The Coming Housing Calamity

I will give credit to a fellow Broker, Mike Attayek with City Gate Real Estate Services, for sharing this article with me. It's a bit academic, but very thought provoking and even builds upon my post earlier this month on Oil Prices and Real Estate suggesting urban rental markets are due for big rent growth.

The article, The Coming Housing Calamity, is written by Robert Steuteville off New Urban Network. He addresses issues like the coming great senior sell-off, rising household sizes, dropping home ownership, and tighter lending standards (accompanied by good graphs). He makes the point that the coming years will be a disaster for homebuilders and home ownership rates will decline, despite an increasing population. For some this is bad news. For apartment owners, landlords and managers that should mean higher rents and lower vacancies.

Renovation of Durham Building Delayed

The sale of the old Liggett & Myers cigarette building (where my wife's grandparents worked for 30+ years), known as the Chesterfield building, is scheduled to close June 30th. The local purchaser, Josh Parker and his parnters, originally planned to take ownership and begin renovations this Spring, but early July is the new target date to begin construction.

The Chesterfield building has been geared up for redevelopment for years, but partnerships gone bad and lack of financing have continuously delayed the project. Nonetheless, it seems to be just a matter of time before "Chesterfield Partners" has controll and begins transforming the building into a mix of apartments, office and retail.

Redevelopment of the site is one of the last pieces needed to bring together Downtown and the Brightleaf Square area. A history of the project, photos and additional links can be found on this site, which happens to be the best blog about Durham there is.

More Factors Making Apartments Favorable

Financing changes initiated by the government could continue to make it easier for apartment developers and operators to find financing while also making it more difficult for some home buyers to obtain loans. This article featured on MultiFamilyBiz.com explains these pending changes in more detail.

WCAA Meeting - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - Legistlative Update

The next meeting of the Wake County Apartment Association is this Thursday, 4/7/11. Our focus for the meeting will be on pending legislative issues, the biggest of which is House Bill 554 (described in previous post). Cheryl Houseman, Government Affairs Director for the Triangle Apartment Association, will help us understand where the bill stands and what we can do to help push it towards approval. Attorney Norm Praet will also be available to provide details about this bill and some of the other 'hot' legislative news.

For years we have been waiting for some "landlord friendly" legislation ... let's seize the day. Join us Thursday night so we can make our support for this bill heard loud and clear.

Location: Golden Corral on Millbrook Road, at the corner of Capital Blvd. Address: 2909 East Millbrook Road, Raleigh, NC 27604 - p) 919-872-0500. Time: Dinner and Networking 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm. Speaker 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm. Guest are always welcome. Membership is currently $15/year.

HB554 Residential Building Inspections

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2011&BillID=H554 The above link will allow you to download a copy of this newly proposed bill. As our friend Attorney Norm Praet says on his blog "If enacted this bill will be one of the BIGGEST success stories for the NC Apartment Industry!" Basically this bill has the power to end unjustified municipal inspections and registration programs like PROP. If you are a landlord you need to be aware of this bill and make your voice heard in support of it. More to come, but this will be the primary topic of the WCAA meeting on Thursday night, 4/7/11.