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NCAI Leadership Met with AI 2019 President Stephen Wagner

NCAI 2019 President Sheri Colvin and NCAI 2019 President Elect Chris Johnson met with AI 2019 President Stephen Wagner at the AI Chapter Leadership Program in Chicago, IL – October 2018. Learn more about the event here.

  

Charlotte, North Carolina, Has Most New High-end Rental Property, Data Shows

Visit any urban center in a major U.S. city and you'll see a similar view: cranes dotting the landscape and billboards advertising units in the latest luxury apartment projects. Has the focus on high-end units gotten out of hand?

New research from RentCafe found that luxury rental properties had accounted for 79 percent of all apartment construction in the U.S. And in the 2018 that number has grown to a whopping 87 percent. In many cities, a full 100 percent of projects completed in the first half of the year were upscale units.

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CRE Investors Target Cities with Millennials, Start-up Culture: Report

By Michael Tucker

"The key word for real estate's future performance is transformation, in technology, in generational choices and in a reconfiguration of preferences related to geography and property types," said ULI Global CEO W. Edward Walter. "The market shift, which will continue to play out over the next several years, is being fueled by consumers and tenants changing the way they shop and live, what they demand of their spaces and by new technologies that will enable real estate to be more flexible and responsive to users' needs."

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FHA Cites Appraisal Concerns Because of 'Technological Shortcomings'

By Ben Lane

The world’s largest mortgage insurer can only check for mortgage defects on a “small” number of mortgages due to technological shortcomings and that’s leading to a potential rise in appraisal-related issues.

Federal Agencies Release FAQs Clarifying Appraisal, Evaluation Rules

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Oct. 16 published answers to frequently asked questions about appraisals and evaluations for real estate transactions that are covered by the interagency appraisal rules. 

Click here to view FAQs.

More Online Retailers Opening Physical Stores, JLL Reports

By Michael Tucker

A record number of e-commerce retailers opened physical stores last year and 850 more are set to open in the next five years, reported JLL, Chicago.

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Office REIT Sector Could See Significant Change, Transwestern Research Finds

By Patricia Kirk

A shakeup may be in store for the office REIT sector with firms likely to change hands as interest rates rise and investors—private equity funds, other REITs and foreign investors—seek opportunities for placing large amounts of available capital.

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Residential Foreclosure Rates Down Quarterly and Yearly, Report Shows

 ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, today released its Q3 2018 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows a total of 177,146 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — in the third quarter, down 6 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since Q4 2005 — a nearly 13-year low.

U.S. foreclosure activity in Q3 2018 was 36 percent below the pre-recession average of 278,912 properties with foreclosure filings per quarter between Q1 2006 and Q3 2007 — the eighth consecutive quarter where U.S. foreclosure activity has registered below the pre-recession average.

Click here to read more.

Mortgage Rates Reach New 7-Year High

The modest decline in mortgage rates is a welcome respite from the rapid increase in rates the last few weeks. While the housing market has clearly softened in reaction to the rise in mortgage rates, the economy and consumer sentiment remain very robust and that will sustain purchase demand, particularly in affordable markets and neighborhoods.

Click here to read more.

US Commercial Real Estate Likely to Benefit from Revised NAFTA: CBRE

By Michael Tucker

The North American Free Trade Agreement's likely replacement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, should increase U.S. commercial property market demand by decreasing uncertainty about trade, said CBRE, Los Angeles.

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FHA Reports Appraisal Issues on 37 Percent of Reverse Mortgage Loans

By Jessica Guerin

The Federal Housing Administration’s investigation into possible appraisal inflations on reverse mortgage loans revealed an issue the agency decided it must address.

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AI Recognizes 5 Individuals as 'Volunteer of Distinction'

The Appraisal Institute on Oct. 3 announced the recognition of five individuals as a “Volunteer of Distinction” for the third quarter. 
 
The individuals honored are:
  • Charles G. Argianas, MAI, (Chicago Chapter);
  • Hugh B. Bass Jr., MAI, (Atlanta Area Chapter); 
  • R. Wayne Pugh, MAI, (Louisiana Chapter);
  • Jose A. Rodriguez-Martinez, SRA, AI-RRS, (Puerto Rico and Caribbean Chapter); and
  • Leah Lasley Shell, SRA, (Arkansas Chapter).

