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Realtor.com® January Rental Report: Only One Major Market Remains Below $1,000 Threshold

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Oklahoma City, OK; Louisville, KY; and Birmingham, AL led the nation with the cheapest monthly rent payments in January The financial pain of shelling out sky-high rent is a reality for many, with median prices in some U.S. metro areas at nearly $3,000 a month. Yet, in certain metros among the country’s 50 largest markets, renters can still find relative affordability, according to the Realtor.com® Monthly Rental Report. Oklahoma City, OK is the only metro among the 50 largest in the nation where renters can find a median-priced apartment for less than $1,000 a month. The report showed that Oklahoma City offered the lowest monthly rental price in January, at $982. There are 10 markets where median monthly rents are lower than $1,300, according to the report. Half are in the Midwest, four are in the South, and one is in the Northeast. None are in the West. The least expensive markets are: Renters looking to take advantage of the best possible prices should move quickly. While the rents in these metros are the lowest among the 50 largest, for many of them, prices are increasing at a faster rate than in the rest of the country. “With high rents across the country, places that offer relative affordability tend to be in high demand, which means more competition and that these lower prices might not last,” said Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Many of these metros have fewer available rental homes than previous months, and fewer apartments to choose from means prices are likely to go up. Cities including Indianapolis, Birmingham, Columbus, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Rochester are among the more affordable metros that experienced the fastest year-over-year price increases in January 2023, leaving few metros that are maintaining their current level of affordability.” Many of these areas also have less rental availability than in past years, suggesting that affordable metros are increasing in popularity. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the average rental vacancy rate across these least expensive markets was 7.6% — a significant drop from the 9.7% vacancy rate in the fourth quarter 2017. However, seven of the most-affordable areas still had greater vacancy rates than the country’s average, which was last tracked at 5.8% nationwide. Nationwide, rent growth for studio to two-bedroom properties continued to slow. Median rent was down 2.9% year-over-year, the lowest growth rate in 22 months. In comparison, January 2022 rent was up 16.2% from the year prior. Last month was the twelfth month of cooling rent growth and the sixth month in a row with a single-digit rate increase. The median asking rent in the 50 largest metros declined to $1,726, down by $7 from last month and $80 less than the August 2022 peak of $1,806. Yet, rental prices are still up 20.6% ($295 higher) from pre-pandemic January 2020. SOURCE Realtor.com

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Count of Vacant Homes in Foreclosure Increases for Fourth Straight Quarter; Numbers Keep Rising Gradually Since Lifting of Foreclosure Moratorium in 2021; However, Zombie Properties Still Represent Just One of Every 12,400 Residential Properties ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, released its first-quarter 2023 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.3 million (1,284,048) residential properties in the United States sit vacant. That figure represents 1.3 percent, or one in 79 homes, across the nation. The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM — including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly updated vacancy data. Vacancy data is available for U.S. residential properties at https://www.attomdata.com/solutions/marketing-lists/. The report also reveals that 298,533 residential properties in the U.S. are in the process of foreclosure in the first quarter of this year, up 5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022 and up 29.9 percent from the first quarter of 2022. A growing number of homeowners have faced possible foreclosure since a nationwide moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners, imposed after the Coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, was lifted in the middle of 2021. Among those pre-foreclosure properties, 8,141 are zombie foreclosures (pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners) in the first quarter of 2023, up 5.4 percent from the prior quarter and up 10.6 percent from a year ago. The count of zombie properties has grown in each of the last four quarters. Despite the ongoing increase, the number of zombie-foreclosures remains historically low, with little impact on the nation’s total stock of 101.1 million residential properties. Just one of every 12,415 homes in the first quarter of 