State of the housing market: October 2022

PayProp’s Property Management Market Report highlights key housing trends with our monthly data roundup. *

Read in isolation, some of the following data might seem to cast doubt on the outlook for investment in the real estate market. But amid other silver linings, the property management industry has shown resilience in lean times in the past.

• According to Redfin, the median existing home sale price descended from $405,815 in August to $403,797 in September.
• Redfin also reports that September saw the greatest drop in home listings since April 2020, down 22% from the same time last year.
• Realtor.com puts the national median rent for single-family homes in September at $1,759, which is $12 less than in August. Rent growth for all unit sizes continued to drop from their peak in July. But rents are still between 6.4% and 10.1% higher year-over-year – the median price for a studio in September was $1,483, one-bedroom rentals were $1,647 and two-bedrooms were $1,941.
• Some rental markets are bucking the trend. Realtor.com’s data also reveals that single-family rent for all unit sizes rose year-over-year in Dallas, TX (8.8%) and Orlando, FL (8.3%) for the first time in at least 15 months. Demand in Miami, FL is looking especially strong – at $2,590, median rent is up 13.2% from September 2021. Could these rising urban rents be a sign that more Americans are returning to cities after widespread migration to suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic?
• October marks the 10th consecutive month of decline in builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes. At just 38 points, this is the lowest reading since August 2012, according to the National Association of Home Builders. This pessimism is reflected in the 892,000 single-family housing starts in September, nearly 5% below August’s rate of 935,000. However, multi-family construction is up year-on-year – and considering that single-family homes are cheaper to build than multi-family apartments and that build to rent communities are increasingly popular, single-family construction could recover quickly once the market outlook improves.
  

* Our curated overview features key housing market indicators, with an emphasis on the single-family rental market.

More housing market headlines

Housing starts slide, but there are reasons for optimism - HousingWire
Lenders to consider ‘monthly cash flow activity’ - Florida Realtors
The post-storm affordable housing crisis - Axios