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
DOJ dings settlement in New England commissions case
The Real Deal (Subscription)
All eyes have been on a landmark verdict on residential broker commissions handed down in October, but the drama is just picking up in another key case.
The Department of Justice signaled opposition to a proposed settlement in Nosalek, a commissions case unfolding in New England, Inman reported. This is the second attempt at a settlement between the homeseller plaintiffs and MLS Property Information Network, a multiple listing service operating in New York and six New England states.
The 2020 lawsuit seeks class-action status and alleges that commission sharing between listing and buyers’ brokers inflates seller costs and violates antitrust law.
National News
How College Football Is Clobbering Housing Markets Across the Country
ALLISON SALERNO, New York Times (Subscription)
Around the United States, in small cities reliant on college sports to keep their economies humming, short-term rentals are destabilizing housing markets, fueled by wealthy fans and investors who transform single-family homes into de facto hotels for a few weeks out of the year, and often leave them sitting empty the rest of the time.
Mortgage delinquencies inch higher, equity shields homeowners — for now
CARRIE B. REYES, First Tuesday Journal
The share of delinquent loans secured by a one-to-four-unit residential property increased to 3.62% in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Q3 2023’s mortgage delinquency rate is up from 3.37% in Q2 2023 (a record low) and 3.45% a year earlier.
The increase was due fully to greater numbers of 30- and 60-day delinquencies. However, 90-day delinquencies — which typically indicate a rise in foreclosure rates — actually declined in Q3 2023.
Price Growth Slowed for Third Straight Month in November as Supply Crunch Eased
LILY KATZ, Redfin News
U.S. home-price growth slowed for the third straight month in November as a jump in new listings cooled homebuyer competition. Home prices were up 0.6% from October, the smallest monthly increase since June, and were up 6.4% from a year earlier.
That’s according to the Redfin Home Price Index (RHPI), which uses the repeat-sales pricing method to calculate seasonally adjusted changes in prices of single-family homes. The RHPI measures sale prices of homes that sold during a given period, and how those prices have changed since the last time those same homes sold. It’s similar to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices but publishes more than one month earlier. November data covers the three months ending Nov. 30, 2023. Read the full RHPI methodology here.
New house construction makes major leap in November
HOLDEN WALTER-WARNER, The Real Deal (Subscription)
Privately-owned housing starts rose 9.3 percent year-over-year in November, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. The annualized rate of 1.56 million housing starts was also up 14.8 percent from October’s estimate.
Overall, single-family housing starts increased by 18 percent from October to November, at its highest rate since April 2022, according to Bloomberg. The gain in multifamily housing starts was more modest, at 6.9 percent month-to-month.
As Need Rises, Housing Aid Hits Lowest Level in Nearly 25 Years
JASON DEPARLE, New York Times (Subscription)
After decades of rising rents, housing assistance for the poorest tenants has fallen to the lowest level in nearly a quarter-century. The three main federal programs for the neediest renters — public housing, Section 8, and Housing Choice Vouchers — serve 287,000 fewer households than they did at their peak in 2004, a new analysis shows. That is a 6 percent drop, while the number of eligible households without aid grew by about a quarter, to 15 million.
Investor Appetite for Retail Real Estate Is Heating Up Again
KATE KING, Wall Street Journal (Subscription)
Big investment firms that have shunned retail real estate for years are giving the sector a fresh look, the latest sign that this long beleaguered property type is on the mend.
Institutional buyers are snapping up grocery stores, pharmacies and other recession-resilient stores. Retail’s strong performance in recent years has also increased the sector’s appeal as remote work depresses demand for office buildings.
California News
Shangri-La’s Project Homekey motel in Salinas heads to receivership
ISABELLA FARR, The Real Deal (Subscription)
One of Shangri-La Industries’ Project Homekey developments is headed to receivership after the firm defaulted on loans tied to the Salinas site earlier this year.
A Monterey County Superior Court judge last week ruled to appoint a receiver for 1030 Fairview Avenue in Salinas, according to a court filing. Edwin Leslie-Kubat at LK Asset Advisors was named as the receiver.
The appointment of a receiver comes after contractor Johnson Electronics sued Shangri-La in August, asking the court to foreclose on a mechanic’s lien tied to the site, a motel slated for conversion into housing for the homeless under the state’s Project Homekey, according to a court complaint.
Big landlords just 28% of California’s rental market
JONATHAN LANSNER, Orange County Register (Subscription)
The largest California rental complexes, those with 20 or more units, were home to 1.65 million households in 2022. That was No. 1 among the states and 15% of the 11.4 million big-complex tenants nationwide. Next was New York at 1.57 million and Texas at 1.1 million.
Yet these large complexes held just 28% of the Golden State’s 6 million renting households. Yes, it’s the eighth-largest share among the states, and it’s slightly above the nation’s 25% average.
California Home Sales Crash to Lowest Level in 15 Years
GIULIA CARBONARO, Newsweek
Home sales in California plunged to the lowest level in 15 years in November, according to the latest data shared by the California Association of Realtors (CAR).
According to a report released on Tuesday, existing single-family home sales were down 7.4 percent last month compared to October and down 5.8 percent from November 2022, totaling 223,940. It was the biggest monthly decline in the past year, which plunged existing home sales in California to the lowest level since the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
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Property News
As seen on TV: LA’s iconic ‘General Hospital’ to become hotel, housing
STEVE SCAUZILLO, San Jose Mercury News (Subscription)
The vision of transforming the vacant yet iconic L.A. County General Hospital building in Boyle Heights into housing and healthcare facilities for working-class and homeless residents took a giant step toward reality Tuesday, with the county’s selection of a developer.
Centennial Partners, consisting of Primestor and Bayspring Development, was chosen by the Board of Supervisors to build between 800 and 1,000 housing units, new retail space, a hotel, medical offices and laboratories in the architecturally significant building — and on its surrounding 25 acres.
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