This is the disclaimer at the bottom of a collection document one of my clients obtained last week…my advise…read the entire document before you have to deal with this type of illegal collection action:
“The law limits how long you can be sued and how long a debt can appear on your credit report. Due to the age of this debt, we will not sue you for it or report payment or non-payment of it to a credit bureau. Depending on the laws of your state , certain actions, such as making a payment or promising to pay the debt, may restart the time period for the filing of a lawsuit against you; but even if that were the case, we will not sue you on this debt.” Wenston DeSue
If the statute of limitations has expired on debt, or you have paid off the debt, you don’t expect to see it again. A zombie debt, as the name implies, is a debt you thought was cleared or expired but has come back to haunt you. A debt collector is trying to raise it from the dead.
Collection companies often buy bundles of old debt. They pay an average of four cents for every dollar of debt they buy, so anything they collect above that is profit. These debts often have incomplete records. The statute of limitations on these debts may have passed. They may not even be yours.
While zombie debt seems scary, the power to defeat it is in your hands. Here is what you need to know to deal with zombie debt and prevent it from becoming an apocalypse.
Most Common Type of Zombie Debt
The statute of limitations defines the time limit for legal action. You can successfully defend yourself against a collection lawsuit simply by proving that the statute of limitations on the debt has expired. When the statute of limitations expires the debt is said to be time-barred.
Time-barred debt is one of the most common forms of zombie debt.
The statute of limitations varies from state to state. If a collector is demanding payment of an old debt you should learn about the statute of limitations in your state.
The statute of limitations will defend you against legal action. The collector can still try to collect. If you acknowledge the debt or offer to pay part of it, it can reset the statute of limitations. This opens the possibility of court proceedings.
Prior to November 20, 2021, a debt collector could still sue you after the statute of limitations expires. If you showed up in court and proved that the statute of limitations has expired, the judge would dismiss the case. If you failed to show up, the judge could still issue a summary judgment against you.
This practice is now illegal. Regulation F, a sweeping reform of debt collection practices that took effect on Nov. 20, 2021, states that a collector can not sue or threaten to sue over a time-barred debt.
Other Types of Zombie Debt
Zombie debt can show up even if you’ve already paid and settled the debt. Sometimes it never was your debt, in the case of mistaken identity or identity theft. Zombie debt may or may not have any direct correlation to your financial situation. It can emerge at any time.
Previously Settled Debts
If you have already paid off an account but payments were late or delayed, it might reappear as zombie debt. This is also true if you filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and had debts discharged.
You should keep written documentation of any debt that is paid, settled, or discharged in bankruptcy. You’ll need it if the debt rises from the dead.
Someone Else’s Debt
Some collectors will contact you about someone else’s zombie debt. This happens in the case of an address change, a new phone number, and also in the case of identity theft or fraudulent charges in your name.
If a collector contacts you about a debt that is not yours, insist that they validate the debt. If it really isn’t yours they will not be able to do it. You can also dispute any entry the collection company has placed on your credit report.
If you suspect identity theft you will need to act immediately. Your first stop should be the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft portal, where you can report the theft and get a personalized recovery plan.
How Debt Collectors Acquire Zombie Debt
If an original creditor cannot collect a debt, they sell it to a debt collector. If the debt collector fails to collect, they may sell it to another collector, often as part of a large bundle of debt.
Debt collectors acquire zombie debt by buying bundles of old debts from another owner. This is often another debt collector. This can include delinquent debt or bundles of debt from customers with low credit scores. The older the debt, the less expensive it is.
Debt collectors purchase debt for an average of four cents for every dollar of debt that they buy. Older debts are even cheaper. If they collect even a small percentage of the debt, they can make a profit.
☝️ Many zombie debts have passed through multiple collectors. Documentation may be lost in the process, so errors are common.
What To Do About Zombie Debt
If a debt zombie comes after you, don’t ignore it. Take action.
