2010
To say that landlord James P. Quinn is unapologetic about conditions in his Tenderloin apartments is an understatement.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed suit against him, and the San Francisco building and health departments have filed more than a dozen notices of violation and orders of abatement. Tenants have had issues of their own – cockroach and bedbug infestations – and have filed a civil lawsuit, claiming that some residents with medical problems have been trapped in their apartments for more than a month because the elevator doesn’t work. But Quinn insists he’s the victim.
National: “Renters Be Damned!” by Harry Moroz, The Huffington Post, April 7, 2010
It’s been a bad couple of years for homeowners. Home prices are way down, one in four mortgages is underwater, and foreclosures continue apace. But homeowners should take solace: at least their difficulties have caught Congress’s wandering eye.
Sure the big banks have made certain that the Senate has gummed up the most effective ways of addressing the housing crisis, such as principal reductions. But Congress did try to help out. First there was the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which created a $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers making up to $170,000 that homebuyers would repay interest-free. Then there was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that extended and increased the tax credit to $8,000, this time releasing the first-time buyers from having to repay the government. Finally, there was the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act, which threw caution to the wind, extending the program again, dropping the requirement that buyers be “first-time,” and expanding eligibility to any household making up to $245,000.
San Francisco: “Inside the Squat,” by Evan DuCharme, San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 6, 2010
Homes Not Jails (HNJ) has fought diligently for two decades to shed light on the economic disparity that exists in San Francisco, where the number of homeless people would fit almost perfectly into the supply of vacant homes.
So on a cold Saturday night, April 3, as I sit shivering in the back of a van waiting for my group’s turn to covertly enter a vacant house, I’m surprised at the calmness on some of the members’ faces. This group of eight is planning to enter and occupy apartments at 572 and 572A San Jose Avenue. And while only a few have been through this before, the rest make up for their lack of experience with a passion for the cause.
Nation: “Apartment Rents Rise as Sector Stabilizes,” by Nick Timiraos, The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2010
Apartment rents rose during the first quarter, ending five straight quarters of declines and signaling the worst may be over for the hard-hit sector.
Nationally, the apartment vacancy rate stayed flat at 8%, the highest level since Reis Inc., a New York research firm, began its tally in 1980.
Reis tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, and rents rose in 60 of them, led by Miami, Seattle and New York—all cities that have notched big rental declines in the past year.
Rents increased 1.6% in the first quarter in Miami and 0.9% in New York. The gains came during what is usually a seasonally weak period for apartments and suggested that landlords may have some momentum heading into the peak spring and summer leasing season.
