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Marriott’s Bonvoy moves into US multifamily

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The hospitality giant plans to offer furnished, serviced apartments for short-term rental-style stays. Bethesda, Maryland-based hotelier Marriott is expanding its Bonvoy brand with a new franchise of serviced apartments — a long-term accommodation that offers furnished apartment-like rooms with hotel amenities, including housekeeping and concierge services. Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy will include Marriott’s first serviced apartments in the U.S. and Canada, though the company has not yet announced any locations. Marriott has been active in serviced apartments for 26 years through its Marriott Executive Apartments in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The company will introduce the apartments at the luxury market level with designs that reflect the local area. Each apartment will include a separate living room and bedroom, a full kitchen and an in-unit washer and dryer. With the launch of Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott intends to take advantage of growing consumer interest in more living space and home-like amenities for longer trips, according to a press release. “Travelers planning vacations and long business trips today are seeking more choice in accommodations, and the introduction of Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy responds to those trends,” said Stephanie Linnartz, president of Marriott International in the release. The model is designed to give Marriott’s owners, developers and franchisees the flexibility to either build a new building or convert an existing one into a new brand location. In addition to the apartments, building amenities will include a welcome lounge, gym and host desk. Food and beverage services and meeting space will not be provided. The buildings will be serviced on a “light staffing” model, with one host and weekly housekeeping, according to the website. SOURCE: Mary Salmonsen www.multifamilydive.com Author admin View all posts

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Strategic New Hires Focused on Driving Growth Through Technology and Veteran Expertise Stronghill Capital, a small-balance commercial lender, recently announced that it launched a new residential lending division expanding its robust offerings for brokers. This announcement comes with the appointment of industry veteran leader Dustin Wells as Co-President heading a new executive team focused on expanding the company from a commercial lender to scaling the business with strong NonQM, Non-Agency Jumbo, and Investor Residential Programs. “We have a clear purpose as we grow into the NonQM space and I look forward to bringing depth to Stronghill’s market presence at the residential level with this dynamic leadership team,” said Wells. “This crossover empowers our industry partners by seamlessly marrying the best B2B technology platform with our expert advice and guidance to make them more successful.” Through Wells’ diverse background of 25 years in residential real estate, he is primed to lead this growth vision and improve the overall home buying experience with a team of top achievers. Matthew Brammer, senior vice president of wholesale and correspondent sales, has a proven track record of sales success in helping his industry partners grow their businesses managing the production of more than $250MM a month. Stephanie McInturff, senior vice president of mortgage operations and technology, is experienced at deploying solutions for B2B customers building “best in class” technology and communication platforms. Ryan Zonana has built, deployed, and scaled capital markets and pricing solutions that deliver great market execution. John Eisinger, CEO at Stronghill, stated, “residential lending is a natural extension of our small balance lending expertise. Stronghill’s aim is to help our clients achieve their personal and professional real estate investing goals. Dustin’s experience and leadership provides us with an advantage. We are excited to strengthen our commitment to industry partners with a complete real estate financing platform offering solutions for both residential and commercial small balance loans.” Stronghill Capital’s NonQM loan programs include: With these new offerings, Stronghill Capital offers a true, one-stop concierge service for borrowers, offering residential products to increase opportunities, and access to commercial loan programs and experts as well. Loans can close and vest in entities such as LLCs and S and C corporations, with financing solutions that meet the needs of all real estate investors – from new to seasoned. For more information, visit stronghill.com. An established balance-sheet commercial and residential lender, Stronghill Capital provides a full spectrum of residential and commercial loan programs. Since 2007, the Stronghill team has been accelerating the growth of borrower portfolios and businesses through innovative financing solutions, predictable processes and rigorous underwriting. Learn more at www.stronghill.com. Author admin View all posts