2023 is vacant and in foreclosure. That ratio is up from one in 12,963 in the fourth quarter of 2022 and from one in 13,424 in the first quarter of last year. “The potential damage from zombie foreclosures and the decay they can cause remains far off the radar screen throughout much of the country,” said Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM. “Although, there are few signs that indicate this could change over the coming months, as the numbers continue ticking upward, along with foreclosures in general. That’s something we will continue to keep an eye on, especially in economically distressed communities.” The latest zombie foreclosure numbers – still a minimal presence throughout most of the country – continues one of the most enduring effects of the 11-year U.S. housing market boom that more than doubled the national median home value. The runup stalled in the second half of last year as the median single-family home price dipped 8 percent nationwide. The number of foreclosures also has grown steadily since the moratorium was lifted. But the decade of price gains boosted the typical selling profit margin up over 50 percent and raised homeowner equity to the point where almost half of all mortgaged homes across the country are worth at least twice what owners still owe on their loans. That, along with high employment and other factors, has left most homeowners in a strong enough position to resist foreclosure or at least sell their homes if they fall far enough behind on their mortgages to face a lender takeover. The current situation stands in marked contrast to the years when the housing market collapsed following the Great Recession and a surge in homeowners abandoned their properties to foreclosure. Zombie foreclosures inch up again but remain tiny portion of overall market A total of 8,141 residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the first quarter of 2023, up slightly from 7,722 in the fourth quarter of 2022 and from 7,363 in the first quarter of 2022. While zombie foreclosures remain a rarity in most neighborhoods around the U.S., the biggest increases from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023 in states with at least 50 zombie properties are in Iowa (zombie properties up 42 percent, from 160 to 227), Arizona (up 25 percent, from 40 to 50), Oklahoma (up 20 percent, from 118 to 142), Maryland (up 20 percent, from 150 to 180) and Massachusetts (up 17 percent, from 63 to 74). The biggest quarterly decreases among states with at least 50 zombie foreclosures are in Maine (zombie properties down 10 percent, from 67 to 60), Nevada (down 10 percent, from 101 to 91), Georgia (down 6 percent, from 83 to 78), Connecticut (down 3 percent, from 75 to 73) and Michigan (down 3 percent, from 76 to 74). Overall vacancy rates remain virtually the same The vacancy rate for all residential properties in the U.S. has held steady in the first quarter of 2023 after dropping in the prior three quarters. It now stands at 1.27 percent (one in 79 properties), virtually the same as the 1.26 percent level in the fourth quarter of 2022 (one in 79), but still down from 1.37 percent in the first quarter of last year (one in 73). States with the biggest annual drops in the overall vacancy rate include Tennessee (down from 1.94 percent of all homes in the first quarter of 2022 to 1.12 percent in the first quarter of this year), Georgia (down from 1.74 percent to 1.44 percent), Minnesota (down from 1.02 percent to 0.78 percent), New Mexico (down from 2.07 percent to 1.86 percent) and Kansas (down from 2.35 percent to 2.15 percent). Other high-level findings from the first quarter of 2023:

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Regrid — a leading provider of nationwide land parcel data in the United States has launched their latest product of Enhanced Ownership as an add-on solution to their nationwide parcel data, providing the most current ownership information available with a daily delivery of recordings. Transparency into changes to property ownership is key to arriving at insights into economic trends, indicators of economic activity, the need to take action by various users, and many more. For these reasons, the Regrid team has committed to delivering daily recordings of ownership changes for use cases that absolutely need that level of currency. The Enhanced Ownership dataset is an enhancement both in currency & depth of information on top of the ownership data their base parcel data already contains. “Knowledge of ownership – including changes to ownership – is key to understanding a property or place,” says Regrid CEO, Jerry Paffendorf. “Increasing the frequency of ownership updates is an awesome addition to our core dataset, and we’re very happy to work with our friends at ATTOM to provide it.” Regrid has partnered with ATTOM to create this enhanced product. “Our mission at ATTOM has always been to increase real estate transparency and improve decision making across various