“I dance like people wish they weren't watching.” Someone sure is watching, and counting, empty houses. Lack of available housing inventory has helped keep housing costs high throughout many of the nation’s big cities, but nearly 5.5 million homes sit vacant across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. The average vacancy rate across these 50 metros is 7.22 percent, with New Orleans (13.9 percent), Miami (12.7 percent), and Tampa (12.2 percent) having the highest vacancy rates. Vacancy rates are lowest in Minneapolis, Austin, and Washington, D.C., the only metros in the study with vacancy rates below 5 percent. Just because an area has a high vacancy rate doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s something wrong with its housing market. Roughly one-quarter of vacancies are due to being empty for rent, one-fifth because they're only used part time, and one-twelfth because they're being repaired or renovated. (Today
Inflation and price increases can be widespread and impact many, like gasoline or flour, or can be very specific and impact only a small portion of the population, like guitar strings or limoncello. Continued rent increases impact many, not the least of which are the roughly 50 million tenants themselves along with their potential loan originators who could help them finance a house. Word has it that owners stay in their homes 13 years, although this source says 16 years, whereas tenants stay in their rental about 3 years for a house and 2.5 years for multi-family/apartments. There is a lot of hope being placed by lenders in tenants who move into ownership, as volume stinks. According to Curinos, August 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 26 percent YoY and increased 8 percent MoM. In the Retail channel, funded volume was down 31 percent YoY and up 8 percent MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in August was 6.82 percent, 13bps higher than July and 124bps higher tha