Check the Notice of Debt. A debt collector must send you a written Notice of Debt within five days of their first contact with you. The notice must include the amount of the debt, the indentity of the creditor, and a statement that you have 30 days to contest the debt.
Use a Debt Validation Letter. You can respond with a debt validation letter asking for more information. This will help you determine whether the debt is time-barred and wjhether it is really yours. Learn about how to communicate with debt collectors before you need to do it!
Check if it is time-barred. Even if the debt belongs to you, it might have passed your state’s statute of limitations. The collector will have to provide you with the date of the original delinquency. If you believe the debt may have passed the statute of limitations, do not pay the debt or acknowledge that you owe it.
Locate the debt on your credit report. Note when the debt was added and when it will drop off the credit report, if it hasn’t already. Most debts will stay on your credit report for seven years.
Know what questions to ask. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) defines your rights . It’s a good idea to know your rights and prepare to respond to debt collectors.
If the debt is legitimately yours and the statute of limitations has not expired, consider a debt settlement. In some cases, you might also be able to wait for the debt to pass the statute of limitations, depending on how close the statute is to expiring and how aggressively the collector tries to collect.
When to Ignore Zombie Debt
If the debt is time-barred, your best recourse will be to ignore the collector. If the debt no longer appears on your credit report and has also passed the statute of limitations, then there is no reason to act on it. You can safely ignore this type of zombie debt.
You can write to the debt collector and instruct them not to contact you. They have to comply.
Article from: finmasters.com
Real Estate
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate.
I remember being on a construction site of an historic building and feeling a sense of dread as we removed 100 year old molding and insulation. This “stuff” is not to be trifled with…Wenston DeSue
Construction workers may unknowingly bring home toxic metals…
Beyond the well-known danger of lead, construction workers may unintentionally pick up other harmful, toxic metals at work and inadvertently bring them home.
The Harvard Take Home Study evaluated samples collected in 30 homes of workers living with a child in the greater Boston area to identify potential home exposure. Construction workers' homes had higher levels of arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, nickel and tin when compared to janitorial and auto workers in the study.
Lead poisoning in children that results from dust unknowingly brought home by a worker is commonly called "take home exposure." But workers can bring other metals home, and there are no clear guidelines to gauge the safety levels of those metals even though they can cause health problems.
Exposure to some of these metals, such as arsenic, occur near or in hazardous waste sites or areas with naturally high levels in soil, rocks and water, according to OSHA. Others, like chromium, are used explicitly in construction, and OSHA warns workers in welding, painting, cement and more can face occupational exposure.
High exposure to arsenic can cause death, while lower exposure for longer periods of time can cause discoloration of the skin and corns or warts. Metals like chromium are carcinogens, with long-lasting health term effects potentially rising from extended exposure.
Diana Ceballos, assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and one of the study's authors, said experts had learned much about how cases happen before this study, but not enough about stopping them.
"I realized how gravely we needed prevention, instead of being reactionary," Ceballos said.
The realities of construction work make it harder to find and prevent issues like this, she said. Construction workers spend large amounts of time outside. They work on different projects, sometimes during the same day. As a result, it can be challenging to track and prevent the accidental spread of harmful dust.
Prevention is key
Thankfully, simple practices — the same as those to keep lead out of the home — can prevent workers from carrying home toxic dust, Ceballos said. Workers who have lockers to store their equipment and who don’t mix their home and work clothing or gear were less likely to bring home toxic metals, the study found. Additionally, thoroughly washing hands and showering with soap and water can prevent the spread, as can regularly washing the inside of the worker's car.
If contractors or sites don't provide those opportunities, there are still things workers can do to reduce risk. Storing tools, boots or outerwear outside is an easy way to reduce the amount of dust entering the home.
COVID-19 has given many people a better understanding for how minute particles can spread, though it is not a perfect comparison, Ceballos said. Being aware when those harmful metals are on site and regularly cleaning up, taking more precautions or wearing PPE when around those areas can mitigate the risks.
