8/19/2022
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KREM
The Wall St Journal
KXLY
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KREM
Some of the reasons behind Spokane's real estate market drive were low interest rates and low inventory.
SPOKANE, Wash — The last two years have been a whirlwind for Spokane's real estate market. But now there's speculation of a real estate correction for the Lilac City.
The Lilac City’s real estate market has been going full-steam ahead during the course of the pandemic and was characterized by both a huge demand & sky-rocketing housing prices.
Kristi Morris, a broker with Windermere Manito, described the past two years as being “hot, hot, hot,” while Melissa Murphy, owner of Prime Real Estate Group, remembered it being “a crazy, crazy time.”
Murphy remembered some homes getting up to 15 to 20 offers during that time: “People were scrambling to get their foot in any door. We had lines of traffic out for showings as people were cramming to get in in short timelines and get offers submitted."
Some of the reasons behind the market drive were low interest rates and low inventory.
But now there's a shift starting to be felt.
According to Moody's Analytics, as reported by Fortune Magazine, they're forecasting Spokane to be in the top five markets for housing price drops, with a forecasted drop of 5.22% for 2023 and a 4.11% drop for 2024.
The recent spike in mortgage interest rates is expected to be a part of the equation for the shift. But Morris added fatigue could also be an issue.
"I think people are just tired of having to fight so hard for a house that they want,” she said.
As to whether the forecast from Moody's comes true, both Murphy and Morris said it's hard to say since there's no crystal ball to help figure out the future.
However, both do think the Spokane housing market is becoming more stable.
"It's still a seller's market,” said Morris, “But you can kind of feel the needle just kind of edging its way toward more of a balance market.”
Murphy said, “What we had was so abnormal and so crazy. I've heard it as this way: It's kind of like a party. You can't party all night long, right? Morning has to come. You have to go back to a normal state. It can't be that crazy for that long."
Other cities listed in the top five markets for housing price drops in 2023 include Reno, Nev. and Honolulu, Hawaii.
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The Wall St Journal
Orange County would be the first local government in Florida to challenge a state prohibition on rent control, but other cities may follow
Will ParkerAug. 18, 2022 5:30 am ET
The board of commissioners for Orange County, which includes Orlando, last week moved to put a measure on the November ballot to let voters decide whether to limit how much landlords can boost apartment rents.
While Orange County officials estimate that more than 100,000 households could be eligible for rent control, its passage faces significant challenges. Florida law mostly prohibits price controls on rent, unless Orange County can prove it is experiencing a housing emergency.
The first challenge to the rent-control vote came on Monday, when two real estate trade groups filed a lawsuit against Orange County. They said the ballot proposal violates state law and shouldn’t be put to voters.
“It is unfortunate that a majority of the Orange County Commission disregarded the law and instead moved to place this measure on the ballot,” said Amanda White, a spokeswoman for the Florida Apartment Association, one of the organizations suing the county.
A spokeswoman for Orange County said the county doesn’t comment on active litigation.
Orange County’s vote on rent control marks the latest effort by a city or local government to introduce measures that are outlawed or pre-empted in more than two dozen states. But with rents nationwide at all-time highs and climbing, and with progressive Democrats exerting more power in major cities, rent control is getting a fresh look.
California and Oregon have passed statewide measures over the past four years that peg maximum rent increases to inflation rates. Cities including St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Maine; Kingston, N.Y. and Santa Ana, Calif., have passed their own rent controls since then.
Other legislative attempts have failed, however, including a bill in New York to cap rents statewide, and a bill in Colorado limiting ground rent increases for mobile homes.
Orlando rents have risen 35% since March 2020, according to listings website Apartment List, by far the fastest rate recorded for the city and among the biggest increases in the U.S.
The Orange County rent measure would expire after one year, and voters would have to vote again to renew it. The proposed law would set a maximum increase of no more than the regional change in the Consumer Price Index, which rose 9.4% during the 12 months ended in July.
