Happy Friday, friends! It’s been really hot this past week, and we’ve been resorting to playing in the water a lot. Whether it’s a big pool for all of us or a mini sized body of water that just Maven can play in, we’re all about it. Today while I was on the phone I looked out the window to see Maven, naked, running through her little water feature. Maverick, also naked, was sitting on the side of the feature with a huge smile on his face—Scott, clothed, held him so he could see his sister playing. Then she realized how funny it was to splash them both, while Maverick, shocked, turned on a giant sad lip (which is so sad but cute). For a second I had a glimpse of them playing together, but then I saw how it’s more likely to play out. (Sorry, no pictures of this very cute scene).
Nearly every day, Compass’s Leonard Steinberg puts together a handful of real estate news bits that are always so interesting I have to share some of my favorites of the week. To receive these every day from Leonard, please click [_here](mailto:ls@compass.com “”) and include your full name and email address to get on his mailing list.
* Just a few days left to buy a mansion in Los Angeles and avoid a new mansion tax that kicks in on April 1st….Measure ULA is a transfer tax on big-ticket property sales that the city says will generate a new revenue stream for affordable housing projects and homelessness prevention. Known colloquially as the “mansion tax,” Measure ULA will impose a 4% tax on property sales above $5 million, and a 5.5% tax on properties above the $10 million mark. Already the estimates on how much tax revenues this will generate have been revised down by almost 39%…..of course, after the vote where 57% voted for it based on prior estimates. (NY TIMES)
* A home renovation now takes 79 days on average, up 259% from 22 days in 2019, according to Jobber (when did a home take 3 weeks to renovate??), an operations-management company whose software is used by home-service professionals. Remodeling is more expensive: Hourly wages for general construction workers are up 42% over the same period, from $35 to $49, according to insurance analytics firm Verisk. Material costs are up too. Spending on home-improvement and repair projects in the U.S. increased by an estimated 15% in 2022 to a record $567 billion, following an 11% increase in 2021. Total homeowner spending on do-it-yourself improvement projects grew 44% between 2019 and 2021, to a record of $66 billion, according to the Harvard report. (WSJ)
* In a 2020 survey by Gen Z Planet, 87% of respondents said they wanted to own a home, while just 63% of millennial respondents said the same, suggesting that 68% of Gen Zers viewed homeownership as a way to build wealth, compared with 60% of millennials. Another 2021 survey found that 86% of Gen Z respondents want to buy a home, and 45% want to buy within the next 5 years. Millennials accounted for about 43% of all home purchases in the US in 2021, according to the NAR, Gen Z just 2%, though the NAR only counted Gen Zers who were born in 1999 or later. Another study looking at Gen Zers born in 1997 or later, found they accounted for an average of 10% of homebuyers in the 50 largest US metros in 2021, up from nearly 6% in 2020. (INSIDER)
* Concerns of a credit crunch, which occurs when banks significantly tighten their lending standards, have grown amid the banking crisis.If tighter lending conditions are sustained, FED chief Powell acknowledged that could easily have a significant macroeconomic impact which would be factored into the Fed’s policy decisions. After the past week’s banking challenges, anyone thinking credit will not tighten may be dreaming… (CNBC)