Archinect - News

Can modular housing startups be saved at a critical time for the industry?

2024-01-18T14:08:00-05:00

The notion that factory-built modular homes can serve as the salvation to America's vexing housing crisis has increasingly come under scrutiny, a report summarized recently in Business Insider.

A crippling lack of widespread success for modular housing startups can be attributed to state and federal manufacturing regulatory barriers, a lack of builders’ experience, investors’ overconfidence, local building codes, persistent social stigmas about prefabricated homes, and an overall lack of demand. The inflexibility of the prefabrication process for single-family designs is another factor hindering many businesses as well, according to the article.

Katerra and, more recently, Veev are perhaps the best-known examples. The once $1 billion Bay Area ‘unicorn’ shuttered its U.S. operation in November after constructing 170 units total in 15 years. Veev's failure can be boiled down to a fla...

Miami was America’s most competitive rental market in 2022, according to new alarming

2022-12-28T17:50:00-05:00

[In] the last two years, looser regulations and the widespread adoption of remote working attracted even more people to settle in the Sunshine State. As a result, newcomers found themselves competing with those who were already hunting for apartments in the area, making Miami-Dade the hottest area for renting in the U.S.

Nationwide, an average of 14 people were said to be competing for each vacant apartment unit, which remained on the market for an average of 32 days. Miami-Dade County was joined by four other Florida rental markets in the top 20 despite adding a total of 34,000 new dwellings within the calendar year in what can be seen as a direct reflection of the state’s migration patterns since the start of the pandemic.

Rents in South Florida were reported to have increased by more than 24% between 2021 and 2022 to an average of $2,841, leading HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge in June to declare the area to be the “epicenter of the housing crisis in this country.”

“Florida’s not going down,” one local developer told WaPo in September. “I would be the first to tell you if we saw it. We get to see it on the front lines, just by the amount of people that walk into the sales center. … I just don’t see it changing.”

...

'Inflatable' concrete homes are coming to the market thanks to this startup

2022-10-11T15:29:00-04:00

A new solution to America’s multifaceted housing frustrations is blowing up in New York’s Hudson River Valley thanks to a startup called Automatic Construction.

The company says it has invented a new technique named the Inflatable Flexible Factory Formwork (or IFFF), which, with the help of an air pump and compressor, can inflate first the unrolled PVC formwork for the residential structure before a concrete mix reinforced by drop-stitch fibers is poured inside to settle.

The pouring process itself takes only about an hour to complete. After the concrete has cured to around 70% strength, shoring is removed while the membrane remains in place as a means of providing waterproofing for the structure. Drywall, doors, windows, and cladding are added to complete the structure, which, for now, is finished off with rebar that CEO Alex Bell says may come pre-installed in the future.

Image courtesy Automatic Construction

"The prefabricated forms are built in our factory with reinforcement in ...

On the disappearance of American starter homes

2022-09-26T15:38:00-04:00

The disappearance of such affordable homes is central to the American housing crisis. The nation has a deepening shortage of housing. But, more specifically, there isn’t enough of this housing: small, no-frills homes that would give a family new to the country or a young couple with student debt a foothold to build equity. [...] At the root is the math problem of putting — or keeping — a low-cost home on increasingly pricey land.

America has a long history of gradually siphoning away architecture made for predominantly middle-class people (think pre-war buildings in Manhattan or Levittown tract housing on Long Island) and is now simply under-delivering what could otherwise be an equalizing force as a result of prevailing factors like intimidating zoning regulations, prohibitive materials costs, and nationwide lack of available new land.

Related on Archinect: Why is America obsessed with huge homes?

Changes in demand also meant the 2010s were curtains for the possibility of building a home at less than $100,000. Today’s market has gravitated towards so-called "missing middle" construction as historical notions of family composition themselves come into question. This means the future of housing might look closer to Adam Neumann's Flow vision or BIG's Nabr initiative than it does to the archetypal American suburb of the 1950s.

As the Times reports, its cause can also be attributed to the overburdening of bui...

June's NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI shows builder pessimism at an all-time high

2022-06-21T08:30:00-04:00

A new poll conducted by the National Association of Home Builders shows builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes is at its lowest level after six straight months of decline. The poll measures builder perceptions of current and future single-family home sales, and the traffic of prospective buyers. All three categories posted declines in the latest monthly data with buyer traffic falling most sharply, a sign that homebuyers — especially first-time ones — are giving up.

