EXCERPT: “U.S. housing markets, when viewed as a whole, are now in rent territory, meaning renting and reinvesting, on average, will outperform owning and building equity in terms of wealth creation, according to the latest national index produced by Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University faculty. The last time U.S. markets as a whole crossed from ownership territory into rent territory was in June 1999. In January 2010, U.S. housing markets crossed back into ownership territory and have remained there until now, implying U.S. homeowners have, on average, outperformed renting and reinvesting in terms of wealth creation ever since. Currently, 16 of the 23 cities covered in the Beracha, Hardin & Johnson Buy vs. Rent (BH&J) Index are in rent territory. Those cities include Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis, all of which will be experiencing downward pressure on the demand for ownership.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2PiFOr2

EXCERPT: “The Governor’s Task Force on Housing recently released an action plan to deal with the shortage of affordable housing in Minnesota. The 28-member task force released 30 recommendations for improving access to affordable housing, including building 300,000 new homes in Minnesota by 2030. But the task force’s focus on the need for affordable housing does not completely address the current housing shortage in Austin. ‘We’ve been focused more on addressing market rate housing,’ said City Administrator Craig Clark.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2MSEFJo

EXCERPT: “Almost anywhere you look in Minneapolis these days, new construction is pushing the city skyward, inexorably changing neighborhoods that, just a few years ago, were smaller, quieter and roomier. Uptown. Northeast. Dinkytown. All are building up. The building boom is needed to accommodate steady growth in population in the area: The Twin Cities metro area has added more than 83,000 households since 2010, while building less than 64,000 new homes to accommodate those newcomers, according to the Metropolitan Council. As a result, it’s not just new luxury apartments towering over Twin Cities residents, but rents, too, which continue to rise despite all the construction.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2w9CvLS

EXCERPT: “Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday unveiled a wide-ranging housing plan that calls for the construction of 300,000 new homes in Minnesota by 2030 and the creation of dedicated funding sources for affordable homes, among other proposals. The report, which was drafted by a Dayton-commissioned task force, outlines 30 general recommendations aimed at increasing access to affordable housing, but provides little explanation on how the proposals would be implemented. Dayton and task force members discussed the housing plan during a Capitol news conference. ‘Ultimately, the supply of housing stock … is a private-sector function and responsibility. And they need to tell us what they need in terms of additional incentives,’ Dayton said.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2MGrOtI

EXCERPT: “Many Greater Minnesota towns are dealing with a similar question: how to make better use of an inner core of aging houses that are often too expensive for owners to fix or lacking in the big yards and amenities favored by young home buyers. It’s an especially important issue these days as employers are looking for workers in many small towns with limited housing options.Older neighborhoods like this one – known, simply, as the Northside in this town of about 20,000 people in west-central Minnesota – would seem like good places for workers or young families to find homes, but time and demographic change have left many of them in poor condition.” http://bit.ly/2OWHPt7

EXCERPT: “Following the acquisition of a 118-unit affordable community in Little Canada, Minn., nonprofit Aeon has broken ground on The Louis, a 70-unit project in the heart of Minneapolis that will serve low-income residents. Frana Cos. Inc. is the contractor and MSR is the architect of the upcoming property. Completion of The Louis is expected by late next summer. The new property is part of a previously underdeveloped 370-acre site east of the University of Minnesota East Bank campus in the Towerside District. The property will be one block from the Prospect Park station of the Green Line and a short ride from both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. Amenities at the property will include a courtyard, fitness and community rooms, as well as underground parking.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2Pqwx0W

EXCERPT: “After several years of rich home price gains, the market appears to have found a limit to what people can afford. Sellers are finally responding by lowering prices more often. Approximately 14 percent of all listings in June saw a price cut, that’s up from a recent low of 11.7 percent at the end of 2016, according to a new report from Zillow. In addition, home price growth is slowing in nearly half of the 35 largest U.S. metropolitan markets. Rising mortgage rates and affordability are behind the change. As the housing market recovered from its epic crash in the last decade, home prices began to gain slowly. And then they suddenly took off in the last few years.” FULLSTORY: https://cnb.cx/2vRLfWO

EXCERPT: “Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, proposed on Monday new changes to an Obama-era rule aimed at combating segregation in housing policy. Carson wants the rule to focus more on reducing the regulatory burdens of local jurisdictions and on giving them more control, while encouraging actions that bolster housing choice and increase housing supply. In a statement, Carson said the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, enacted during the previous administration, ‘often dictated unworkable requirements’ adding that the rule was also ‘suffocating investment in some of our most distressed neighborhoods.’ ‘We do not have to abandon communities in need. Instead we believe we can craft a new, fairer rule that creates choices for quality housing across all communities,’ Carson said. The 2015 AFFH rule was implemented to strengthen the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act.” FULLSTORY: https://n.pr/2MMXOJj

EXCERPT: “Despite concerns about affordability, with housing prices rising much faster than wages, the demand continues to outstrip the supply of existing homes for sale across southeastern Minnesota. A monthly report issued by the Southeastern Minnesota Association of Realtors says the number of closings last month on sales of existing homes was steady when compared to July of last year, while the number of pending sales increased nearly 5-percent regionwide. The number of new listings was up 7.7 percent, but the inventory of homes on the market shrank 4.7-percent from a year ago to just over 1400 units. That helped push the median sales price up 8.6-percent to just over $192,000.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2nARQ3v

EXCERPT: “Rising home prices and interest rates pushed housing affordability to a 10-year low in the second quarter of 2018, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In all, 57.1% of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of April and end of June were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $71,900. This is down from the 61.6% of homes sold in the first quarter that were affordable to median-income earners and the lowest reading since mid-2008. The national median home price jumped from $252,000 in the first quarter of 2018 to $265,000 in the second quarter—the highest quarterly median price in the history of the HOI series. At the same time, average mortgage rates jumped by more than 30 basis points in the second quarter to 4.67% from 4.34% in the first quarter.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2vzNk9B