"The bottom line is that lead prevention efforts that address the take home pathway, that stop the lead from going home, are very important, because they prevent not only lead take home exposure but other toxic metals," Ceballos said.
Article Cited: Construction Dive
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate.
While 17.13% of Fla. homes may be vacant, the number is misleading because it includes some vacation homes. Nationally, 16M homes are vacant.
NEW YORK – While housing shortages are a more commonly cited problem than housing vacancies, some areas of the country see a higher number of empty homes than others. Empty homes can be a concern as they can sometimes lead to economic blight – but a high number of empty homes doesn’t necessarily mean trouble, economists say.
More than 16 million homes are sitting vacant across the U.S., according to new research from LendingTree, which ranked the nation’s 50 states by their shares of unoccupied homes.
Vermont, Maine, and Alaska have the highest vacancy rates – between 22% and 20%, according to the study. Florida ranks sixth. According to LendingTree, the state has 9.8 million housing units, and 1.68M (17.13%) are technically considered vacant.
However, not all vacant homes have been ignored by their owners.
“Homes can be vacant for a variety of reasons, and just because an area has a high vacancy rate doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s something wrong with its housing market,” says Jacob Channel, LendingTree’s senior economist analyst. “Instead, it could mean that the area is rapidly building new homes for sale in order to satisfy high buyer demand; it can also mean that an area is a popular spot for secondary or vacation homes that go unused for most of the year.”
Source: “16 Million Homes Are Vacant in the U.S. – Here Are the States with the Highest Vacancy Rates,” LendingTree (March 1, 2022)
“Someone call your loan officer…it’s time to get er’ done…Wenston DeSue
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate.
But…this article is a glimmer of hope…Wenston DeSue
Affordable housing crisis continues as many search for answers
The affordable housing predicament has reached crisis level for many in the region. Some creative leaders, in business and government, are on the front lines of delivering sustainable solutions.
had been owning this whole adulting thing: Seeking to avoid big college debt, the recent University of Florida grad earned scholarships, worked a job and secured a good internship that has led to a full time job with engineering firm Kimley-Horn. She starts at the firm's Sarasota office in March.
In Tampa… 22-year-old has hit an adulting speedbump, a hiccup quickly reaching crisis level in the region, if not across most of Florida: the lack of housing — homes, condos or apartments — at price points that meet what's long been the standard rent-to-income ratio of spending 30% or less on your domicile. Griffiths, echoing the thoughts of many — from Tampa, where apartments in some of the priciest neighborhoods are going for $5,000 a month, to Naples, where the median home sale price of $445,000, up 20% over 2020, recently landed it as the No. 1 on the The Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index — sums up the situation with this: “These are New York City prices!”
Griffiths, who grew up in Sarasota, is living with her parents. While others take that option when feasible, "living with your parents" isn't a viable, sustainable answer to the core problem a host of business, civic and nonprofit leaders, not to mention lawmakers, are grappling with: As housing prices have shot up in the past couple of years, an ever-widening divide has grown between those who can afford to buy in this market and those who can't.
The affordable housing crisis is also a dynamic issue, including wages, land prices, zoning rules and notably, an ongoing battle in many localities over growth policies. In turn, that has twisted supply and demand dynamics into a Gordian knot, exacerbated by migration patterns that validate Florida's throne on dozens of "best places" to live and retire lists.
“I think (finding affordable housing solutions) is something we need to lean into; I think we all have a responsibility to try to help our community be better,” says David Ellis, the director of business development at Heatherwood Construction in Bonita Springs, who has served as president of the Immokalee Friendship House, a homeless shelter, and chaired an affordable housing commission for Collier County in the early 2000s.
“Everybody is not going to live on the water and have a yacht," he adds, "but at the same time they ought to have a decent place to live with safe environments so kids can grow and learn.”
Courtesy. Alyssa Barnsley is content living with family for the time being as she waits out rising rent prices.