industries,” said Sean Mooney, vice president of product at ATTOM. “In joining forces with Regrid and utilizing ATTOM’s robust ownership data, which provides enhanced currentness, coverage, completeness, and standardization of property ownership data, users can streamline decision making and gain deeper intelligence about a property.” For use-cases that rely on the most current and complete ownership data, Regrid’s Enhanced Ownership parcel data add-on solution includes multiple owner names (shared ownership), mailing addresses and ownership information, matched at a parcel level with Regrid’s universal unique parcel IdeededD. This new solution empowers users in real estate, 5G broadband planning, energy and utility infrastructure management and planning, and even as an input into advanced growth models to name just a few use cases for this insightful content. Please join Regrid data experts, Sahana Murthy, Chief Product Officer and Mathew Karli, Product Manager on Mar 1, 2023 at 2:00 PM EST to get a preview of this data and the story behind why Regrid is making this valuable dataset available to the market. Sign up for the live event or to view the recording here. About Regrid: Regrid is an industry-leading property data and location intelligence company, serving an array of industries that require land parcels and spatial data at scale, including real estate, insurance, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, logistics, and government. Learn more about Regrid and their products at regrid.com The Regrid team can be reached out at parcels@regrid.com

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Proactive pricing key to optimal distressed disposition outcomes as housing market slows; Auction bidder behavior predicting retail home price declines in 4 of 10 largest U.S. markets; Some high-level takeaways from the report: Auction.com, the nation’s leading distressed real estate marketplace, released its 2023 Distressed Market Outlook report, which shows that foreclosure volume is poised to continue its gradual post-moratorium rise in 2023 after plateauing in late 2022. A regression model with inputs of unemployment rates, home equity rates, mortgage rates, seriously delinquent (SDQ) mortgage rates and average days delinquent forecasts 104,000 completed foreclosure auctions nationwide in 2023. That would represent an increase of 24 percent from the projected 2022 total of 84,000 but would still be about half of the pre-pandemic level of 206,000 in 2019. “As pandemic-era foreclosure protections gradually phased out in 2022, we saw a slowly rising tide of completed foreclosure auctions, not a massive tsunami that some might have feared,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of market economics at Auction.com. “Even with the forecasted increase of 24 percent in 2023, completed foreclosure auctions would still be at about half of their 2019 levels.” Bidder behavior predicting slowdown The report also shows demand for distressed properties shifting lower in the last three quarters of 2022 as buyers at foreclosure auction and REO auction anticipated the downshift in the retail housing market and began bidding more conservatively. “I’ve seen a lot of my competitors just stop buying … expecting prices to go lower and so they are wait and see,” said Francois Delille, a foreclosure auction buyer in the Houston area. Bidding behavior at auction acts as a reliable predictor of future price appreciation in the retail market, and this bidding behavior points to falling home prices in early 2023 in four of the 10 largest U.S. metro areas. “You have to be careful about fixing and flipping that you’re not catching a falling knife,” said Florida-based REO auction buyer Paul Lizell. “Just be a little more conservative. … For us we are shifting, too, where we’re buying. Some of your more cyclical markets may take a 20 percent hit.” Proactive pricing at auction produces lift The report includes results from an analysis of lender pricing strategies at foreclosure auction in Q4 2022 in response to the shifting distressed property demand and slowing retail housing market. Lenders who adopted a more proactive pricing strategy saw a net gain of 40 points in sales rate when compared to lenders who stayed with a more status quo pricing strategy. The proactive pricing strategy came with a net loss of 2 points in price execution when compared to the status quo pricing strategy. “With home prices now down more than 9 percent from their May 2022 peak and forecast to fall further in many markets, lenders who price proactively will minimize the risk of taking on properties that are losing value every day,” said Ali Haralson, president of Auction.com. Other report takeaways: “The distressed market was infused with some of the same exuberance that dominated the retail housing market in 2021 and early 2022, but distressed property buyers quickly returned to more sustainable bidding strategies as the market slowed in response to spiking mortgage