COVERAGE INFORMATION:
California Department of Real Estate (DRE) NEWS CLIPS service coverage:
Monday through Friday (except state holidays) each week includes electronic format articles retrieved from newspapers
or news services that report real estate related news in California and some national services. Coverage is for California
newspapers that are available electronically via the Internet – and any significant related breaking news.
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© Copyright 2023, California Department of Real Estate Links to web sites do not constitute an endorsement from The California Department of Real Estate. These links
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Top Stories
Bay Area office vacancies balloon to all-time highs as tech wobbles
GEORGE AVALOS, The Sacramento Bee (Subscription)
SAN JOSE, California — Office vacancies in the Bay Area have ballooned to all-time highs — and might even worsen in 2024 — fresh evidence that tech cutbacks still haunt the region’s wobbly office market, a report released Tuesday shows. The office availability rate soared to record levels at the end of 2023 in both Silicon Valley and San Francisco, according to a report released by Savills, a commercial real estate firm.
National News
Housing inventory defied all predictions in 2023
LOGAN MOHTASHAMI, HousingWire (Subscription)
Looking back on 2023, the inventory story was a big surprise even as mortgage rates headed toward 8%, as the data below will show. Traditionally, with the tracker articles, we talk about purchase application data and mortgage rates as well as inventory, but purchase app data isn’t given during the holiday week and not much happened in the bond market last week. So today’s tracker is focused on 2023, the inventory data, and how different this year was from 2022.
Investor share of single-family market supported by smallest buyers
SPENCER LEE, National Mortgage News (Subscription)
Real estate investors showed signs of resilience amid 2023’s rate volatility, as third-quarter purchases surpassed pre-pandemic levels according to Corelogic.
Between July and September, large and mega investors (those who own 100 properties or more on average) acquired between 8,000 to 10,000 homes each per month, up by about 1,000 from third quarter 2019, the real estate data provider found.
Meanwhile, small and medium participants, with typically less than 100 properties in their possession, exhibited similar purchase trends. Small investors, who usually own less than 10 units at a given time, bought approximately 5,000 more homes compared to the third quarter in pre-pandemic 2019, showing greater strength than their larger counterparts, according to Corelogic economist Thom Malone.
Mortgage applications slide as year ends
CANDYD MENDOZA, Mortgage Professional America
Although there were significant improvements in the past month, mortgage application volume fell 9.4% over the holidays, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said today.
MBA’s Market Composite Index posted a 9.4% decline on a seasonally adjusted basis from two weeks earlier. When not adjusted for seasonal variations, the index experienced a more substantial 38% decrease compared to the same period.
California News
Real estate giant poised to become S.F.’s largest residential landlord after massive deal
ROLAND LI, The San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription)
Real estate giant Brookfield has purchased a massive portfolio of loans tied to 76 San Francisco apartment buildings following one of the biggest mortgage defaults of the pandemic.
The Canadian conglomerate bought troubled loans previously valued at $915 million after major landlord Veritas defaulted about a year ago on them, though it wasn’t clear how much Brookfield paid, according to property records filed on Dec. 29.
Beverly Hills remains vulnerable to builder’s remedy, state agency says
ISABELLA FARR, The Real Deal (Subscription)
The City of Beverly Hills is still vulnerable to builder’s remedy, after the state deemed its plan to build more housing over the next eight years was inadequate.
The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development rejected Beverly Hills’ housing element last month, according to a letter from HCD. The city now has to submit another revised plan.
New California housing laws aimed to streamline building process take effect in 2024
BEN CHRISTOPHER, The San Jose Mercury News (Subscription)
If California wants to build its way out of its long term housing shortage, plenty of things stand in its way in 2024: high interest rates, sluggish local approval processes and a persistent shortage of skilled construction workers, among others.
But a slew of housing bills from the 2023 legislative session going into effect on Jan. 1 promise to ease or eliminate some of the other burdens.
Among the batch of fresh housing laws are an especially high profile set by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener: Senate Bill 423 re-ups and expands a law that speeds up the approval of apartment buildings in which some units are set aside for lower income Californians, while SB 4 does something similar for affordable housing on property owned by religious institutions and non-profit colleges.
Industry News
What the biggest names in real estate really thought of 2023
MARIAN MCPHERSON, Inman (Subscription)
The past several years have brought about waves of unprecedented change, as the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down.
Many people hoped 2023 would be the return to normal life; however, the universe had a few more cards up its sleeve as mortgage rates reached new highs, buyer and seller sentiment crumbled to new lows, ChatGPT stoked fears about the rise of robot overlords, and several headline-making antitrust and sexual harassment lawsuits exposed the next frontier of change for the real estate industry.
As 2023 winds down, Inman reached out to some of the industry’s best leaders and brightest minds to get their thoughts on the happenings of the past 12 months along with their wishes for what 2024 will bring. Their comments have been edited for brevity.
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Property News
$825,000 Homes in South Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania
ANGELA SERRATORE, New York Times (Subscription)
An island retreat in Charleston County, a midcentury-modern home in Portland and an early 19th-century rowhouse in Philadelphia.
Resources, Webinars, and Other Items of Interest
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In Case You Missed It
How appraisers and property owners find a price that’s right for their project
RICH BROCKMANN, The Real Deal (Subscription)
At Donald Trump’s 11-week civil fraud trial, the bombastic ex-president would have taken center stage had it not been for the commercial real estate appraisers.
Appraisers are supposed to give unbiased, trustworthy valuations for lenders, partners and the taxman. But these often anonymous middlemen have amassed outsized power to stretch or shrink fortunes according to their clients’ will.
The trial showed off the underbelly of the real estate business, where shady valuators — deal enablers, “friendly” appraisers, people who “know how to play ball” — bend the facts to match their clients’ wishes.
