Category Archives: Housing

Homeownership Day 2021!

Posted on by NAWRB
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12 Jan

Join NAWRB as we co-host this year’s virtual Homeownership Day on January 23rd at 10am PST on Zoom!

Homeownership Day will help you find your Happy Place, with timely information about owning property, inside tips on area nuances, all from experts who won’t pitch or pressure.

We encourage anyone curious about real estate to attend & learn new ways to leverage property. You’ll learn easy steps to get to your first home, second home, multiplex, or international vacation property!

Get more info, join our update list, and register for our free virtual event at www.HomeownershipDay.com

WHER Chat: Imperatives of the Commercial Real Estate Industry During COVID-19

Posted on by NAWRB

 

In 2020 NAWRB WHER, Volume II: Real Estate, we explore how the real estate industry is navigating COVID-19 challenges and utilizing technology as a solution. The industry must accomplish crucial initiatives during the pandemic to ensure the commercial real estate sector’s sustainability and reliability in the future.

1. Earning the respect, trust, and loyalty of customers and employees: In this time of uncertainty, leading operators are learning the importance of communicating to the point of overcommunication to make sure they are fully understanding and attending to their tenants’ needs at this moment and helping to protect everyone in their ecosystem. This may make communication as a company-level brand, rather than a property-level brand, more common, thereby speeding up an existing market trend.

In B2B environments, such as offices and retail stores, CEOs, and management teams are finding it helpful to asset managers and property managers by engaging directly with tenants. By interacting with the tenants directly, they not only address their needs more efficiently but also create a more trusting relationship with tenants who feel like they are being heard and valued.

2. Centralizing cash management: Prior to COVID-19, the McKinsey report notes that real estate was highly decentralized as important decisions regarding cash flow were made at the property level. However, due to the duration and depth of this crisis, which seems to have no end in sight in the United States, top management is now taking the initiative of centralized direction on property-level cash management in addition to company-level balance-sheet decisions and credit lines. As stated by the report, “All levels of management—including those at the property level and company level—are beginning to identify efficiency levers and when to pull them based on the underlying performance of properties and the business as a whole.”

3. Making tailored and informed decisions: Even within a single asset, needs will vary among tenants, particularly in commercial lease concessions. Real estate leaders are utilizing available behavioral data to generate fact-based insights that can help them make more informed decisions tailored to the needs of their diverse tenants (rather than a “one-size-fits-all” decision approach). They have data on local epidemiological and economic scenarios, competitive assets around a property, and the impact of the crisis on individual tenants.

4. Taking the digital leap: As we mentioned earlier, professionals in residential real estate have already taken the leap in digital sales and leasing processes, such as using virtual open houses and showings (sometimes augmented and virtual reality), as well omnichannel, targeted, and personalized sales. All of these tools are also available to the commercial real estate market in allowing their prospective tenants to find the right space for themselves.

5. Rethinking the future of real estate: Some landlords and lenders in the commercial real estate sector are looking ahead and preparing for how a business will change after the crisis is over. However, professionals are broadening their resources to include psychologists, sociologists, futurists, and technologists in addition to traditional economic or customer-survey-driven approaches. Some of the questions real estate professionals will have to ask include: “Will employees demand larger and more enclosed workspaces? Will people decide not to live in condominiums for fear of having to ride elevators?” By extending their research to include interdisciplinary resources and experts, business leaders will possibly find creative, informed solutions to these unprecedented challenges facing the industry.

About 2020 NAWRB WHER

The NAWRB Women Housing Ecosystem Report (WHER), our annual research report, provides the vision to revitalize communication and partnerships between industries as we work together to form mindful strategic solutions for social impact with a gender lens achievement. The 2020 NAWRB WHER includes the most diverse coverage of the Housing Ecosystem with almost eighty resources in six volumes: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Real Estate; Business Ownership; STEM; Access to Capital; and Aging Population. While waiting for the release of 2020 WHER, order a copy of the 2019 NAWRB WHER here!

Interview with Meg Epstein Founder & CEO of CA South

Posted on by Meg Epstein
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03 Feb

Real estate developer Meg Epstein, Founder & CEO of CA South, who was born in California, but calls Nashville, Tennessee home, has over a decade of experience creating efficient, modern lifestyles for people in their homes and neighborhoods. Epstein founded CA South in 2015 with the idea of bringing to Nashville her sense of design and style of building honed from her days in construction in the state of California.

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California’s Cooling Housing Market: Symptom of National Affordability Issue

Posted on by NAWRB
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03 Jul

The latest UCLA Anderson Forecast of California’s economic and housing market reports that housing will continue to cool into the year 2020 despite current job growth and strong economy. The economists attribute the weakening to falling home prices in major markets and decreased demand.

Economists anticipate the demand for housing will decrease in California’s major markets even though recent trends indicate the state’s overall economic strength, including improvements in the job market.