How We Got Here
Like Griffiths, Alyssa Barnsley, also a Gator, moved back to her family within the area in 2019 after college. Going on three years, with the pandemic delays, Barnsley remains at home, where, she says, she's saving money and is content — for now. Optimistically speaking, Barnsley says she might find a place to live over the summer of this year. But if rent prices continue to skyrocket, then she’s going to stay put.
Stories like those from Griffiths and Barnsley abound in the region.
Consider Nathan Hagen. After growing up in the Tampa Bay area, Hagen moved to Gainesville for college. When he tried to move back, he couldn’t find housing that fit his budget. “Every time I raised my budget, the market changed its cost,” says Hagen, co-founder at Tampa software firm Admiral.
Like many in his generation, Hagen rents a place over owning a house, and he's nervous that if rent keeps going up, like it is in many markets, he will have a problem. “I could not justify paying the market rent price.”
Hagen decided to research the problem. He compared previous housing market crashes and then charted the number of new houses built over time. “We have stopped building new homes,” he says, noting the increased population size in the Tampa area. “The net new supply of housing has not changed.”
Courtesy. Nathaniel Bittman says the federal government has gone to great lengths to control inflation by raising interest rates.
Hagen isn't sitting idle about the issue. He helps lead the Tampa chapter of Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY). YIMBY Tampa is a local chapter of YIMBY Action, a national nonprofit focused on enacting equitable policies that advance housing affordability for all. Its name is a play on the concept of NIMBY — Not in My Backyard — a euphemism for another factor in the housing pinch, when longtime residents of an area or neighborhood protest new housing projects or zoning rules.
Nathaniel Bittman, a Tampa Bay area branch manager for Linthicum, Maryland-based NFM Lending Co., offers another perspective. He says the federal government has gone to great lengths to control inflation by raising interest rates, scheduled to be raised again in March. Yet at the same it has expanded the limit on loans available through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration lenders that specialize in mortgages for first-time home buyers.
The result? A classic Catch-22.
“We have a massive shortage of housing in the marketplace,” he says, “and then we have excessive demand for housing. The conundrum that a lot of people face, at least from a mortgage standpoint, is they’re simply priced out of the market.”
Bittman spends a lot of time studying the causes and effects of the affordable housing crisis. In addition to working in the mortgage industry since 1995, he’s also an educator, teaching “boot camps” for new loan originators and real estate professionals throughout Florida.
Another factor in the issue, Bittman says, is the the cost to build has gotten “exponentially higher” because of supply-chain issues that are driving up the price of raw materials. Longtime homebuilder Pat Neal, whose company, Lakewood Ranch-based Neal Communities has built some 18,000 homesfrom Lee to Manatee counties over the past 50 years, highlights that issue when he talks about the affordable housing issue.
“Builders are passing that cost along to the consumer, which they should do,” Bittman says. “That’s just basic economics, but it further deteriorates buying power.”
The trickle-down effects of the affordable housing crisis, Bittman adds, are and will continue to be felt acutely by hospitality and service industry businesses that rely on workers who are being shut out of the housing market. High-end housing developments, he explains, tend to spur the construction of restaurants, bars, hotels, big-box stores, etc., but the people who are needed to work at such businesses won’t be able to afford to live in the area, and they might balk at having to commute long distances for an hourly, low-wage job.
“These businesses could fail from the fact that they just don’t have employees who can afford to come to work,” he says, comparing the crisis to a “runaway train.”
He adds, “We have massive inflation. Now you need wage inflation to keep up because people have to get paid more money just to live.”
Chain of Command
Bittman believes governments should do a better job of incentivizing builders, via tax credits and subsidies for material costs, to focus more on workforce housing such as apartments and townhomes; however, that doesn’t solve supply-chain problems. “Then there’s the waiting game,” Bittman says. “You have to have a builder feel confident enough that they can build a development and then sell it out quickly enough.”
