The CNN articles and the recent announcement by President Obama for the agency to charge less for fees, we believe are setting up 2015 for the year that first-time home buyers will have the opportunity to have a significant imprint on the US housing market.  In 2013-2014 when home sales began to moderate, the economy saw a retraction in GDP growth.  Both the economists and administration recognized the need to jump start the housing market with first time buy incentives. Read the articles here and here.

Three Arch Investment fund is taking its cue from these recent changes and will be, in 2015, significantly focusing its investment strategy to provide product for the first time home buyer. Over 40 years of investing in real estate, we find it important to adjust and place our emphasis on areas of the housing market support by the agencies. Today 90% of all home are financed by the agencies thus one needs to follow their lead.

Investors who wish to participate with us in this endeavor may contact us or review our web page for additional information.

David Michelson, President

California research firm RealtyTrac found that Nevada is third in the nation for default activity, continuing a years-long run of appearances in the top five.

However, there are indications that banks are ready to begin tackling default inventories, which would finally start the Nevada housing market’s climb back to normalcy.

RealtyTrac reported that lenders filed 1,037 notices of default to start foreclosure proceedings in July, up 128 percent from the figures for July 2013. It’s the highest number of starts since October, when the state’s Homeowners Bill of Rights took effect and put new restrictions on banks looking to foreclose. Read the full article in the Nevada Review Journal online.

Altos Research found that, while US real estate home prices hit absolute bottom on January 4, 2011, home prices are up 39% since then. Yet every day we see media headlines declaring “weakness” and “disappointment.”

In Altos Research’s view, these attitudes reflect a myopic view of actual market conditions and conflate concerns over the mortgage industry, the otherwise-constrained new construction market, and more broadly, the long-term financial stability of the US consumer with specific current housing market supply and demand dynamics. While these are valid long run concerns, the real-time data paints a much more robust environment than the headlines would indicate. In fact, as of July 2014, home prices are up another 9% year-over-year – the American consumer is anxious to again buy real estate.

Read the entire report on the Altos Research website.

The University of Nevada’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies recently released a Report on the Nevada Housing Market that indicates growing strength in the housing market.  Existing home sales in Nevada increased by almost eight percent in May 2014, and new home sales increased by over six percent, the largest month to month increase for new homes since late 2012. New home sales are now beginning to pick back up – good news for the construction industry.

Overall, home prices in Nevada are stabilizing more and more each month, with new home prices increasing in the southern part of the state. The average new home prices remained stable from April 2014 to May 2014.  Read the entire UNLV Lied Institute Report.

A recent report by SalesTraq states that the supply-demand balance in the Las Vegas housing market has remained relatively stable in recent months. Prices in the resale market have continued to increase, availability has remained reasonable, and sales volumes are fairly strong. This has taken place in spite of pullback in the investor segment of the market, suggesting at least a moderate level of pent-up demand from end users.

The share of homes purchased by cash buyers has been retreating since early 2013. A year ago, the share of resale home closings involving a cash buyer was 58 percent – during May 2014 that figured dipped to a little less than 40 percent. With prices rising almost 18 percent year-over-year – and fewer homes moving through the foreclosure/auction process – the report anticipates the number of cash buyers to continue to diminish. Yet in May the effective availability stood at almost three months – the lowest level since August 2013. Read the entire SalesTraq Report.

The Securitization Weekly Overview from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is forecasting a shift away from single-family home purchases to a rental market. This is not the first report predicting multifamily growth in the past few months, but it does reinforce a common theme – investors are betting on multifamily more often.

Recently, HousingWire reported that more younger Americans are expected to pile into the multifamily market after spending years in their parents’ houses or sharing apartments with roommates. Read the full article on HousingWire.com.

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.