The Real Estate News Brief: Inflation Hits 40-Year-High, Double-Digit Rent Growth, Rising Cost for New Homes

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending April 16th, 2022... the latest surge in consumer prices, where rents are growing the fastest, and the high cost of building new homes. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic News We begin with economic news from this past week, and another alarming report on inflation. The consumer price index jumped 1.2% last month to a 40-year high of 8.5%. The increase was mostly driven by higher prices for gas, food, and housing. If you eliminate gas and food you get a core rate of 6.5%. Some economists believe that inflation will ease up soon, when the price of oil stabilizes and some of the supply chain issues clear up. But other economists worry that we might continue to see prices going higher. (1) Wholesale prices are also surging. The producer price index was up 1.4% in March to an annual rate of 11.2%. That’s the highest it’s been in almost 40 years and likely a sign of continued inflation. Economist Kurt Rankin of PNC Financial Services says: “Producer prices are an early warning sign of what households can expect in terms of consumer price inflation.” (2) There was a slight rise in new jobless claims, but that’s off a 54-year low just last week. The Labor Department reported an 18,000 increase in applications, to a total of 185,000. Meanwhile, the number of continuing claims went down 48,000 to a total of 1.48 million. (3) Mortgage Rates Mortgage rates hit the 5% mark for the first time in more than 10 years. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was up 28 basis points to exactly 5%. The 15-year was up 26 points to 4.17%. High home prices combined with higher mortgage rates are making it a lot harder for many Americans to become homeowners. (4) In other news making headlines… Rents Hit Double-Digits in Many Areas Rents are also moving higher in step with home prices. Many landlords are playing catch-up with rent levels after the pandemic. Realtor.com says that average rents are up almost 20% since 2020. The research covered March of 2020 to March of this year. (5) Among the areas with the fastest rent growth are Miami; Riverside County, California; and Tampa, Florida. Orlando and Jacksonville are also both in the top 10 for rent growth. Realtor.com economist Daniel Hale says that rents are creating affordability issues for some renters. She also says there are signs that rent growth is slowing down but it’s hard to predict if the trend will continue. She says: “The jury is still out on whether rent growth will hit single digits by the end of 2022.” Property Taxes Heading Higher Home values appear to be rising much faster than property tax, which suggests that tax assessors have some catching up to do. ATTOM Data Solutions says the average property tax on single-family homes rose 1.8% nationwide last year. That’s the slowest pace of tax growth in five years. (6) ATTOM’s Rick Sharga says it’s surprising that property taxes have gone up more because home values are up 16% for last year. That likely means that homeowners can expect to see higher tax bills as homes are reassessed. Some areas have already increased property taxes. In Nashville, Tennessee, they went up an average of 27% last year. Milwaukee homeowners are paying about 18% more on property taxes. Baltimore and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are third and fourth for the highest recent tax increases. Surprisingly, tax rates actually went down in some areas including Houston, Dallas, and Austin, Texas. Prices Keep Rising for Building Materials The cost of building a new home keeps going up, although lumber prices just came down a little. The National Association of Home Builders says building material prices have gone up 20.4% year-over-year and 33% from the beginning of the pandemic. (7) Additional costs have added 31% to the cost of a new home. Realtor.com reports the average sales price of a new home was $511,000 in February. Insider attributes the drop in lumber prices to improvements in the supply chain and a softening of demand for lumber. It says lumber prices have fallen 39% from a March high and are now 52% lower than they were in May of last year. That’s when they peaked at $1,733 per one thousand board feet. That’s it for today. Check the show notes for links. And please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review! You can also join RealWealth for free at newsforinvestors.com. As a member, you have access to the Investor Portal where you can view sample property pro-formas and connect with our network of resources, including experienced investment counselors, property teams, lenders, 1031 exchange facilitators, attorneys, CPAs and more. Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke. Links: 1 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coming-up-consumer-price-index-for-march-11649764935?mod=economy-politics 2 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wholesale-prices-surge-1-4-and-point-to-high-u-s-inflation-through-the-spring-11649853503?mod=economic-report 3 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-bounce-higher-after-hitting-54-year-low-in-prior-week-11649940054?mod=mw_latestnews 4 - https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms 5 - https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2022/04/14/rent-jumps-by-nearly-20-in-2-years 6 - https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/home-sales-prices/attom-2021-property-tax-analysis/ 7 - https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2022/04/14/building-materials-rise-but-lumber-prices-ease