The now-familiar cocktail of increasingly higher interest rates and home prices is once again causing headaches for contractors looking to fill America’s shortage of 4 million homes. The NAHB has been pushing the Biden Administration to take action on the supply-side of the problem since last year, and now says that a 19% increase in the average cost of construction materials will require even further measures be taken in the form of jobs training, tariff rollbacks, and a ban on Russian timber in the hopes of combatting the nationwide problem.

The group's new poll indicates an atmosphere of waned confidence in an industry beset by labor shortages and a string of business failures for the past two years. All three categories of measure reported percentage point decreases of 1 (sales conditions), 2 (expectations), and 5, a record for buyer traffic, which has fallen belo...

Miami is now the most expensive housing market in the United States

2022-02-21T18:22:00-05:00

Miami is now number one on a list of the most expensive areas to own a home in the United States according to statistics published in the industry blog The Real Deal.

The city surpassed New York and Los Angeles in the February edition of RealtyHop’s Housing Affordability Index on the wings of a two-year trend that is being driven by an influx of residents from out-of-state and made worse by the stagnation of wages, which remains a nationwide barrier to homeownership in spite of some considerable recent local gains.

New renters have also been a contributing factor, leading to the biggest increases anywhere in the country on average, as per a recent report from the rental index Zumper.

“What we’ve been seeing since the pandemic is Miami is the destination for a lot of out-of-state residents. These people often bring in more money than locals. Miami has become increasingly unaffordable, especially for local residents,” RealtyHop data scientist Shane Lee told TRD before making the com...

Nevada dedicates $300 million towards new affordable housing projects

2022-02-21T17:04:00-05:00

The Nevada Housing Division announced Wednesday that $300.7 million will go to the development of affordable housing projects in the state. The money makes up 87% of Nevada’s 2021 tax-exempt bonding authority and is the highest amount earmarked for state-led affordable housing developments since the inception of the state’s tax-exempt private activity bond (PAB) program, according to Department of Business and Industry Director Terry Reynolds.

The program aims to facilitate public and private sector collaboration in financing eligible affordable housing projects. There are currently 14 below-market-rate projects under construction located in Reno, Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas that will bring 2,898 residences by early 2024, with nine set for completion in 2022 and early 2023. The developments will remain at below-market rates for a minimum of 30 years.

Manhattan rents approach pre-pandemic levels

2022-02-11T14:40:00-05:00

Rents in New York City approached all-time records last month as inventory grew increasingly scarce. The median rental in Manhattan cost $3,467 last month, according to the New York Post, which cited the latest report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That was up a little over 2 percent from $3,392 in December, but it represented a 23 percent spike from January 2021 — falling just $5 short of the January record set in 2020, when the median rental was $3,472 per month.

The median rental in Manhattan in January was just shy of the $3,540 peak in April 2020. Prices in Northwest Queens and Brooklyn also rose last month, up 28 percent and 11.1 percent year-over-year respectively. The Real Deal notes that the major force behind price growth in the housing market is the persistent shortage of listings, which has been seen in the city’s rental market. The number of rental listings in Manhattan has dipped 83.3 percent year-over-year in January.

The drive in housing demand can be attributed to decreases in Covid-19 cases, leading to workers returning to their offices. The return of in-person schooling is also a culprit.

U.S. home prices reach record 19.7% gain in July

2021-09-30T17:20:00-04:00

U.S. home prices surged 19.7% in July, once again posting the biggest jump in more than 30 years. The record gain in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values nationwide followed a 18.7% jump in June and was the 14th straight month of accelerating price increases.

A measure of prices in 20 cities posted a 19.9% gain in July, up from 19.1% the previous month. Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains, with 32.4%, 27.8%, and 25.5% increases, respectively.

“The last several months have been extraordinary not only in the level of price gains but in the consistency of gains across the country,” said Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P DJI, in a statement.

“July’s 19.7% price gain for the National Composite is the highest reading in more than 30 years of S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data,” Lazzara continued. “This month, New York joined Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, and Seattle in recording their all-time highest 12-month gains.”

S&P DJI believes these dramatic gains are due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has fueled the demand for suburban homes. However, pre-exi...

AEC proposal activity continues to grow rapidly in second quarter of 2021 according to the PSMJ Quarterly Market Survey

2021-07-09T17:19:00-04:00

According to the Professional Services Management Journal (PSMJ) Resources’ Quarterly Market Survey, proposal activity for AEC firms continued to grow at a rapid pace in quarter two of 2021.

The survey’s net plus/minus index (NPMI) was 52% for overall proposal activity, which was the highest in any second quarter in the 18-year history of the survey and the 5th highest of all time for any quarter. The NPMI expresses the difference between the percentage of firms reporting an increase in proposal activity and those reporting a decrease. In addition, revenue and backlog indicators were also at record-high rates in the survey of PSMJ member firms.