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Homebuyers across the country need to earn substantially more money than they did a year ago to buy a home, due to high mortgage rates and persistently high home prices A homebuyer must earn $107,281 to afford the $2,682 monthly mortgage payment on the typical U.S. home, up 45.6% from $73,668 a year ago, according to a new report from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage. That’s due to mortgage rates that have more than doubled over the last 12 months, combined with persistently high home prices. From February 2020 (just before the pandemic started) to October 2022, the monthly payment for an American family buying the median-priced home increased by roughly 70%. Affordability challenges are a major reason why home sales have slowed so dramatically over the last few months. “High rates are making buyers rethink their priorities, as many of them can no longer afford the home they want in the location they want,” said Washington, D.C. Redfin agent Chelsea Traylor. “If you had a $900,000 budget a few months ago, rising rates mean it’s now around $700,000–and sellers aren’t dropping their prices enough to make up for the change. So buyers are searching further away from the city in more affordable areas or waiting for prices and/or rates to come down before making a move.” “I’m encouraging buyers to think long term,” Traylor continued. “Prices are unlikely to fall drastically in the long run, so buying a home now–if you can afford the monthly payment–will still help you build wealth over time, especially if you plan to live in it for several years. Even though rates are high, another advantage of buying now is the lack of competition and opportunity to negotiate with sellers.” Increases in income required to buy a home are especially eye-popping in Florida Buyers in North Port, FL need to earn $131,535 annually to afford the metro area’s typical monthly mortgage payment of $3,288. That’s up 73.9% from $75,659 a year earlier, the biggest percent increase of any major U.S. metro. It’s followed by Miami, where homebuyers need to earn $128,892, up 63.7% year over year. El Paso, TX ($64,580, up 63.6%), Tampa ($101,682, up 62.4%) and Cape Coral, FL ($104,943, up 60.6%) round out the top five. Sixteen of the 20 metros where the income necessary to afford a home has increased most are in the Sun Belt. Sun Belt destinations have long been popular with homebuyers due to their relative affordability and warm weather, and remote work has made them even more popular, driving up prices in the process. Several Florida metros, including North Port and Cape Coral, were hit hard by Hurricane Ian in September, resulting in sharp drops in pending sales and new listings. It remains to be seen whether that will translate to outsized price declines. Chicago area, Bay Area had smallest upticks in income necessary to afford a home Buyers need to earn at least 50% more income to afford a home than they did a year ago in 39 of the 93 metros included in this analysis. They need to earn at least 30% more in all 93. Lake County, IL–near Chicago–had the smallest gain in income necessary to afford the median-priced home, though buyers still need 33.5% more than a year ago. The Bay Area also had smaller-than-average increases, but the income necessary to buy there is still enormous. Buyers need to earn $402,821 to pay San Francisco’s typical $10,071 monthly mortgage payment, up 33.6% from a year ago. It’s followed by San Jose ($363,265, up 36.1%) and Oakland ($247,559, up 36.2%). The increases are smaller in Lake County and the Bay Area than other places because they’re among the only parts of the country where home prices are falling year over year. Homebuyers in 45 major metros need $100,000-plus income to afford the typical home The incomes buyers need to purchase a home in San Francisco and San Jose are the highest in the country, followed by Anaheim, CA, where the typical buyer must earn $254,286 to afford the typical monthly mortgage payment of $6,357 (+42.1% YoY). Oakland and Los Angeles ($221,592, up 40.7%) round out the top five. Homebuyers must earn at least $100,000 annually to buy a home in roughly half (45) of the metros in this analysis. That’s up from 16 metros a year ago. Detroit requires the lowest income to afford the area’s median-priced home ($48,435), but that’s still up 42.3% from a year ago. It’s followed by Dayton, OH ($51,126, up 46.1%), Cleveland ($53,817, up 45.7%), Rochester, NY ($56,508, up 56.2%) and Pittsburgh ($57,853, up 41.7%). To view the full report, including additional metro-level data and methodology, please visit:https://www.redfin.com/news/homebuyer-income-increase-october-2022 Author admin View all posts

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ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, released its third-quarter 2022 report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In this report, ATTOM looked at 4,732 zones around the United States with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the third quarter of 2022. The report found that median single-family home and condo prices rose from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022 in 51 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country and went up at least 3 percent in almost half. Those gains fell below those recorded in earlier time periods over the past year, but they still stood out amid a broader national market that saw a 3 percent decrease in the median single-family home price in the third quarter, after a decade of almost uninterrupted gains. The latest price improvements extended similar scenarios from the past year as home price changes in distressed neighborhoods around the nation