A recent USC report has found that a recent boom in apartment rentals is being fueled by a significant decline in home affordability.

Developers are building multi-family apartment buildings at a fast pace throughout Southern California. However, they’re not creating new supply nearly fast enough to force down rents.

The 2013 USC Casden Multifamily Forecast projects that rents will continue to rise for at least the next two years, as the region’s rental housing market continues to absorb units faster than they are being completed.

Read the full story online at the LA Times.

Prodigy Network hopes to raise $31 million in equity, in increments of$100,000 at a time using crowdfunding. The money will fund a hotel project in downtown Manhattan, converting an apartment building to an extended-stay hotel.

Prodigy is trying to take advantage of a move by the Securities and Exchange Commission to lift a decades-old ban on private companies advertising investments that aren’t registered with the SEC.

Rodrigo Niño, Prodigy’s chief executive, said the SEC’s move to relax fundraising restrictions will have major repercussions for investors and developers alike. “We have learned that crowdfunding not only democratizes investments, it also makes projects viable that otherwise would not be possible,” he said.

Read the entire article online at the Wall Street Journal.

As home prices and mortgage rates rise, experts expect that it will become more difficult for many homebuyers to purchase a home. With homeownership no longer an option for many, demand for rental properties is on course to keep outpacing housing supply.

Resource Real Estate projects a need for a minimum of 240,000 new apartments each year over the next seven years to meet the expected demand. To date, only about 130,000 new apartments are expected to hit the market in 2013.

Read the full article on HousingWire.com.

The Olympia Cos., in partnership with two New York investment groups, are looking to build out a significant 1,700-acre master plan. The site was previously earmarked for development by the Focus Property Group before foreclosure stopped the project in 2007.

Olympia President and CEO Garry Goett said interest in new homes and lots will boost the new community. According to Home Builders Research, builders pulled over 500 permits in July 2013, more than double the monthly number in late 2011.

Goett further stated that strong demand for new homes will likely increase in the coming years. “We think there is a real need for an additional master-planned community in Las Vegas. We have a shortage of land, and this will help alleviate that shortage.”

Read the full article online at Las Vegas Review-Journal.com.

San Francisco-based real estate website Trulia recently ranked Las Vegas as the most undervalued housing market in the country. Remarkably, this is true despite double-digit gains in median prices over the past year.

Trulio states that local home prices are 24 percent below what they see as justified levels based on market fundamentals such as income-to-price and income-to-rent ratios. Read more online at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In February, residential real-estate prices increased the most since May 2006. With an adjusted monthly increase of two percent, Las Vegas exhibited the biggest price climb during that period.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values rose more than nine percent from February 2012, after advancing over eight percent in the year ending in January 2012. Read the full article online.

Even though housing prices are increasing, they are often well below the purchase prices of a few years ago. Therefore, instead of selling at a price less than they have paid, many homeowners are deciding to rent their houses.

Would-be sellers usually aren’t eager to list their homes at prices that – while rising – remain well off their peak. That creates supply shortages which make it harder for buyers to find a suitable property. Read the full article online at The Wall Street Journal.

The real estate firm DataQuick reported that March figures indicate that the median home price in Southern California rose about $25,000 in March 2013, emphasizing the region’s fast-paced recovery.

It was the eighth consecutive month of double-digit price increases, reaching the highest median level since July 2008. Read the article on latimes.com.

Although most real estate markets are predicted to appreciate this year, prices remain relatively low in most markets.  More people are renting now than in prior periods, and vacancy rates in most cities are low.

Surprisingly, Las Vegas made the list of Top 20 Rental Markets from Realty Trac.  Read more at Real Return Real Estate.

CoreLogic, a real estate analytics firm, disclosed that February home prices rose 10.2% from the levels of a year ago. This represents the largest annual gain for home prices in nearly seven years – the 12th consecutive month of growth in national home prices.

The rapid price appreciation was most evident in several West Coast locations, including California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. Read the article online at HousingWire.com.