Real Estate Economists Remain Positive on U.S. Economy and CRE Industry

By William Maher

Real estate economists continue to have a generally bullish outlook for the U.S. economy, capital markets, and real estate fundamentals. Overall, expectations have improved since the prior forecast in March 2018, and the strong second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 4.2 percent was fresh in forecasters’ minds as they weighed in on future years. Based on this forecast, the U.S. economy will easily surpass the current record for length of expansion (120 months) in mid-2019.  Consistent with a strong economy, key real estate metrics—such as NCREIF Property Index (NPI) returns and transaction volumes—moved moderately higher in this survey. While expectations have improved, the survey was completed prior to recently announced tariffs by the United States and China that could curtail growth in 2019 and possibly beyond. While there are many potential outcomes for the current trade dispute, escalated tariffs with China could dampen the next round of forecasts in April 2019.

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AI Distributes 45-Day Notice

The Appraisal Institute on Oct. 1 sent to 45-Day Notice an item pertaining to amendments to the organization’s bylaws and regulations 8 and 9. AI’s Board of Directors will consider the proposed amendments at its Nov. 15-16 meeting in Chicago. 
 
Read about the proposed admendments. AI professionals need to sign in to read the notice.
 
AI professionals need to sign in to read the notice. Comments should be sent to [email protected].

‘Green’ Home Improvements Can Pay Off: Appraisal Institute

The Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest professional association of real estate appraisers, today encouraged home sellers to consider making energy-efficient improvements to their properties and urged potential buyers to seek homes with those features.

“The latest research shows that green and energy-efficient home improvements have the potential to pay dividends for buyers and sellers,” said Appraisal Institute President James L. Murrett, MAI, SRA. “However, it depends on the improvements made. Some green renovations, such as adding Energy Star appliances and extra insulation, are likely to pay the homeowner back in lowered utility bills relatively quickly.”

Additionally, by purchasing an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for a home, the owner may be eligible for a federal tax credit based on EPA-established guidelines.

Three recent studies confirm that green homes sell for more than non-green properties:



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23 Members Designated in August

Congratulations to NCAI member L. Roger Webb, Jr., MAI, AI-GRS on his designation. The Appraisal Institute designated 23 members in August, including; and 5 who received MAI designations; 7 who received SRA designations; 9 who received AI-GRS designations; 2 who received AI-RRS designations. 

View the full list here.

Starter Home Prices Reach Highest Point in a Decade, NAR Announces

Starter homes are now more costly to purchase than at any time since 2008, when the last boom came to a crashing halt. In the second quarter, first-time buyers needed almost 23 percent of their income to afford a typical entry-level home, up from 21 percent a year earlier, according to an analysis by the National Association of Realtors.

The property market, after years of price gains that outpaced income growth, is showing signs of slowing as sales decline. The affordability crunch is especially severe at the low end of the market and in hot areas where supplies are tightest and values have risen most. A jump in mortgage rates this year only made it worse.

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Confidence in Multifamily Market Drops, But Stays Positive, NAHB Finds

Confidence in the multifamily housing market edged down in the second quarter of 2018, according to the Multifamily Production Index (MPI) released today by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The MPI dipped two points to 51 compared to the previous quarter.

The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current conditions in the apartment and condo market on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all of its components are scaled so that a number above 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are improving than report conditions are getting worse.

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Medical Office Vacancies at 10-Year Low; Developers Stay Busy, Report Shows

By Brian J. Rogal 

Once considered something of an afterthought by institutional investors, medical office has rapidly established itself as one of the most desirable sectors. And with so many favorable trends, including the aging of the US population and the desire among patients to see medical professionals in new facilities close to home, experts say new construction should continue proceeding at a healthy clip. For most kinds of commercial real estate, a rapid expansion is usually taken as a sign that a more cautious approach may be needed, at least from an investment standpoint. But medical office will probably escape that trap.

Click here to read more.

Existing Home Sales at 2-year Low: NAR

Existing-home sales subsided for the fourth straight month in July to their slowest pace in over two years, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The West was the only major region with an increase in sales last month.

Total existing-home sales1https://www.nar.realtor/existing-home-sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, decreased 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.34 million in July from 5.38 million in June. With last month’s decline, sales are now 1.5 percent below a year ago and have fallen on an annual basis for five straight months.

Click here to read more.