Rental Housing Journal On-Site
April 2017
3. The Informed Investor - Why Use 1031 IRC Exchanges? 5. Where Are the Nation's Young Homebuyers Now? 6. U.S. Homeowners Give Record High Satisfaction Scores to Their Insurers 7. Top Regret for Home Buyers is Not Prepping Soon Enough
8. Consumer Survery Indentifies Home Shoppers' Preferences in 2017 9. National Government Affairs Update 11. Dear Maintenance Men - Rehabbing Rentals, Fencing and Smokers 12. Down Payment Holding Back Renters From Buying a Home
13. How to Improve Your Tenant Selection Screening 14. 5 Qualities and Habits of Great Property Managers 17. Moving From a Home With Two Bedrooms to Three Costs $450 Extra a Month
www.rentalhousingjournal.com • Professional Publishing, Inc 17,000 Papers Mailed Monthly To Puget Sound Apartment Owners, Property Managers & Maintenance Personnel Published in association with Washington Association, IREM & Washington Multifamily Housing Association
Spring Seattle Renters Need Biggest Income Cleaning Tips Boost to Keep Up with Rising Rents and Tricks for U.S. renters would need a raise of about $168 a year in 2017 Homeowners just to keep up with expected rent increases over the next 12 months as rental affordability concerns persist
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t is springtime: the time to open the windows, let in some fresh air and clean the house from top to bottom. This month's The Best, NoSweat Ways to Spring Clean Your Home spotlight from Houselogic.com, the comprehensive website for homeowners from the National Association of Realtors®, features six articles helping homeowners get and keep their homes clean. Here are a few tips from HouseLogic on how to freshen up a home this spring as quickly, simply and cheaply as possible.
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Minimalist Home Countertops You Can't Detect These 4 Odors, But Your Guests Can. When a smell is a constant presence in a home, it is easy to become 'noseblind' to it, but continued on page 10
enters in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston need the biggest income increases in 2017 to keep up with rising rents, according to a new Zillow analysisi. In each of these metros, renters need their annual incomes to be at least $1,000 higher next year to have the same amount of money left over after paying rent. Nationally, annual incomes would need to rise just $168 for renters to keep up with rising rents in the next year alone – an increase that comes on top of nearly five years of rising rents putting a dent in paychecks across the country. These income increases will only maintain the current amount of left over cash after paying rent. In several major metros, the share of income needed to pay rent already surpasses the general rule of not spending more than 30 percent of income on housing. In nearly all large markets, the median rent requires a larger share of income
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than it did before the housing bubble and bust. Housing affordability is still a significant issue for renters, who have experienced rising rents for years. In some markets, the median rent requires more than 40 percent of the typical household income. However, rent appreciation is slowing, and rents are predicted to rise just 1 percent over the next year. "For a long time now, renters have faced an affordability crisis when it comes to housing, and renters in some hot markets will still need significant raises just to keep up with rising rents," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. "Incomes have a ways to go to bring rental affordability closer to historical levels, but recent gains are being met with slowing rent appreciation, a welcome sign for renters."
Top Five Markets Needing the Biggest Annual Income Increase to Keep Up with Rising Rents Annual Income Metro Increase 1. Seattle $1,248 2. Los Angeles $1,152 3. Boston $1,140 4. Sacramento, Calif. $792 5. Orlando, Fla. $672 Not all rental markets are expected to see as strong of rent appreciation. Renters in the Bay Area, Chicago, and Houston, for example, do not need their incomes to grow to have the same amount of money left over after paying rent. Income growth in these markets will provide some much needed relief for renters in terms of housing affordability. continued on page 20
Homes in Short Supply as Home Shopping Season Kicks Off
here are 3 percent fewer homes on the market than a year ago, with the median home value hitting its highest point since June 2007, according to Zillow's February Real Estate Market Reports Home values across the country are up 7 percent since last February, with 3 percent fewer homes to choose from than a year ago, making for another competitive home shopping season. The
median U.S. home value is $195,700, according to the February Zillow® Real Estate Market Reportsi, the highest value since June 2007. Tampa, Fla., Seattle, Dallas and Orlando, Fla. reported the highest year-over-year home value appreciation among the 35 largest metros across the country, all growing in the doubledigits. In Tampa, home values rose almost 12 percent to a median home
value of $182,100. Home values in both Seattle and Dallas are up 11 percent since last February. High buyer demand coupled with fewer homes for sale is driving home values higher in many of these markets -- there are 5 percent fewer homes to choose from than a year ago in Tampa and 11 percent fewer in Orlando. continued on page 19
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