Tag Archives: housing

In March, 2022, Pew Research released a study showing that in 2020, 23% of Americans spent more than half their income on rent. Since then, rents in most parts of the country have gone up 16% (because they could). Safe to say, the income of those 23% did not go up 16%. Rent increases play a major role in the current round of inflation. Though the percentage of increase in rent (inflation) was greater than most other items; the media has said...

I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness. Chapter 4 has just been published. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/emergency-facilities/ The full chapter is available here:https://nickfalvo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Falvo-Chapter-4-Emergency-Facilities-30jan2023.pdf And all material related to the book can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/book/

Anne Lowrey at The Atlantic recognizes a shortage of housing overall and mostly in the cities. “The U.S. Needs More Housing Than Almost Anyone Can Imagine.” Just how many houses, what is the number? How many homes must the expensive coastal cities in the US build to become affordable for middle-class and the working-poor families? Over the past few weeks, Anne asks a number of housing experts that question. Anne expected a straightforward...

As I read Dean Baker’s perspective on Low Income families, I find it hard to believe. The market in the Southwest has dried up due to high prices and interest rates. One or the other has to be lower to attract buyers. Builders have not lower prices and bank rates have remained high. One builder was complaining of a lack of interest in a rate at 6%. Coupling to a higher price this is very true. It is also taking anywhere from 6 to 12 months to...

Have new home sales made a bottom?  – by New Deal democrat Hopefully you are recovering from your turkey coma today. Here’s a little late commentary on Wednesday’s new home sales report. New home sales are noisy, and heavily revised, which is why I prefer housing permits, and especially single family housing permits, as a source of information. But . . . on the other hand, new home sales tend to be the very first housing metric that...

The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has just released a study comparing rents in co-op housing units to rents of similar private-sector market units in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa for the period 2006–2021. I played a small role in writing the report. A ‘top 10’ overview of the report can be found here: https://nickfalvo.ca/the-co-op-difference-comparing-co-op-and-market-rents-in-five-canadian-cities/ A French version of the ‘top 10’...

September existing home sales and prices decline  – by New Deal democrat With the exception of their big impact on prices, I do not particularly pay attention to existing home sales. Their economic impact is small compared with the construction of new homes; at best they add confirmation to a trend in new home sales, permits, and starts. In September, existing home sales did continue to decline, by 2%, to 4.71 million units annualized (Note:...

Housing on track for an early 2023 recession, but with a major caveat  – by New Deal democrat I don’t think anybody was expecting a good housing construction report this month. Those non-expectations were certainly fulfilled. Housing permits rose slightly, 1.4%, from last month’s 2 year low. Single family permits, which contain even more signal, declined -3.1% to the lowest level in 3 years excluding two pandemic lockdown months. The more...

I’ve just released Chapter 3 of my open access e-textbook on homelessness. This chapter focuses on rough sleeping and encampments. A summary of the chapter can be found here (in English): https://nickfalvo.ca/rough-sleeping-and-encampments/ A French version of the summary can be found here: https://nickfalvo.ca/dormir-a-la-dure-et-les-campements/ The full chapter can be found here:...

PPI, without the lagging phantom of Owners Equivalent Rent, declines in August, decelerates YoY  – by New Deal democrat What a difference it makes that PPI does not have a concept like “owners equivalent rent!” Overall PPI declined by -0.1%, following a -0.4% reading in July, together the two lowest readings since the pandemic lockdown months: Core PPI increased by 0.5% (blue in the graph below), which while historically high, was the...