According to a report by CNBC, California’s average unemployment rate is expected to rise to an average of 4.5 percent this year and then decrease to 4.3 percent in 2020 and 2021. Also, the state has added the highest number of construction jobs, amounting to 28,500, in the past year.
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How Agents Can Better Serve Single-Women Homebuyers

Posted on by NAWRB
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14 Mar

Married couples might comprise the greatest share of homebuyers, but single women follow close behind, especially retired women over the age of 55, according to the Wall Street Journal. Gone are the days when women had to wait until marriage to buy a home; now, women are feeling more confident in creating their own sanctuary and means of wealth-building through homeownership.

If agents hope to maintain their success in the industry, they must prepare for a growing market of single-women homebuyers—a trend that will only increase as more women earn degrees, attain higher-paying jobs and seek properties to buy. Whether your client is a six-figure earning professional, a single mother or a divorcee looking to start a new chapter in her life, or all of the above, here are some important factors to consider when helping your clients, courtesy of the 2018 NAWRB Women in the Housing Ecosystem Report.

Couples, married or unmarried, normally have more buying power than single homebuyers because they have two sources to pull from that could go toward mortgage payments. According to 2016 NAR data, married couples have the highest income of around $99,200, compared to single buyers; however, dependence on a primary income is not deterring single women from buying homes.

Home-Buying Process for Single Women

  • Single women are independent; thus, all home-buying decisions—including where to live, how much of a mortgage payment they can afford, how to decorate their house, etc.—will be made by them.
  • Single women are interested in buying a home as a means of wealth-building. They’re taking the necessary steps to ensure their financial security in the future, whether or not they have a partner.
  • As a single woman, size may not be as important as location and affordability. Some women are interested in owning a home to get a pet, so a sizable backyard is a must.
  • Stringent lending standards make it more difficult for singles applying for loans with one income.

Home-Buying Process for Single Mothers

  • With a limited income, saving money will be difficult because of child-related expenses. Single mothers are also looking for a property they can afford in the long term.
  • Single mothers will want a safe, supportive community with a low crime rate and reputable education system. Having nearby infrastructure and basic amenities like shopping centers, hospitals and parks will be preferred.
  • Working mothers, like other single women, have limited time on their hands; however, single mothers are crunched even more for time, as being a mother is another job in and of itself.
  • Smart home technology, such as security alarms, intercom systems, carbon monoxide detectors and nightlights, could be especially important and appealing to single mothers.

A home is a woman’s sanctuary, a place to call her own, and an invaluable asset that cements one’s professional progress and economic foundation. It would be beneficial for agents to keep this in mind as they assist the needs of women buyers. Your clients will return the favor by referring your services to like-minded friends interested in taking the leap into independent living and property investment. 

Affordable Housing and HELOC Deductibility Under New Tax Laws

Posted on by NAWRB
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14 Mar

The new tax bill passed by Congress in December 2017, celebrated as the Trump Administration’s first major legislative victory, will have inadvertent consequences for potential homebuyers looking to buy homes in high-end markets, and for those with a home equity line of credit (HELOC). A decrease in home prices and caps on tax deductions, among other effects, will lower affordability in some high-tax states.

The GOP tax bill, which includes a $1.5 trillion tax cut, lowers tax rates for individuals and corporations, and introduces limitations on mortgage and tax deductions.
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Women Leading the Way with Confidence

Posted on by NAWRB
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12 Feb

There are plenty woman-driven moments worth celebrating this year. From opportunities to highlight initiatives to advance in Olympic sports, corporate boardroom, red carpet Oscars, and Congress, women are leaving a stalwart trace of power, closing the year 2018 strong.

In Congress, women comprise an impressive record-setting number of 108 held seats in, about 20.2 percent of the 535 members.

With 49.6 percent of total world’s population of women, we continue to be the guiding force committed to shining a light on empowering female role models in an effort to inspire more women leaders.
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One World Trade Center: A Symbol of Hope and a Hallmark of Building Safety

Posted on by NAWRB

Seventeen years later, the aftermath of 9/11 continues to haunt us. All of us who were alive and old enough to remember will never forget where we were and the effect it has had on our lives.  The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, a division of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the Dept. of Labor accounted for 2,886 9/11 related injuries in 2001, a list including people of all ages, ethnicities gender, and types of work—in essence, a snapshot of America.  For those who responded to the attacks, the toll it continues to take is unforgiving.

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LA Family Housing is One of Dateline’s “Angels of Skid Row”

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Of the half a million people across America homeless at any given time, a quarter reside in California, with 55,000 in Los Angeles alone. Los Angeles’ Skid Row, 52 square blocks of blight, has the highest concentration of homeless in America.

Skid Row came about under unofficial policy of containment, but now thousands of homeless are spilling out into other areas in LA creating an even greater crisis.

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Who is Freddie Mac Today?

Posted on by NAWRB
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20 Aug

Often in the industry, when we think of the forty-eight-year-old Government Sponsored Entity The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, otherwise known as Freddie Mac, we think: “I’d love to be an REO broker with them” or “I’d love to be in a vendor relationship with them.” However, as we discovered in our “Who is Freddie Mac Today?” presentation, the GSE is way more than meets the eye, staying on the young side of forty-eight with an eye toward innovation and staying current.   Continue reading →