Single-family rentals on the rise in South Florida
Sep
22
2016
22
2016
Boca Raton Rental News & Updates
Boca Raton contemplates rental registration amid complaints of excessive noise, trash
Sep
16
2015
16
2015
By Emily Miller | Sun Sentinel
Boca Raton — For the first time, the city of Boca Raton is contemplating a program that would require landlords to register their properties and their tenants with the city.
Complaints about noise, excessive trash and parking led the city to consider the program, Mayor Susan Haynie said. Code enforcement officers interviewed the occupants of properties generating the complaints and determined a majority were student renters, she said.
Neighborhoods closest to Florida Atlantic University — namely those off Northwest 20th Street and Glades Road — have the most complaints, Haynie said.
Cash for homes
May
28
2015
28
2015
Mid-tier investors are snapping up properties
BY EVAN WILLIAMS | Charlotte County Florida Weekly
Florida homebuyers looking for a traditional mortgage and a place to live year-round continue to face heavy competition from cash buyers who are more often investors and landlords, vacation homebuyers and pre-retirees.
A wave of homes at the lower end of the price spectrum selling for cash, set off by the 2008 housing and foreclosure crisis, is subsiding across the country, but less so in Florida. The state in February had the highest share of cash home sales in the country at 54.6 percent, CoreLogic found, while 37.9 percent of homes sold for cash in the U.S. as a whole.
According to CoreLogic, more homes sold for cash in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in February (59.4 percent) than any of the other 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country except for Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Mich. (60.5). Four of the top five areas for cash sales were in Florida, with Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall (59.3), Fort Lauderdale- Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach (58.5) and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach (58.4) rounding out the list.
Apartment rents soar in March, but increases expected to level out
May
01
2015
01
2015
By Paul Owers | Sun Sentinel
Apartment rents continue to rise faster across South Florida than the rest of the country, and renters can expect to keep shelling out more money when their leases expire.
About the only bit of good news for cash-strapped apartment dwellers: The rent increases should start to even out.
The average rent in Broward County in March was $1,436 a month, up 7 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the Axiometrics research firm in Dallas. Over the same period, Palm Beach County's average rent climbed 8 percent to $1,429 a month.
Rental condos will be harder to find
Feb
16
2015
16
2015
By Paul Owers | Sun Sentinel
If you want to rent a condo or townhome, your options in South Florida are disappearing.
Many developers and investors who rented out units after the housing collapse are putting them back on the market now that home prices are rising.
That means you'll have a harder time finding one to rent, but you'll have more places to look at to buy.
Economy Watch: Why Smart Money’s on Multifamily
Jan
16
2015
16
2015
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor | MHNonline
For-rent multifamily is long past being the darling property type of the year for any particular year since the recession hit. It’s probably fair to say it’s the darling property type of the entire decade of the 2010s, and if the latest numbers on the industry are anything to go by, that isn’t going to change in 2015. To sum up: rents are still going up; vacancies might be edging up a little, but not too much, as more supply comes on line; and investors are spending money on apartment assets like sailors on shore leave.
Quite a turnaround. In 2004, I attended the National Multi Housing Council’s annual convention in Boca Raton. One of the persistent complaints at the meeting was how federal policy was, in effect, hurting the for-rent side of the residential housing market by (over)promoting homeownership. In fact, around that time (Q2 2004), the percentage of Americans owning a house hit an all-time high, 69.4 percent, up from 64.4 percent at the beginning of 1995. The home-owning high, of course, proved unsustainable for all the sad reasons that the recession unmasked. These days (Q3 2014, according to the Census Bureau), the homeownership rate is 64.3 percent.
This week the NMHC, in its Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions, reported that the U.S. apartment market’s still doing well. Only the sales volume index (44) dropped below 50–more than 50 means growth and optimism–with market tightness (51), equity financing (55) and debt financing (71) showing continued expansion. Those numbers aren’t quite as high as they’ve been in recent years, but they’re still solid. Demand is still believed to be ahead of supply. Another report by Marcus & Millichap this week generally confirmed these apartment trends.
As Boca allows taller downtown buildings, more in line for new heights
Dec
26
2014
26
2014
By Anne Geggis | Sun Sentinel
Even before downtown Boca's tallest building is completed, four new projects that will equal it in size are in the pipeline.
The 12-story apartment building, the Mark at CityScape, is scheduled to open early next year near the southeast corner of Palmetto Park Road and Federal Highway.
Officially, downtown Boca's buildings are supposed to go no taller than nine or 10 stories that measure 100 feet, plus some height for decorative elements.
Spending rises as economy improves in South Florida
Dec
11
2014
11
2014
By Donna Gehrke-White, Sun Sentinel
People seem to be loosening the grip on their wallets.
With the economy improving, household spending in South Florida has risen 6 percent in two years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says. People are spending more of their money on housing, clothes, groceries and personal care such as haircuts, the BLS said.
Overall, households spent on average $40,604 annually in 2012 and 2013, $2,250 more than the previous two-year period.
South Florida rents rise faster than much of US
Dec
03
2014
03
2014