The PSMJ Quarterly Market Forecast of proposal activity NPMI from third quarter 2003 to second quarter 2021. Image: PSMJ

“The increase in A/E industry revenues that began in Q1 of this year has accelerated significantly in Q2, as has the increase in backlog,” said PSMJ Senior Principal David Burstein, PE, AECPM. “Looking to the future, propo...

AIA Survey: Residential architecture firms have been hit hard by the COVID-19 economic crisis

2020-04-13T16:20:00-04:00

A new report published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) indicates that architects who focus on residential projects are bracing for steep losses over the coming months as the COVID-19 economic shut down put in place to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus has dimmed what was projected to be a year of healthy growth.

The report’s findings state, “With years of overbuilding, the large millennial generation reaching their prime home-building years, and mortgage rates near historical lows, the outlook was bright for the housing sector entering 2020. Most forecasters were expecting housing production to average 1.5 to 1.6 million units per year over the coming years.” All of that, however, has come to a screeching halt as a hodgepodge of work shut downs and other initiatives have slowed new construction across the country.

“Just as the residential sector was getting back on a solid foundation, it has been hit with this setback,” writes AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Bake...

Tiny homes: a reflection of economic precarity?

2019-12-02T10:00:00-05:00

The red-hot housing market has made it difficult for adults, especially Millennials and single families, to afford decent accommodations. With the increasingly popular tiny home movement, it's become clear that this appealing lifestyle trend is turning into a viable solution to the looming housing crisis for some, according to Matt Davis of Big Think.

Davis explains, "In 70 percent of the U.S., the average worker can't afford a home, one-third of adults are a $400 bill away from financial difficulty, and a quarter has no retirement savings whatsoever. Under these conditions, downsizing may be the only viable method to survive."

Boneyard Studios Tiny House Village in Washington D.C. Image © Inhabitat/via Flickr

It's not all good, however. Davis adds, however, "As the movement continues to build up steam, one has to wonder whether it's a housing crisis solution with a new coat of paint."

With adults lo...

Does owning a Frank Lloyd Wright home come with a secret curse?

2019-08-19T18:00:00-04:00

With only 400-some Wright structures still standing, surely these listings must erupt in bidding wars from eager buyers as soon as they hit the market, right? Wrong. On the contrary, Wright homes tend to sit on the market for years. Often with numerous price cuts!

Owning a home designed by a famed architect may be a dream for many. However, what are some of the unforeseen factors that come with owning such a home? According to Adriana Velez from realtor.com, owning a Frank Lloyd Wright home comes with its fair share of obstacles.

Velez explains, "for starters, keep in mind that most Wright homes were built in the early to mid-1900s. So these homes are up in the years, and often in dire need of upkeep and repairs." She continues, "Repairing or restoring a Wright house is even more difficult if it has landmark status. That means any renovation plans must be approved by the local landmarks commission, and are subject to restrictions meant to preserve the historical accuracy of the structure."

Norman Lykes - Interior. Image courtesy of The Agency

Other challenges buyers of Wright-designed homes face can include the unconventional floor plans, furniture, and specific color schemes used during Wright's heyday. Potential buyers should anticipate th...

U.S. home prices continue to surge while sales drop slightly

2019-07-25T07:00:00-04:00

With affordable homes already in short supply around the U.S., house-hunters this spring faced another challenge: surging prices. Median home prices in the second quarter surged to a record high $266,000 for single family-homes and condos, according to a recent report from property research firm ATTOM Data Solutions. That's up 6% from about $250,000 a year ago.

"U.S. homeowners who sold in the second quarter of 2019 realized an average home price gain since purchase of $67,500, up from an average gain of $57,706 in Q1 2019 and up from an average gain of $60,100 in Q2 2018," states the July ATTOM report.

The locations with the highest average home seller returns in Q2 2019 don't come as much of a surprise: San Jose, California (85.0 percent); San Francisco, California (71.6 percent); Seattle, Washington (65.6 percent); Salem, Oregon (62.3 percent); and Salt Lake City, Utah (60.7 percent).

The number of existing-home sales dropped 1.7% in June, according to recent numbers from the National Association of Realtors.

Housing shortage and unaffordability shape the coming slowdown, says economist

2019-02-26T13:37:00-05:00

The economy is headed for a slowdown, but its effect on the housing market won’t be as tumultuous as the downturn that led to the Great Recession, Metrostudy chief economist Mark Boud told a standing room-only audience today at the 2019 Metrostudy Housing Outlook Breakfast. Boud sees overinflated housing prices causing bubbles in some hot markets where affordability is a top issue.