continued to keep up with, or surpass, the performance of the nationwide housing market. “The combination of higher home prices and mortgage rates that have doubled over the past few months has made affordability a real challenge for both traditional homebuyers and investors,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “For many prospective buyers, the solution to worsening affordability is to look for less expensive homes, and it seems like homes in Opportunity Zones might represent a relative bargain for buyers who’ve been priced out of other markets.” Typical home values in Opportunity Zones did still remain lower than those in most other neighborhoods around the nation in the third quarter of 2022. Median third-quarter prices fell below the nationwide median of $339,815 in 79 percent of Opportunity Zones. That was about the same portion as in earlier periods over the past year. In addition, median prices remained below $200,000 in 50 percent of the zones during the third quarter of 2022. But that percentage was down from 56 percent in the third quarter of 2021. Amid those trends, considerable price volatility continued in Opportunity Zones, as median values either dropped or increased quarterly by at least 5 percent in about two-thirds of them, probably reflecting the small number of sales in many areas. Opportunity Zones are defined in the Tax Act legislation as census tracts in or alongside low-income neighborhoods that meet various criteria for redevelopment in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Census tracts, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, cover areas that have 1,200 to 8,000 residents, with an average of about 4,000 people. The relative strength of Opportunity Zone markets continued in the third quarter even amid a series of forces that threatened to stall or derail an 11-year boom that nearly has tripled home prices nationwide and has trickled down to the nation’s lowest-price neighborhoods. Over the summer of 2022, the national median sales price declined 3 percent as 30-year mortgage rates approached 7 percent, consumer-price inflation remained at a 40-year high and the stock market fell. Those headwinds all cut into what home buyers could afford. More drops in home values could have an especially harsh effect on Opportunity Zones if those drops make other areas more affordable to buyers. High-level findings from the report: Media Contact:Christine Stricker949.748.8428christine.stricker@attomdata.com Author admin View all posts

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Considering investing in a mountain view? Vacasa, North America’s leading vacation rental management platform, released its Best Places to Buy a Winter Vacation Home 2022-2023* report, ranking where prospective vacation home buyers can find snow-capped peaks and a desirable cap rate. Vacasa’s fourth annual top 10 list uses estimated cap rate, or the annual rate of return on investment, to help evaluate which winter markets could deliver the best returns for vacation rental homeowners. “Over half of the destinations on this year’s list are newcomers to our report, which is in part due to the cap rate compression we’ve seen in many top markets as home prices trended up in 2021 and early 2022,” said Daned Kirkham, Vacasa’s senior director of real estate. “However, market dynamics have shifted in recent months for both primary and second home real estate. Interest rate hikes since last spring are causing the once-red-hot housing market to cool off a bit giving buyers renewed negotiating power.” With seven new-to-the-list markets, including a new #1 spot in Eastern Oregon, there are plenty of unexpected places for vacation home buyers to explore. But, let’s not discount the returning favorites: the Poconos are back for a three-peat appearance, and Banner Elk, North Carolina, and Ludlow, Vermont, both moved up several spots from their 2021-2022 rankings. While snow sports tend to be the shared draw among this year’s featured markets, many offer lake access and warm-weather recreational activities that help to drive year-round demand. Vacasa’s Best Places to Buy a Winter Vacation Home 2022-2023: For more information on the 400+ destinations that Vacasa serves or for help locating your ideal vacation home, visit www.vacasa.com/real-estate. Author admin View all posts

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Small Equity Gain Results in Nearly Half of U.S. Mortgaged Homes Now Considered Equity-Rich; Seriously Underwater Portion of Mortgages Stays Just Below 3 Percent; Seventeen Times as Many Mortgages are Equity Rich versus Seriously Underwater ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, released its third-quarter 2022 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 48.5 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the United States were considered equity-rich in the third quarter, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than 50 percent of their estimated market values. The portion of mortgaged homes that were equity-rich in the third quarter of 2022 increased from 48.1 percent in the second quarter of 2022 and from 39.5 percent in the third quarter of 2021. The latest increase fell below other gains in recent years. But it still marked the 10th straight quarterly rise, and resulted in virtually half of all mortgage payers landing in equity-rich territory. The report found that at least half of all mortgage-payers in 20 states