rates,” said Jason Allnutt, CEO of Auction.com. “Sellers most nimble in this volatile market will produce the best and most responsible distressed disposition outcomes in 2023.” About Auction.com Auction.com is the world’s leading distressed real estate marketplace that engages buyers with a real-time bidding process, providing more transparency than a traditional real estate transaction. With more than 700 employees in offices across the United States, Auction.com uses world-class technology and data science to bring buyers and sellers closer together, bridging the gap between both sides and unleashing the power of the marketplace with its unrivaled transaction platform. For more information, visit: https://www.auction.com Contact Daren BlomquistAuction.com Tel.949.355.3371 Email: dblomquist@auction.com

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The Allied Magnet States Report tracks migration patterns in the US. Data shows fewer people moved in 2022 compared to 2021. In fact, moves plummeted in every state, resulting in a 20 percent decrease over last year. Rising rents and interest rates, along with inflation and falling wages, meant people moved less in 2022 than they did during the coronavirus pandemic. Those who could afford to relocate, moved south and settled along the Sunbelt, which offered stronger economic opportunities and a lower cost of living than the West Coast or Northeast. Key Takeaways From the Allied Magnet States Report Where People Moved To in 2022 The most moved to states in 2022 were both affordable and offered better financial security, which explains why states like California lost residents to Texas and Arizona. Even though California’s GDP rose eight percent (making it one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, behind only Hawaii and Nevada), its cost of living was extremely high (third behind only Hawaii and Alaska) and its average weekly wages fell by 0.6 percent over the course of the year. At the same time, while Texas saw only 6.4 percent growth, its wages rose 6.4 percent and its cost-of-living is one of the lowest in the country. The same can’t be said for Arizona. Its prices rose in 2022, mostly due to increased demand for housing. Nonetheless, Arizona’s cost-of-living is still nowhere near as high as California’s cost-of-living and its wages grew 5.8 percent over the same period. The pattern repeats with unemployment figures. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Illinois are not expensive states, but have experienced slow job growth compared to North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. New Jersey has seen large job growth, but is significantly more expensive than states further south, explaining why it continues to lose population. Housing Prices Rose in Destination Cities Rising interest rates and a stagnant uncertain economy has put homeownership nearly out of reach in major cities. As a result, smaller, low-priced markets saw significant growth last year, while large, high-priced markets saw a corresponding decline. The average home price in New York City is 119% above the national average. It’s 140% in Anaheim and 166% in San Diego. Riverside is more affordable, with homes 73% above average. Chicago is an outlier among outbound cities this year, the only one with a housing market below the national average, a sign other factors (e.g. crime, economy) play a more significant role in its migration patterns. Austin is an outlier among inbound cities. Before the pandemic, its home prices were 48% above the national average, while the other four cities on the list had prices below or close to it. Unfortunately, the recent rush of new residents has pushed up prices in every city on the list except Tucson, whose prices are still below average, which is no doubt one of the reasons why it surpassed Phoenix to become the top inbound city in the state this year. Suburbs Were More Popular Than Cities Large cities struggled to attract new residents in 2022. Besides the five listed above, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. also saw major losses. Even Phoenix, the most popular inbound city in 2021, fell to number six this year. While housing prices obviously played a role, so did the coronavirus pandemic, which led to more Americans working from home. (Many of the current migration patterns in the US can be traced back to the pandemic.) Now that they no longer need to come into the office, people are free to live where they prefer. Whereas previously they had to stay in the city, now workers can choose to live further out, in communities with cheaper housing and better access to nature. Before the pandemic, most Americans bought houses 15 miles from their old homes. Today, they’re buying houses 50 miles and greater from their old homes, outside major metro areas. Suburbs are cheaper, greener, and offer more living space than cities, hence it’s not surprising consumers are taking advantage of the opportunity and moving out.