In his recent talk, Metrostudy chief economist Mark Boud points out the economic indicators that will bring about the inevitable correction to the current boom cycle but does not predict a collapse of the housing market as dire as in the years following the 2008 financial crisis. "We predict that we’ll come back to equilibrium by the end of our five-year forecast,” he said.

Added tariffs on imported construction material and slow immigration also contribute to higher construction and labor costs, thus limiting the output of housing units in the lower price ranges furthermore.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Olfelt home is now for sale at $1.3M

2017-12-28T18:56:00-05:00

A rare find on the housing market: The Olfelt House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright can now be yours for $1.3 million. Located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota this rare find includes 3 beds and 2 baths set on 3.77 acres of private, grassy meadows. The house features a vaulted great room, walls of glass, and extensive built-ins. This 2,647-square-foot house was designed by Wright in 1958 and completed in 1960 for Paul C. Olfelt, a radiologist. The Olfelts worked with Wright personally before the architect’s death in 1959.

The luxury apartment boom is about to come to a screeching halt

2017-01-04T13:13:00-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reports that the seven-year long boom in luxury apartment development is about to fizzle out. Since early 2010, U.S. apartment rents have risen more than 26%—a pace much faster than either inflation or income growth. This pattern began to slow last year, when rents rose just 3.8%. Faced with a superabundance of new apartments that outstrips demand, landlords are prepping to cut rents and offer concessions. According to the report, landlords in Los Angeles are starting to offer free parking while developers in New York are offering up to three months free rent.

A couple of years ago, several emerging demographic patterns led to a rush to build new luxury properties. Most notably, in the post-housing crash market, young, high-earning professionals were less likely to buy homes and instead headed back to the city. But the boom outpaced demand, and now major cities are chock-full of fancy digs with not enough wealthy folks to fill them.

Is Vancouver's 15% tax on overseas buyers helping to cool the housing market?

2016-10-12T14:22:00-04:00

There is a city which is suffering a worse property bubble than Sydney, whose residents are more priced-out than Londoners, and where there is a greater divide between the housing haves and have-nots than even San Francisco. That city is Vancouver, and in response to these mounting challenges, the west-coast Canadian metropolis recently imposed an extraordinary new tax on foreign buyers – whose impact is now being watched closely by other cities grappling with bloated property markets.

American home sales drop unexpectedly in August

2016-09-22T12:57:00-04:00

U.S. home resales unexpectedly fell in August, crimped by a shortage of inventory that is boosting home prices faster than the pace of wage growth. The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales declined 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.33 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising 1.1 percent in August to a 5.45 million-unit pace.

July's sales pace was also revised lower to 5.38 million units from the previously reported 5.39 million units. However, despite sales being at their second-lowest pace of the year, home resales were still up 0.8 percent from one year ago.

For more on the current state of the housing market in the States, follow these links:

The US housing market is "the planet's biggest concentration of financial risk"

2016-08-18T19:58:00-04:00

WHAT are the most dysfunctional parts of the global financial system? China’s banking industry, you might say, with its great wall of bad debts and state-sponsored cronyism. Or the euro zone’s taped-together single currency, which stretches across 19 different countries, each with its own debts and frail financial firms. Both are worrying. But if sheer size is your yardstick, nothing beats America’s housing market.

It is the world’s largest asset class, worth $26 trillion, more than America’s stockmarket. The slab of mortgage debt lurking beneath it is the planet’s biggest concentration of financial risk.

For more on the state of the US housing market, check out these links:

What these “pre-rent control” stats might reveal about SF's soaring housing costs

2016-05-17T18:48:00-04:00

OK, so this would mean the way to make San Francisco as affordable as (say) Portland would be to either cut everybody’s salary in half, or fire half of them, or allow the city’s population to rapidly grow about 50 percent, to about 1.2 million, while the number of housing units increased even faster.

In discussing San Francisco's rising housing costs over the years, journalist Michael Andersen re-emphasizes some points in this recent blogpost by a man named Eric Fischer, who took his own approach in analyzing the city's housing prices before 1979, when SF's rent-control rates began being recorded. While Fischer's method may not be perfect, Andersen argues that the findings could shed new light on San Francisco's housing market.