were equity-rich in the third quarter, compared to only seven states a year earlier. “Even though home price appreciation has slowed down dramatically in recent months, homeowners have continued to build equity,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “And it appears that many of those homeowners have decided to stay where they are rather than purchase a new home, and are beginning to tap into that equity, as the number of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) issued in the second quarter of 2022 rose by 43 percent from the prior year.” The report also shows that just 2.9 percent of mortgaged homes, or one in 35, were considered seriously underwater in the third quarter of 2022, with a combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property of at least 25 percent more than the property’s estimated market value. The latest seriously underwater figure was the same as the 2.9 percent recorded in the prior quarter, but down from 3.4 percent, or one in 29 properties, in the third quarter of 2021. Overall, 94.3 homeowners paying off mortgages had at least some equity built up in the third quarter of this year, compared to 92.9 percent a year earlier and 87.7 percent in the third quarter of 2020. That level rises further when accounting for homeowners who have paid off their mortgages. Across the country, 39 states saw equity-rich levels increase from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022, while seriously underwater percentages dipped in 38 states. Year over year, equity-rich levels rose in all 50 states and seriously underwater portions dropped in 43 states. The ongoing, but relatively small, improvement in home equity during the third quarter of 2022 came as the U.S. housing market cooled considerably amid multiple forces that threaten to stifle or reverse an 11-year run of nearly uninterrupted price spikes and equity gains. Largest increases in equity-rich share of mortgages spread across Midwest, Northeast and South Nine of the 10 states where the equity-rich share of mortgaged homes increased most from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022 were in the Midwest, Northeast and South regions of the U.S. The biggest increases were in South Dakota, where the portion of mortgaged homes considered equity-rich rose from 36.7 percent in the second quarter to 41.8 percent in the third quarter, Vermont (up from 71.4 percent to 75.9 percent), Montana (up from 48.1 percent to 51.5 percent), Indiana (up from 43 percent to 46.2 percent) and Mississippi (up from 29.1 percent to 31.5 percent). The top five states where the equity-rich share of mortgaged homes decreased the most from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year were all in the West, led by Idaho (down from 69.5 percent to 65.8 percent), California (down from 63.1 percent to 60.6 percent), Utah (down from 64.3 percent to 62 percent), Washington (down from 63.2 percent to 61 percent) and Arizona (down from 64.8 percent to 63.4 percent). Largest declines in seriously underwater properties located across Midwest, Northeast and West The top 10 states with the biggest decreases in the percentage of mortgaged homes considered seriously underwater from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022 were spread across the Midwest, Northeast and West. They were led by Wyoming (share of mortgaged homes seriously underwater down from 7 percent to 2.9 percent), Montana (down from 3.9 percent to 3 percent), Kansas (down from 5.7 percent to 4.9 percent), Indiana (down from 3.8 percent to 3.1 percent) and Connecticut (down from 3.3 percent to 2.8 percent). States where the percentage of seriously underwater homes increased the most from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year were concentrated in the West. While most of the increases were minimal, the largest were in Mississippi (up from 8.1 percent to 9 percent), California (up from 1 percent to 1.4 percent), Idaho (up from 1.6 percent to 1.9 percent), Hawaii (up from 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent) and Washington (up from 1 percent to 1.2 percent). Equity-rich homeowners still concentrated in West The highest levels of equity-rich properties around the U.S. remained in the West during the third quarter of 2022, with six of the top 10 states located in that region. The top states were Vermont (75.9 percent of mortgaged homes were equity-rich), Idaho (65.8 percent), Arizona (63.4 percent), Florida (62.8 percent) and Utah (62 percent). Nine of the 10 states with the lowest percentages of equity-rich properties in the third quarter of 2022 were in the Midwest and South. The smallest portions were in Louisiana (24.5 percent of mortgaged homes), Illinois (26.3 percent), Alaska (26.7 percent), West Virginia (29.3 percent) and North Dakota (30.9 percent). Among 107 metropolitan statistical areas around the nation with a population greater than 500,000, both the West and South dominated the list with the highest portion of mortgaged properties that were equity-rich in the third quarter of 2022. All but one of the top 25 were in those regions, led by Austin, TX (71.6 percent equity-rich); Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (71.6 percent); San Jose, CA (70.6 percent); Fort Myers, FL (68.5 percent) and Tampa, FL (68.3 percent). The leader in the Northeast region again was Portland, ME (63 percent) while the top metro in the Midwest continued to be Grand Rapids, MI (51.9 percent).