MCS Broadens Commercial Property Service Offerings with Acquisition of Chain Store Maintenance

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Firms Join Forces to Strengthen Interior and Exterior Facility Services Available to Retail, Restaurant, Office, Lodging and Other Commercial Customers MCS, the national property services Company founded in 1986, announced it has acquired industry-leading commercial facilities services firm Chain Store Maintenance (“CSM”). MCS’s interior commercial facility services platform will be marketed as Chain Store Maintenance – an MCS Company, offering the core interior maintenance services that CSM is known for. Exterior facility services will continue to be marketed under MCS. In addition to expanding the Company’s overall commercial services offerings, the acquisition enhances MCS’s ability to serve its residential clients in the mortgage servicing and single-family rental industries with an expanded network of service providers and its growing network of self-performing service centers. “We strive to be a true ‘go-to’ facilities services provider and fostered this partnership with Chain Store Maintenance to enhance our ability to provide customers with best-in-class interior and exterior services at all levels across the commercial and residential property services industries by leveraging MCS’s self-performing service centers and our combined, extensive vendor network,” said Craig Torrance, Chief Executive Officer of MCS. “Our expertise in exterior maintenance combined with CSM’s impeccable reputation for interior maintenance services adds value to the existing customer base across both firms. John Catanese and Steve Hopkins have spent over 30 years building the CSM brand and take great pride in their hands-on, client-focused approach to doing business. MCS is thrilled to merge our commercial services platform as we further our mission to be the nation’s premier property care company.” Founded in 1991, CSM began developing a service provider network and customer base across its native New England and quickly grew to include coverage down the East Coast and later into the Midwest and Western U.S. Today, CSM has agreements to provide facilities services to more than 130,000 client locations across the country and in Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam with an expansive network of qualified contractors that now totals over 30,000. The core CSM H.E.L.P. interior offerings – Handyman, Electrical, Locksmith and Plumbing – represent the bulk of company’s service requests, augmented with pest control, backflow services and fire extinguisher programs. From order entry to invoice generation, CSM systems accommodate a wide variety of emergency and standard facilities needs and will integrate seamlessly with MCS’s established systems, provider network and regional service centers. Catanese and Hopkins will remain with the company with Catanese serving as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Hopkins as Senior Vice President of Operations. “We started this business over 30 years ago and have always been committed to providing our customers with responsive service, consistent communication, competitive pricing and the highest quality work,” said Catanese. “This next chapter in our evolution promises to deliver an expanded commercial service offering bolstered by the latest technology and the ability to self-perform in key markets, setting a new standard throughout the lifecycle of every job.” MCS’s hybrid service model combines an expansive network of local service partners with the company’s own network of self-performing service centers and the use of innovative technologies to ensure transparency, enhance quality control and code compliance, and maximize efficiencies. The vendor network in place at CSM will complement the already vast MCS network to provide an even more robust suite of offerings for commercial and residential properties including handyman, electrical, locksmith and plumbing, as well as landscaping, snow removal and parking lot maintenance. The established processes, existing technology platforms, and accessibility to local trade professionals and MCS’s own team of service technicians give commercial owners/operators a one-stop-shop for an efficient, tech-forward services program. “With Chain Store Maintenance becoming our platform for interior commercial property services, we will elevate our position in the market while adding value for our customers,” said Andrew Nolan, President, Commercial and Residential Rental Services for MCS. “From pricing, sourcing and contracting through project management, work order completion and quality control, this partnership will result in enhanced capabilities across the commercial property services spectrum that we believe will exceed client and vendor expectations.” About MCS MCS is a leading property services provider working across Commercial Properties, Single-Family Rentals, and the Property Preservation industry. For over 35 years, MCS has been committed to responsive care, industry-leading service standards, leveraging technology, and end-to-end transparency to protect, preserve and serve communities across the country. Some of the largest and most respected mortgage servicers, real estate owners and operators, and corporations trust MCS to perform property inspections, preservation, maintenance, renovations, and other property-related services. Learn how MCS is Making Communities Shine at mcs360.com. About Chain Store Maintenance – an MCS Company Since 1991, Chain Store Maintenance (CSM) has been a proven and trusted leader in facilities services to the retail, restaurant, financial, health care and hospitality industries throughout the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam, working with them directly and through middleware providers. In February 2023, CSM was acquired by MCS to serve as the primary commercial property services platform for interior trades. Learn more at ChainStore.com.