Miami

Chinese investors have joined an international group of buyers in Miami, picking up properties to build a rental portfolio of condos, houses and duplexes by purchasing bank-owned units, Daily Business Review reported. [more]

Renters were less at risk of default nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2012 than in the same quarter of 2011, according to CoreLogic’s Renter Applicant Risk Index. And while there was significant improvement in the Southern U.S. year-over-year, risk of renter default remained higher than in other parts of the nation. [more]

As the housing market recovers, a demographic shift is keeping multi-family developers on solid ground. According to NBC, an increase in the number of educated women is driving the rental market. With 3 million more women than men in college and 4 million more college-educated women than men in the workforce, women are finding it harder to find a compatible mate, leading to the lowest fertility numbers in U.S. history, according to Buck Horne, a housing analyst at Raymond James. (see video after the jump)

While Miami’s rental market has been surging, its counterpart in downtown Fort Lauderdale has been largely flat, according to a report from Condo Vultures. Activity in downtown Fort Lauderdale and in the city’s beach market increased by 2 percent in the second quarter, compared to the same period in 2011; the median lease rate also increased by 2 percent. There were a total of 370 residential leases in the area in the second quarter, compared to 365 in the same period in 2011. In 2010, that number was 390, according to the report. — Alexander Britell

Mahesh Pattabhiraman, chief lending officer at Apollo Bank

The nationwide rental boom is moving to South Florida, where, for the first time in years, developers are rushing to build apartment buildings in cities from Plantation and Davie to Doral and Coral Gables, the Miami Herald reported. “Rentals will be in demand for a while,” said Mahesh Pattabhiraman, chief lending officer for Miami-based Apollo Bank. “The pendulum has swung.” [more]

The U.S. housing market’s recovery will be led by renters and multi-unit developments, data released today by the Demand Institute, an independent consumer research organization, predicted. The report found that 50 percent of those planning to move in the next two years say they will rent, not buy. This demand for rentals is helping to clear the supply of foreclosed single-family homes — 13 percent of all mortgages were foreclosed upon in 2011 — as developers convert them into multiple units for rent. [more]

An improving rental market is helping South Florida’s residential sales market, according to Zillow.com. The Zillow Rent Index showed rental rate growth in each of South Florida’s three counties in January compared to the same period in 2011, the Sun Sentinel reported. “A thriving rental market will stimulate home sales as investors snap up low-priced inventory to convert to rentals,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. [Sun Sentinel]

Rent prices increased 3 percent nationally year-over-year in January, CNBC reported based on a not-yet-released rental index from Zillow.com, suggesting a possible rental bubble.

CNBC noted that increased rents have yielded a decrease in home prices for buyers: a 4.6 percent year-over-year decline, but with no set reason for why this is. According to CNBC, when rents increase, renters generally turn to home purchases. [more]

Miami rental apartments

Apartment vacancies nationwide fell to a decade-low 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a Reis report cited by Bloomberg News. That’s a 7.1 percent drop from the previous quarter’s rate of 5.6, and a 21.2 percent drop year-over-year. The U.S. vacancy rate has decreased for seven straight quarters from a 30-year high of 8 percent at the end of 2009 . [more]

As in the New York City market, rental vacancies nationally are way down and prices are up, according to a report by analytic firm Reis cited by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

The national vacancy rate fell to 5.6 percent in the third quarter, the lowest figure since 2007, and 1.5 percentage points below where it stood during the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, the average rent rose to $1,004, from $997 in the second quarter and $981 in the third quarter of 2010. [more]