"The focus is getting people to live in a Class A building and be able to afford it." — Marshall Gobuty, Pearl Homes
Government at the state level plays a role in the solutions as well, say many business and civic leaders. The focus there is on the state’s Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Created in 1992, Sadowski imposes a 20-cent surcharge for every $100 paid on real estate transactions to generate funding for affordable housing. The problem? During the 2000s, legislators began diverting Sadowski revenues for other purposes, “sweeping” more than $2 billion from the fund between 2002 and 2017.
File. Jared Meyers, founder and chairman of Salt Palm Development in St. Petersburg, says the private sector has as much responsibility for addressing affordable housing as the government does.
After fully funding at $387 million in 2020, Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 wanted all $423 million in projected Sadowski revenues for affordable housing. But lawmakers, instead, reduced the transaction tax amount dedicated to Sadowski, with up to one-half annually earmarked for wastewater and “resiliency” infrastructure. The governor's 2022 budget request earmarks $355.5 million in affordable housing initiatives, including $95 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) and $220.5 million for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) programs. The CEOs of multiple chambers of commerce in the region, in addition to other pro-business lobbyists, support full utilization of the Sadowski fund.
Work the Problem
One sub-issue underlying the affordable housing crisis in many specific markets in the region is the downtown vs. suburb battle. That plays everywhere from Sarasota to Naples to Tampa. In St. Petersburg, the problem is becoming more acute as the number of high-dollar developments keeps pushing those who can’t afford the new housing out of downtown.
City officials have begun to address the issue. It's in the second year of a 10-year plan to rein in housing costs and increase homeownership. This plan includes helping low-income families and individuals become homeowners by providing 150 lots to build on and down payment assistance. And City Council is working on a dedicated zoning district that will allow the construction of multifamily units where they normally wouldn’t be allowed.
One of the linchpins of the plan is the construction of 2,400 apartment units. These will be affordable and workforce housing, where rent is based on a person’s income along with market rate apartment. The city has partnered to fund 650 units, which are under construction. The $60 million project is city funded but, according to the detail on the city’s website, “since most of these funds are sourced by taxes already paid to each level of government, everyone is contributing to this important solution.”
Jared Meyers, founder and chairman of Salt Palm Development in St. Petersburg, says the private sector has as much responsibility for addressing affordable housing as the government does.
Meyers, whose company calls itself a socially conscious developer of sustainable housing, believes that in order to keep housing affordable there needs to be more focus on what’s causing the problem. That means making sure employees earn a livable wage and creating a network of businesses that are “a force for good.”
He says these companies would offer “high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose, reducing inequality, alleviating poverty, protecting local environments and supporting communities are essential.”
“I am very proud of what we do at Salt Palm Development,” he says, “but when it comes to directly creating affordable housing, we aren’t there yet.”
The Tampa Housing Authority, meanwhile, is in the process of building several developments which will provide workforce and low wage housing for huge numbers of residents. The authority has a department within its system solely dedicated “to provide a unified containment of affordable housing for our residents.”
Pifferi. Ian Schmoyer says between rising material costs and supply chain issues, everything is getting passed off to the buyer.
According to the website, the office of Real Estate Development “is positioned to build new housing or acquire developments of mixed income, mixed-used and market-rate quality.”
The idea is for it to be creative in how it approaches housing.
As part of this effort, the city is working with one of the biggest developers in the country, Miami-based The Related Group. The developer, which is building the Ritz-Carlton Residences on Bayshore Boulevard, where prices for condos start at $1.6 million, is working on the 120-acre West River Tampa affordable housing development and won an RFP last year to work on the Rome Yard development, another affordable housing project.
The secret to these types of developments, officials in Tampa and elsewhere say, is to offer more than just homes priced at a certain range.
Like most homebuilders, Ian Schmoyer, president and CEO of Cape Coral-based Christopher Alan Homes, says between rising material costs and supply chain issues, everything is getting passed off to the buyer. In response, Schmoyer says the best way to tackle the affordable housing crisis is by getting more new homes on the market and submitting permits in a timely manner.
