DRE News Clips
COVERAGE INFORMATION:
California Department of Real Estate (DRE) NEWS CLIPS service coverage:
Monday through Friday (except state holidays) each week includes electronic format articles retrieved from newspapers or news services that report real estate related news in California and some national services. Coverage is for California newspapers that are available electronically via the Internet - and any significant related breaking news.
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Copyright © , California Department of Real Estate
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Top Stories
U.S. Home Prices Hit an All-Time High in April
LILY KATZ, Redfin News
The median U.S. home sale price rose 6.2% year over year in April to $433,558—the highest level on record. Today’s housing market is much slower than it was during the pandemic homebuying boom, but prices continue climbing because there still aren’t enough homes to go around.
New Construction Activity Picked Up 5.7% in April
HANNAH JONES, Realtor.com
New residential construction activity picked up in April, climbing 5.7% from March’s downwardly revised rate, to 1,360,000 housing starts. The month’s rate was slightly lower (-0.6%) than the April 2023 rate. Single-family starts were 0.4% lower month over month in April, but remained 17.7% higher than one year prior, while multifamily starts climbed 31.4% month over month and were 32.9% lower year over year.
National News
Commercial Real Estate Lending in U.S. Slowed in First Quarter
MICHAEL GERRITY, World Property Journal
Based on new data from CBRE, the U.S. commercial real estate lending market slowed in Q1 2024 due to high interest rates and limited credit availability, but a tightening of credit spreads indicated signs of stabilizing.
Investor Purchases Up For The First Time In Two Years
ERICA DRZEWIECKI, National Mortgage Professional
Real estate investors bought roughly 44,000 homes in the first quarter of 2024, up 0.5% from a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin. This marks the first increase since the second quarter of 2022, following several years of dramatic ups and downs in investor purchases.
Which Cities Are Converting the Most Commercial Spaces Into Apartments?
MICHAEL KOLOMATSKY, New York Times (Subscription)
With a lack of inventory fueling the current housing crisis, U.S. cities are converting commercial spaces into residential spaces. In 2023, the number of apartments created in buildings that were originally designed for other purposes ticked up to about 12,700 completed units — nearly 18 percent higher than in 2022, when roughly 10,800 were created, according to a report by RentCafe.
California News
Only 17 Percent of Current Residents Can Afford to Buy a California Home in 2024
MICHAEL GERRITY, World Property Journal
The California Association of Realtors is reporting that only seventeen percent of the state's homebuyers could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California in the first-quarter 2024.
This is up from 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 and down from 20 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to C.A.R.'s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI).
San Diego is hiking developer fees, months after moving to fast-track approvals
DAVID GARRICK, San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego’s recent campaign to accelerate approvals of new housing and other projects is coming with a price tag: developer fee increases to cover additional city workers, new technology and other efforts.
Owner-users snap up office deals for discount prices in OC
The Real Deal (Subscription)
Office tenants in Orange County are eager to buy distressed office deals.
Four of the top five office sales in OC this year were by owner-users, or buyers who plan to occupy their new buildings, the Orange County Business Journal reported.
Industry News
Commercial brokerages trim payroll and diversify to stem losses
The Real Deal (Subscription)
As higher interest rates lower the number of transactions and eat into profits, North America’s largest brokerages have cut spending this year through “precision cost trimming,” CoStar News reported, citing regulatory earnings calls.
Real Estate Technology
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Property News
Build an Eichler-Esque Home—or Whatever You Dream Up—With These Customizable Prefab Frames
KELLY DAWSON, Dwell
Several years ago, Dave McAdam bought a two-and-a-half-acre parcel in Joshua Tree, where boulders are strewn across a desert landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see. He pictured a modern home there, but didn’t want to disturb the terrain and existing greenery by building it. So he created a system of lightweight components that could be put together without leaving much of a mark.
In Case You Missed It
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Resources, Webinars, and Other Items of Interest
What Small Multifamily Rental Property Owners Tell Us About Implementation of Tenant Protection Laws
SHAZIA MANJI, UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation
Though roughly 35 percent of the US population lives in rental housing, no comprehensive or uniform set of laws protects tenants across cities and states. Instead, a patchwork of local, state, and federal policies regulate rental properties. As the housing crisis has escalated, advocates and policymakers have pushed for and passed new laws to protect tenants from evictions, rising rent burdens, and discrimination. But passing new laws is only half the battle. Proactive education and enforcement is crucial to ensure that owners are aware of and abiding by these new laws, and that renters realize their intended benefits.
