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Round Rock, Texas, just outside of Austin, is the top spot for renters, Rent Café reported May 31 in its ranking of 115 cities based on criteria such as cost of living, occupancy rates, quality of rental units and job opportunities. Raleigh, North Carolina, and Conroe, Texas, also ranked at the top.
Nearly one in five home sellers has dropped their asking price during the four-week period ending May 22, the highest rate since October 2019, which is indicative of a slowing housing market, Redfin reported. However, the median asking price for a newly listed home increased 18% year over year to $418,000, a new high.
Mortgage rates fell for the second consecutive week due to several factors, including slowing economic growth, a cooling housing market and reduced consumer spending on durable goods, Freddie Mac reported May 26 in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
Amazon is reportedly shedding more than 10 million square feet of industrial space, GlobeSt.com reported May 23. At the end of last year, Amazon leased or owned more than 387 million square feet in North America. With industrial construction completions down and rents up, returning the surplus space to the market could help the sector find equilibrium.
Home price growth in opportunity zones is keeping pace with national home price growth, up by at least 20% in more than half of the nation’s opportunity zones between the fourth quarter 2021 and first quarter 2022, ATTOM reported May 26. The median home price in opportunity zones is still less than $200,000.
Mortgage loan applications were down 1.2% from last week, and the Market Composite Index, which measures mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.2% from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported May 25 in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The Refinance Index was down 4% from the previous week.
The Biden administration on May 16 released its Housing Supply Action Plan to increase the supply of quality housing by closing the supply shortfall in five years, starting with the creation and preservation of hundreds of thousands of affordable units during the next three years. Rental and down payment assistance also are part of the plan.
The hospitality sector continues its recovery, with more than three-quarters of U.S. hotel markets reporting higher revenue per available room (RevPAR) than was reported in May 2019, before the pandemic put a halt to most travel, STR reported May 23. Leisure travel accounts for most of the gains, but business travel is increasing and boosting the performance of hotels in central business districts.
Physical office usage hit 40.5% nationally last month, the highest since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from Kastle Systems, GlobeSt.com reported May 16. However, office vacancy reached 18.1% during the first quarter and the rate is still rising, especially in expensive cities like New York and San Francisco where tenants are more financially motivated to shed space.
The ongoing rise in inflation and interest rates is putting the single-family housing market at the most significant risk for a correction, according to CBRE’s global chief economist, GlobeSt.com reported May 19. However, commercial real estate market fundamentals should be OK in the near-term.
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