Don't blame the tech bros: SF's housing crisis is bonkers because of zoning, not startups

2016-04-26T13:02:00-04:00

strict zoning laws in the Bay Area make it almost impossible to significantly expand the housing stock there. [...] As a result, the tech boom simply means that housing gets less and less affordable for anyone who doesn't work in tech or already own a home. A lot of people are blaming the tech boom itself for the Bay Area's housing problems. But the technology boom is only a problem because the region's housing markets are functioning so poorly.

Related on Archinect:

Single women emerge as second-strongest group of homebuyers

2016-02-24T13:48:00-05:00

It's hard to remember that just a few decades ago it was difficult, if not impossible, for a woman alone to take out a mortgage. Federal legislation changed that. And yet, it's still surprising to learn how dominant single women have become in the housing market today: Their share is second only to married couples, and twice that of single men.

London is eating itself

2015-06-29T13:10:00-04:00

Although the cranes swing, much of the new living zones now being created range from the ho-hum to the outright catastrophic. The skyline is being plundered for profit, but without creating towers to be proud of or making new neighbourhoods with any positive qualities whatsoever. If London is an enormous party, millions of people are on the wrong side of its velvet rope.

Rowan Moore sets a signpost in London's rampant development, checking in on the industries and businesses struggling in the midst of city-wide growth. Moore points out that while things like a bevy of cranes and a thriving multicultural food scene may look like more feathers in London's urban hat, these developments are precipitating big losses for other industries, and if unchecked, would quash the city's personality entirely.

More on London's recent developmental issues:

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the piece's author – it is Rowan Moore, not Rowan Smith.

Looking to buy a home in SF? Good luck

2015-03-23T18:39:00-04:00

Everyone knows the supply of new homes in the Bay Area is falling far short of job and population growth, but the number of existing homes being put up for sale is also near record lows in many areas. [...] “The move-up market is pretty much frozen,” said Matt Fuller, an agent with Zephyr. “Even if you can do great on the sale of your property, you are terrified to enter the market as a buyer.” [...] Inventory is also shrinking because post-foreclosure sales have dried up.

A look at the growing influence of immigrants on the American housing market

2015-01-12T14:37:00-05:00

While some remain cynical about homeownership, the U.S.'s foreign-born population still regards it as a symbol of attaining the American Dream. [...] Last year, immigrant households made up 11.2 percent of owner-occupied housing according to the JCHS—that’s up from only 6.8 percent in 1994.

The Real Corporate Landlords of Atlanta

2014-09-09T14:19:00-04:00

“It’s not rare for us to go and try to make sure that no one buys the house of someone who’s facing foreclosure,” says Rob Call, an organizer for Occupy Our Homes Atlanta (OOHA). In Georgia, houses are publicly auctioned every first Tuesday of the month on each county courthouse’s steps. "[...] these auctions were mostly vacant. No one was really trying to go after these homes, but then they were [suddenly] swamped with people bidding up houses with quick access to sizable cashier’s checks.”

Millennials, not forming enough households

2014-07-02T23:03:00-04:00

One reason for weakness: many young people, saddled with student loan debt, elevated unemployment and less-than-perfect credit scores, are staying out of the market.

New research from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, focuses in on the role of millennial generation in driving demand and shaping recovery.

As Gregory Walker noted recently, in broad terms, looking at US economy, it is clear we're not really 'there' yet. Remember, the last reported ABI reverted into negative territory. This despite the fact that "Architecture firms with a residential specialization continued to report extremely strong billings in May".

Back in April, Neil Irwin of the NYT, dug into the numbers, for what is holding housing back. Though there was an initial post-recession glut, demand is now the issue. If only, because much of the demand that is there now, is for rental multifamily properties. This shift to non-single family homes, by millennials is he argues generating "less spillover benefits for the broader economy".

All-cash deals account for nearly half of all home sales

2014-05-09T13:10:00-04:00

All-cash deals hit a record 43% of home sales during the first three months of 2014, according to RealtyTrac. That's up from 19% a year earlier and the highest level reported since RealtyTrac began tracking the deals in early 2011. The jump is due to two main factors: strict lending standards that make it difficult to get a mortgage and intense buyer competition.

This Chinese City’s Property Market Is Even Chillier Than Its -22-Degree Weather

2014-04-15T13:22:00-04:00

Cities like Yingkou in China’s northeast rust belt were among the earliest cities in the country to be overbuilt. [...] Yingkou, along with other cities, sold vast tracts of lands to developers to build apartments for the workers who – they hoped – would populate the new factories, malls and industrial parks to come. [...] But investments have been slow to materialize, and newcomers are scarce in Yingkou, a city of 2.4 million with a population that hasn’t grown much in the past few years.