THE SET-UP: If you Google “homeless encampment” under the “news” tab you’ll be inundated by the stark reality that homelessness is everywhere. From Alaska to Maine, from Hawai’i to Florida, from Minnesota to Texas … you name a state and I can find you a news story on an encampment or about kids living in cars or a city council struggling to find places for people to sleep. And it’s not just big cities. It’s in small towns and rural settings, too. I put a sampling on today’s RUNDOWN … it’s not comprehensive, but it is representative. It’s also notable that these stories popped-up on a day when mortgage rates spiked again to an average of 7.02%.
Of course, that rate doesn’t matter to cash buyers or to private equity. They are not only defying economic gravity, but it seems they’ve achieved exit velocity. - jp
TITLE: US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people
https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-population-count-2024-hud-migrants-2e0e2b4503b754612a1d0b3b73abf75f
EXCERPTS: The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.
That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the U.S., with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.
Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness — one of the areas that was most affected by the arrival of migrants in big cities. Family homelessness more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migrants including Denver, Chicago and New York City, according to HUD, while it rose less than 8% in the remaining 373 communities. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% jump from last year.
Disasters also played a part in the rise in the count, especially last year’s catastrophic Maui wildfire, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. More than 5,200 people were staying in emergency shelters in Hawaii on the night of the count.
The numbers also come as increasing numbers of communities are taking a hard line against homelessness.
Angered by often dangerous and dirty tent camps, communities — especially in Western states — have been enforcing bans on camping. That follows a 6-3 ruling last year by the Supreme Court that found that outdoor sleeping bans don’t violate the Eighth Amendment. Homeless advocates argued that punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness.
TITLE: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps — “I have lost everything."
https://projects.propublica.org/impact-of-homeless-sweeps-lost-belongings/
EXCERPTS: A record number of Americans are living outside. Cities have responded by removing encampments from public spaces, a practice commonly referred to as “sweeps.” In the process, workers often take people’s belongings — including important documents, survival gear and irreplaceable mementos.
Over and over, people across the country told ProPublica they were devastated by such losses. We gave them notecards so they could explain in their own words how the sweeps have affected them.
Here are some of their stories.
Teresa Stratton, 61
Portland, Oregon
My husbands ashes I made me feel alone scared, empty. Now I wonder where he is and if he’s all still in his urn and if he’s OK and I hope he’s not in the dump
Elijah Harris, 38
Los Angeles, California
Birth certificate - Passport - UPS/storage keys - Money - I’D/SSC Set my progress to saving for a place back months.
Mary Yahner, 59
Phoenix, Arizona
I had my kid’s baby shoes w/ me since we became homeless. It was all I had left of them {they are w/ family}. The police/city took them w/ the rest of our stuff. It broke my heart … I still cry my eyes out when I think of it. :( It just reminds you that you have no power/control left.
Harold Odom, 64
Seattle, Washington
It’s a sense of loss that doesn’t go away. Knowing that my belongings are likely gone for good—or lost forever—fills me with a sadness that’s hard to bear. The thought of being thrown out and left with nothing... it’s overwhelming. I feel like I’m on the verge of breaking down.
TITLE: All-cash purchases dominated D.C.’s housing market in 2024
www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/12/26/dc-real-estate-cash-purchases/
EXCERPT: Through November, all-cash sales accounted for more than a quarter of home purchases in D.C., according to an analysis of data provided by the real estate research firm Bright MLS. Both the District and the broader Washington region are on track to have their highest share of cash purchases since 2014, the earliest year for which Bright MLS could provide reliable data.
The hypercompetitive environment for home buying in the region is like “a fistfight,” said real estate agent Dana Rice, an executive vice president at Compass. “You walk into this game, and you’re on the field of battle.”
Across the region, 18.9 percent of homes sold through November were bought with cash, edging out last year’s 18.7 percent. In previous years, the ratio of cash purchases ranged from 11 to 16 percent. In D.C., the share was 25.3 percent, eclipsing last year’s record of 23.3 percent. From 2016 to 2022, the D.C. figure never reached 20 percent.
Cash purchases have been rising across the country, reaching as high as 60 percent in parts of Florida where many buyers shop for second houses or retirement homes. The median age of home buyers nationally has risen to 56, according to the National Association of Realtors, while first-time home buyers’ share of purchases has fallen below a quarter, a historic low.
“Everyone has so much cash,” Kimberly Casey, a luxury real estate agent with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, said of buyers who don’t need a mortgage. “I think it’s the stock market, I think it’s crypto. But more importantly, it’s the largest generational transfer of wealth in the history of our country. A lot of parents are buying for their adult children.”
Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, thinks an even bigger factor is home equity. “Among repeat buyers who were selling a home and buying another home, we have just seen such huge gains in home values, so a person who’s selling their home is going to end up with a really big windfall,” she said. She also noted that while home purchases by institutional investors are a major factor in other cities, they’re not a major presence in the D.C. area.
Combine the inflated assets of the house-rich and the well-heeled with the low inventory of available homes, and it’s hard for average would-be home buyers to break in. The region is on pace to roughly equal last year’s 49,170 home sales, according to Bright MLS data — far behind the sales totals from the previous eight years, which were all above 60,000 and topped 80,000 in 2021, when interest rates were lower.
Sellers and their agents often prefer cash offers because the deals can be completed more quickly and reliably than when the offers require mortgage financing to come through.
“You can’t ever feel bad about losing to a cash offer,” Rice said. “That is always going to make the seller feel warm and fuzzy, even if the buyer waived every other contingency.”
SEE ALSO:
All-cash buyers are still snapping up homes. See where they’re buying. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/cash-purchase-house-real-estate-home-buyers/
All Cash Buyers Dominate Wenatchee Real Estate Market
https://kpq.com/all-cash-buyers-dominate-wenatchee-real-estate-market/
ASAP Cash Buyers Launch Home Cash Buyer Service in Rosenberg, Oregon https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/12/19/2999900/0/en/ASAP-Cash-Buyers-Launch-Home-Cash-Buyer-Service-in-Rosenberg-Oregon.html
LA County launches new housing program for people living in RVs https://abc7.com/post/la-county-launches-new-housing-program-people-living-rvs/15674209/