The Rental Economy
13
2011
WASHINGTON – April 18, 2011 – More investors are taking on the risk of flipping homes, despite falling home prices and sluggish real estate markets across the country. But investors say there are still profits to be made in the house flipping business.
Nearly 1 million homes were bought as investment properties in 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors®, and a record number of buyers purchasing properties with cash currently are flooding the market.
Flipping homes for profit is easier in rising markets, but not many markets are reporting increases in home prices, analysts say. In Washington, D.C., Justin Konz of RestorationCapital says his clients are going through four or five properties a month and are making gross profit margins of 35 percent or higher.
By Michael Sasso | The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Florida's unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent in March, the lowest jobless rate since November 2009, new figures released Friday show.
That's significantly better than February, when 11.5 percent of Floridians were unemployed, and it marks the third month in a row that the unemployment rate has fallen.
WASHINGTON – April 14, 2011 – Apartment bargains once dominated the housing market, but those bargains have slowly faded away. As vacancies decrease and rents rise, renters are finding fewer deals.
Analysts expect vacancies to decrease even more and rents to continue to rise through 2013 as the economy continues to improve.
In 2011, rental activity recorded its best start for the year since 1999, according to Reis Inc. Vacancy rates have fallen to mid-2008 levels and rents have increased for the past five quarters, now averaging $991 per month nationwide.
By Les CHristie, Staff Writer CNNMONEY
Renters beware: Double-digit rent hikes may be coming soon.
Already, rental vacancy rates have dipped below the 10% mark, where they had been lodged for most of the past three years.
"The demand for rental housing has already started to increase," said Peggy Alford, president of Rent.com. "Young people are starting to get rid of their roommates and move out of their parent's basements."
By 2012, she predicts the vacancy rate will hover at a mere 5%. And with fewer units on the market, prices will explode.
By Jon Busdeker, Orlando Sentinel
John and Faith Forsythe live in a million-dollar mansion on Deer Island, but they don't own it. And they're not renters, house sitters or squatters either.
The Forsythes are "home managers" with Showhomes Orlando, a home-staging company that specializes in placing individuals and families in upscale homes for sale.
For a fee of $1,700 a month, excluding utilities, the Forsythes live in a 4,500-square-foot lakefront home with five bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a heated spa, hand-carved marble mosaics, 20-foot ceilings and a boat dock.
"It feels like this is our home," Faith Forsythe said.
By Robbie Whelan, The Wall Street Journal
Patsy Campbell could tell you a thing or two about fighting foreclosure. She's been fighting hers for 25 years.
The 71-year-old retired insurance saleswoman has been living in her house, a two-story on a half acre in a tidy middle-class neighborhood here in central Florida, since 1978. The last time she made a mortgage payment was October 1985.
And yet Ms. Campbell has been able to keep her house, protected by a 105-pound pit bull named Dodger and a locked, rusty gate advising visitors to beware of the dog.
"They're not going to take this house," says Ms. Campbell. "I intend to stay in this house and maintain it as my residence until I die."