Courtesy. A rendering of The Met.
In Bradenton, north of Christopher Alan Homes, developer and homebuilder Marshall Gobuty is addressing the affordable housing issue with the Met. It's a $20 million project being built by Gobuty's Bradenton-based Pearl Homes. The Met is a workforce housing project with 199 apartments. On the 3.3-acre site of the former Manatee Inns at 1405 14th St. W., the development is in the heart of the Village of the Arts. The Met is also an in an Opportunity Zone, an investment program created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that provides tax advantages for certain investments in lower income areas. The rental prices have not been determined yet, but will follow the HUD average monthly income for the area.
While it's somewhat marketing semantics, Gobuty says he prefers to label the project workforce housing. "There’s a bad connotation with affordable housing,” he says, “just like section eight housing.”
He plans to create market-size apartments by making every square foot rentable area. There’s no gym, pool or any other amenity that one might find at other complexes. But there is going to be a liveable space for nurses, firefighters and other working professionals to call home, he says. “The strategy was, do we need a big reception area? Sales office? Lounge?” Gobuty says. “No.”
Courtesy. Mark Vengroff' One Stop Housing operates in Bradenton, Kissimmee, Orlando, Sarasota and Memphis, Tennessee.
Gobuty emphasizes that making the Met without amenities doesn't mean he's cutting corners. It will be a Class A building he says, with several green and environmental features to boot.
Take Action
Another warrior in the affordable housing battle is Mark Vengroff, managing partner of One Stop Housing in Sarasota. Like his late father Harvey Vengroff, a prominent and colorful businessman well-known in the city of Sarasota for his battles over zoning and housing regulations, Mark Vengroff has a model that proves affordable housing, with the right regulations and strategy, can be profitable. The Sarasota-based company specializes in buying and converting hotels, offices, schools and other property types into apartment buildings whose units are priced below market rates. It operates in Bradenton, Kissimmee, Orlando, Sarasota and Memphis, Tennessee.
“We’ve been around for about 38 years, doing 100% workforce housing,” Vengroff says. “It’s a for-profit business with a very philanthropic focus. We’ve got to make money, but we don’t have to get greedy about it. It’s very tempting for developers to quickly go into the market-rate product because the margins are bigger and more attractive.”
Vengroff says One Stop Housing has turned a profit year every year it’s been in business, even during the early days of the pandemic, when rent payment delinquencies skyrocketed. Even during tough times, “we haven’t taken any government subsidies whatsoever,” he adds.
One Stop Housingmaintains ownership and management responsibilities, adding value in the form of what Vengroff calls “wraparound services” — everything from financial literacy, self-esteem and job interview courses to financial assistance, free meals, help with procuring furniture and even food and toy drives around the holidays. Those services are delivered by the firm’s nonprofit arm, One Stop Cares.
Mostly due to high — and getting higher all the time — land prices, in addition to impact fees and other costs, One Stop Housing focuses on repurposing existing structures. It currently has about 3,000 units across 14 properties, nine of which are in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Manatee County alone, Vengroff says, has a deficit of 14,000 workforce housing units. The situation has worsened to the point where some residents have given up hope of having their own home.
A member of the Manatee County Affordable Housing Advisory Board, Vengroff recently heard from a teacher who moved to the area and wound up having to crash on someone’s couch. “He can’t afford to live anywhere in the area,” he says, “and he’s not alone.”
The world’s affluent population – those with $5M-plus incomes – grew 19.8% in 2021. In the U.S. it was 24.8% in both population and wealth, up from 8.1% in 2020.
MADISON, N.J. – A new report on the luxury home market, conducted by Wealth-X and commissioned by Coldwell Banker, Real Estate LLC, found a notable 2021 uptick in both the number of affluent people and the amount of money those people hold.
