Fighting the uphill battle of reviving a weak housing market, the Federal Government is planning on stepping into the market with a creative solution – to turn foreclosed homes into rental units.
The plan would create roughly 200,000 new rental homes this year.
Though still in the works, the US government has indicated it plans to carry out the operation in “early 2012″. That’s a relatively specific guideline, all things considered.
Despite encouraging signs, the housing market is still not recuperating at a healthy pace. Home prices remain low, yet the buyers just aren’t there. But where one market drags, another one flourishes.
Rental properties are providing huge returns for those able to make the investment.
The price of rent has been increasing rapidly in cities all over the country. But the cities where demand has increased significantly are those with strong job markets. Cities on the coasts like Washington D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle are seeing rent demand push prices up as they add more jobs.
So, you’ve rented, and maybe you’ve already owned a home, but, you’re back on the renting side. Somewhere, deep down, you’re questioning the economics of this decision and trying to determine if you should make the plunge to become a homeowner. After all, isn’t that the American dream?
Not according to the census data, which has been continuing a trend towards renting since around 2004, and FannieMae’s recent research. Nearly all data points to the growing rental market and the declining home ownership market, which if you are a property manager is really nothing new. What I think IS new and not often seen here are some underlying factors that will keep this trend in a continual movement for quite some time, which is also represented in the FannieMae statistics.
So, I’m sure by now you’ve heard the news that the United States Post Office will be changing their delivery schedule for first class mail.
See the USPS press release here.
For managers and landlords who are currently getting many of their rent checks via snail mail, this is terrible news. On average, it is said that standard first class mail will be delayed by 1-2 days, depending on the proximity of the delivery and time of receipt. However, the delay is likely to be much worse than this since Saturday deliveries are being cut as well.
So, a letter mailed out on Friday, in a close proximity location, will be slated for a 2 day delivery. It’s most probable that the first day counted in this piece would be Monday. This would put the delivery of a local piece on Tuesday or even possibly Wednesday. All in all, that counts for a 5-6 day local delivery.
The other day I caught a news segment on the newest outrage facing American [and many International] consumers: banking institutions’ plans to increadse service fees (some of which have been free services until now…). This includes, but is not limited to: elimination of “free” checking accounts, increased fees for overdrafting, bad checks, increased ATM fees, and even requirements to maintain a minimum balance in checking accounts that many people simply cannot afford today.
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