Officials who support it say the measure would ease the toll of housing inflation on renters, while lawmakers work on other policies to increase new housing supply.
“It gives us a chance to pump the brakes,” Nicole Wilson, one of the commissioners in favor of the rent control, said during a board meeting last week.
The real-estate industry and some lawmakers argue that rent control will lead to less property investment and lower rates of construction in the Orlando area.
Florida cities, which saw more inbound migration than most during the pandemic, have experienced some of the country’s steepest hikes. Rents in Tampa and Miami have risen more than 30%, and officials there might be emboldened to follow Orange County’s lead if its rent control effort succeeds.
Middle-income Americans have built up less savings, lost more in the market downturn and face higher average inflation in 2022. WSJ’s Dion Rabouin uses three key data points to explain. Illustration: Ryan Trefes
Since 1977, the state of Florida has banned local governments from controlling the price of rent, unless the housing market has become so strained that it becomes “a serious menace to the general public,” according to state law.
Officials in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Miami have debated the issue over the past year, but only the Orange County government has decided to put the matter on the public ballot.
Rent control in Orange County would apply only to multifamily buildings. It would exempt owners of single-family properties, which have also enjoyed unusually high rent increases during the pandemic. Landlords could request exceptions from the rent cap because of increased operating or maintenance costs.
The proposal would spare newly constructed rental properties, though even that carve-out might not be enough to win over certain builders who oppose such policies.
“Camden will not build in a rent-control market,” said Ric Campo, chief executive of Camden Property Trust, a publicly traded developer and landlord that owns 4,000 units in Orlando.In the three months after the rent-control law passed in St. Paul, new building permit applications dropped more than 80% annually, according to an analysis of public records by the Pioneer Press newspaper. St. Paul officials have since proposed omitting new buildings.
Emily Bonilla, a commissioner in Orange County who supported the rent-control proposal, said new construction would continue. Unlike the rent-control measure in St. Paul, she said, Orange County’s law wouldn’t regulate rent increases at new buildings.
She added that the ordinance would protect vulnerable people, such as those who work in hospitality or at theme parks and face potential rent increases equaling hundreds of dollars each month. Some of these workers have already ended up living in extended stay hotels, she said.
“A lot of these families, their rents are raised on them, they weren’t able to pay it and then they were evicted,” she said. “And now they can’t qualify for a place to live.”
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KXLY
SPOKANE, Wash.– As the land from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene becomes more of a concrete jungle, the chances for extremely hot weather rise with the development. Roads, parking lots, and sidewalks absorb more heat from the sun than a grassy field or a shady forest. This creates what’s called the urban heat island effect.
Since 4 News Now started to report temperatures from downtown Spokane this month, the extra heat has stuck out like a sore thumb. The weather station we use for downtown temperatures is the Perry Curves WSDOT station on the edge of downtown and East Spokane.
On Wednesday for example, the official Spokane climate station at the airport hit the upper 90s. The downtown weather station hit 100°. Thursday has been a similar pattern. While the airport temperature might be a good approximation for temperatures on the north side or the south hill, the downtown corridor appears to be one of the hottest places in Spokane or Kootenai counties during the dog days of summer.
The reason why is simple, the more urban development you have, the hotter temperatures you’re likely to get. The fact that downtown is at the bottom of a valley can also capture heat from the hillsides, which will crank up the temperature too. Early Thursday afternoon, pavement temperatures in the KXLY parking lot downtown were reaching 140°! A patch of grass next to our lot was hovering at just 104°. There’s no doubt that on a micro-level that temperature difference translates to the air above these surfaces.
Another revealing test in our lot proves that shade is one of the best ways to keep cool. Even on our blacktop parking lot, that 140° pavement in the sun was under 90° in the shade!
Gonzaga University is studying urban heat in Spokane this summer and hopes to make a map showing the hottest neighborhoods in the city. With that knowledge, city leaders can take steps to cool off some of these urban heat islands so that summer heat can be more bearable in the future.
Read more on the Gonzaga research project.