“The Report sheds light on the extraordinary paradigm shift that has occurred within the luxury real estate sector since 2020,” says Michael Altneu, vice president, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury. “Stock market gains, rising home equity, increased savings and the cryptocurrency boom have all contributed to a massive expansion of wealth and the sheer number of affluent individuals across the globe.”
Altneu says that monetary growth fueled unprecedented demand when combined with “a renewed focus on home for fulfilling a range of needs, from security, escape, community, work and wellness … As a result, luxury is no longer concentrated in a few major cities; it’s everywhere and we’ll continue to see the growth of secondary markets for years to come.”
Based on the data, the world’s affluent population – those with a net worth of $5 million and up – grew 19.8% in 2021, adding 597,550 individuals to bring their total population to 3,612,730 individuals worldwide. Their combined wealth rose 20.4% to over $75 trillion – a significant jump from 2020, which only saw a 2.1% year-over-year increase.
In the U.S., the numbers grew even higher. This affluent population rose 24.8% in both total population and wealth during the same period, up from 8.1% in 2020. That led to a notable expansion of luxury real estate sales.
In 2021, sales of luxury single-family homes, defined as the top 10% of any given market, rose 14.5%, while prices increased 20.3% from 2020. Sales of attached luxury homes saw a more dramatic uptick of 29.6% year-over-year and a 16.6% increase in prices.
Key Findings in The Report
International buyers
International interest in the U.S. real estate market may reignite as foreign investors take advantage of loosened travel restrictions and high returns. Like American consumers, many continue to seek turnkey properties with additional space and privacy, and they’ve also expressed interest in secondary or suburban areas.
According to The Report, the U.S. states that attracted the greatest number of foreign homebuyers from April 2020 to March 2021 were California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and New Jersey.
Sustainable living
Millennial buyers are flocking to homes that incorporate personal and environmental wellness into the design. Homes with these features can command price premiums of 10% to 25%, sometimes higher.
Climate-change concerns have also filtered into buying decisions. Green cities, like Portland, San Francisco and St. Paul, are attracting interest from those seeking out more eco-friendly locales. For this group, luxury is defined by functionality, environmental harmony and ease of use.
Luxury has changed locations
Secondary cities like Denver, Boise, Sacramento, San Antonio, Raleigh and Salt Lake City fared extremely well. Inventory levels for luxury single-family homes dropped, ranging from 19% to 36% year-over-year in those six markets, affecting the number of possible sales at the end of 2021. As a result, prices rose annually ranging from 19.9% to 37.5%.
Urban cores are also making a comeback: Manhattan alone saw a 101.7% increase in luxury sales during 2021. Work-from-home opportunities, climate change considerations and accessibility to dream locations means luxury may continue to expand throughout the country.
“Double-digit wealth and affluent population gains have happened concurrently with a once-in-a-generation change in living patterns and migrations,” says Liz Gehringer, president of Coldwell Banker Affiliate Business and Chief Operating Officer. “As luxury real estate represents a larger percentage of the total housing market than ever before, it is absolutely crucial that luxury real estate professionals have a firm grasp of all factors influencing wealthy buyers and sellers today. The agent has become the affluent buyer’s connection point to new locations around the world. “
Cited: FloridaRealtor
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate.
Only the maniacs destroy the progress that others have made…Wenston DeSue
The once-thriving construction industry in Ukraine has ground to a near halt as the nation shifts into battling an invasion by Russia.
Before the incursion, which began Feb. 24, construction sites across the country were booming in many different sectors, according to Morgan Williams, president of the 200-member U.S.-Ukraine Business Council in Washington, D.C.
"There was a lot of construction in Ukraine — work on the highways, bridges, airports, offices and apartment buildings," he told Construction Dive. "In 2021, there were huge public and private construction projects."
Williams said most of the public sector work, under the Ukrainian government's ambitious "Big Construction" program, is "contracted out and those contractors are getting concerned as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is rattling the sabers." Lenders on private projects are also worried.
