In Case You Missed It: Week of July 11
Commercial Price Growth Returns; More Renters Sour on Homeownership; Basel III Real Estate Revisions; Pokémon Go is a Real Estate Selling Point; and More.
Federal Reserve: CRE Activity Improving
Mortgage Bankers Association – July 14, 2016
“Demand for commercial real estate loans increased in the New York, Philadelphia, Richmond and Kansas City districts and plateaued in Dallas. Asset quality improved across districts except in Chicago and Kansas City, where it remained mostly unchanged.”
More renters sour on homeownership, some blame student debt
CNBC – July 13, 2016
“As home prices and rents continue to rise, confidence in the housing market is starting to wane. It is showing up in weaker traffic at open houses and less interest in taking on a mortgage as some worry about their student debt loads.”
Remove the zoning cap and increase housing density
Crain’s New York – July 12, 2016
“It can seem like gigantic apartment buildings are springing up on every corner, but constructing large residential towers in New York City is a lot tougher than you think. In fact, restrictions on residential-building size, even in the densest neighborhoods of Manhattan, are now working against the development of affordable housing.”
People Are Already Using Pokémon Go as a Real Estate Selling Point
Atlas Obscura – July 12, 2016
“Who needs parking when you could live near a PokéStop?”
Analysts Agree: Commercial Price Growth Resumes
Mortgage Bankers Association – July 11, 2016
“Meanwhile, Moody’s and Real Capital Analytics, New York, said their repeat-sale price index increased by 1.7 percent in May, led by core commercial prices, which rose 1.8 percent. Prices in the smaller apartment sector increased 1.3 percent.”
Blame It on Basel
Bloomberg – July 8, 2016
“Basel III, the set of banking rules created after the 2008 crisis to bulletproof the system against another major blow-up, may in a cruel twist have increased banks’ sensitivity to property. A regulation, now being revised, allowed banks to reduce the capital they set aside for loans to risky borrowers as long as there was real estate attached to the deal.”
And now for something completely different…
Ex-Google engineer launches blockchain-based system for banks
Reuters – July 13, 2016
“A former Google engineer, whose speech recognition software is used in more than a billion Android smartphones, has launched a company that uses blockchain technology to build a new operating system for banks.”