Salient to Investors: Home prices are rising faster than incomes in much of the US. Thomas Lawler at Lawler Economic & Housing Consulting said the decline of first-time homebuyers, hurt by rising prices and tougher credit standards threatens to widen the wealth gap between owners and renters. Lawler said potential
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Thomas Barrack Jr. at Colony Capital said: Institutional landlords building home-rental businesses in the US have yet to figure out the best way to sell their investments as they focus on expansion, while nobody is worried about an exit. 5 companies, including Colony, own 200,000 units, or
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Private-equity firms, hedge funds and REITs have bought more than 100,000 US homes, becoming dominant single-family landlords in markets hardest-hit by the housing crash such as Atlanta. Christopher Thornberg at Beacon Economics said investors that are building home-rental companies may not want to take on the red tape, stigma of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors are cooling on the fledgling US homes-for-rent industry. IPO American Homes 4 Rent was little changed in its first day of trading after raising almost 44 percent less than estimated in its initial prospectus in June and at the low-end of the offering range. The two other REITs that have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Builders are rushing to satisfy growing demand for rental units. Work on multi-family homes, such as apartment buildings, jumped 31 percent to an annual rate of 417,000, the most since January 2006. Aneta Markowska at Societe Generale said demand from homebuyers or renters does not matter because it’s roofs over peoples’ heads.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The flood of foreclosures predicted by experts two years ago has failed to materialize. Instead, the number of properties for sale shrank to the fewest in a decade, prices appreciated at the fastest pace since 2005, and the gradual healing of the housing market helped boost consumer confidence
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