"We expect this will have a massive negative effect on the entire construction industry," he said. "The mood is very depressing. Everyone is working from home or remotely."
Rebuilding Ukraine's antiquated infrastructure was a promise of President Zelenskyy shortly after being elected in 2019. His Big Construction program aims to rebuild and renovate roads, bridges and other civil projects, but has been challenged by COVID-19 limitations and charges of corrupt bidding practices, according to Emerging Europe.
Stopping production
Despite the invasion, which has brought airstrikes and shelling to many areas and forced thousands of people to flee the country, the 50-person office of CKS Frame Construction in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was open as of Tuesday. The company designs and manufactures steel structures such as entertainment centers and shopping malls in Kyiv and elsewhere.
An employee in the CKS office in Katowice, Poland, named Marek, who declined to give his last name for fear of retribution, told Construction Dive "there's no fighting where we have manufacturing offices but the situation is not good."
He said the company has stopped production on current orders and is pivoting to special orders on steel devices designed to stop Russian tanks.
Asked how long CKS will continue to work during the war before it returns to commercial production, Marek replied "we hope it is over as quickly as possible but nobody knows when."
Zeppelin Ukraine, a dealer for Caterpillar construction, agricultural and mining equipment, told Construction Dive it had suspended business due to the incursion. The 600-employee company also manufactures machinery.
"We have ordered our employees to stay at home and seek safety," said Sandra Scherzer, a spokeswoman with its parent organization, Zeppelin GmbH in Garching, Germany. "Our branches are fixed workshops that cannot be easily relocated. In the combat zones, we have removed the moveable assets and the rest was left behind for the time being."
Cited: Construction Dive
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate
HUD hopes more multifamily owners will commit to cutting carbon emissions, in part because lower-income communities face a greater risk from natural disasters.
WASHINGTON – Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy announced an inaugural to lower the carbon footprint of communities.
Called the Better Climate Challenge, a private-public partnership led by DOE, the initiative currently has over 80 businesses and organizations signed on to reduce their carbon output. If one partner finds an innovative way to reduce their carbon footprint, they’re encouraged to share it with the others.
HUD supports the multifamily component of the Better Climate Challenge, one of several building sectors participating.
“The Challenge is not just about cutting carbon pollution, but about supporting communities that all too often bear the brunt of climate change while seeing too few of the benefits from the energy transition,” says HUD’s Fudge. “We have a tremendous opportunity to deliver climate justice to disadvantaged communities, lower energy expenses in affordable housing, and accelerate mitigation efforts to protect at-risk communities from natural disasters and the impacts of climate change.”
Of the multifamily participants, Fudge says “seven are public housing and multifamily partners, representing a bright future for more than 40,000 families.”
“Companies across America are joining arms to lead the zero-carbon transition,” says Energy’s Granholm. She says it’s not just about the environment, it’s also about costs: “Meaningful and measurable emissions reductions of the Better Climate Challenge will save American businesses billions of dollars, create good-paying jobs, and drive innovation that strengthens the entire U.S. economy.”
The Better Climate Challenge is a voluntary, market-based platform, HUD says. It helps organizations come together and put in place portfolio-wide, operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals and showcase how they are taking necessary, measurable steps to address the impacts of climate change.
The challenge builds on the existing Better Building Challenge, which HUD supports with Community Compass technical assistance (TA). Unlike the Better Building Challenge’s requirement for a commitment to a 20% improvement in energy efficiency, the Climate Challenge will request commitments of a 50% portfolio-wide reduction in carbon emissions over 10 years.
Any organization with a portfolio of at least two multifamily buildings and 250 units can join the multifamily Better Climate Challenge.
Article cited: FloridaRealtor News
Wenston DeSue is a realtor, organizational consultant, design, construct, build expert and developmental networker. Real estate is the business of exchange and affects every person on the planet. Real estate on all levels represents resources, access, purpose and often times, power. These articles represent aspects that affect the business of real estate.
