A weekend topic starting with Curbed New York. "Since it took off about a decade ago, the co-living industry has gone to great lengths to sell an image of communal bliss. If you were a minor player with a master lease on a few properties, charging a premium for bundling in olive oil, internet, weekly housekeeping, and West Elm furniture, it made sense to play up how life-changing the spaces could be. During the pandemic, as numerous co-living companies went under and consolidated — earlier this month, Common took over Starcity’s co-living operation of some 7,500 units — it has become abundantly clear that co-living was a business, not a utopia. The capitalist commune was, in the end, far more capitalist than commune."

From Mansion Global. "Pattie Dullea stepped out one morning last month in Napa, Calif., to have a word with the young man who pulled up in an antique sports car to tour the home across the street. 'You might not want to buy there,' she said she told the man, who was there to consider investing in the home. 'We don’t want our neighborhood to turn into a timeshare neighborhood. And we are going to do everything in our power to make that not happen.'"

"Such scenes are becoming more common in California wine-country towns where a real estate startup called Pacaso is snapping up million-dollar homes, then selling ownership shares to second-home searchers looking for weekend getaways. The company claims to have reached unicorn status faster than any company in U.S. history, hitting a $1 billion valuation within six months of launching last year."

The Daily Mail. "Pacaso, founded in October by executives from the real estate company Zillow, aims to do to second homes what Airbnb did to hotels and Uber did to taxis. It targets luxury neighborhoods slightly off the usual tourist trails. The drama did nothing to put off Michael Sene, from Oakland, who told The San Francisco Chronicle he had bought a share of one of Pacaso's St Helena houses."

"He said he has always wanted a second home but that purchasing an entire property was financially out of reach, and 44 days a year is about right for his family, although he would be interested in buying a second share if he could afford it. 'For someone like me to buy a whole house up there would not be possible given how crazy property values are these days,' he said."

From Bloomberg. "Investors hunting for returns in the frenzied U.S. real estate market are tapping a new strategy: building massive portfolios of houses to rent out on Airbnb. A recent filing reveals that Dublin, Ohio-based ReAlpha is seeking to spend as much as $1.5 billion, including debt, to buy short-term rentals at an unprecedented scale. The money would be enough to purchase roughly 5,000 homes, Chief Executive Officer Giri Devanur said in an interview."

"ReAlpha plans to use artificial intelligence software to evaluate home listings and make fast decisions on how much it’s willing to pay. The company will target markets including Austin, Dallas and Miami, where it can acquire 100 to 500 homes. And it’s exploring ways to buy discounted homes when a federal foreclosure moratorium ends. 'We have spoken to a bunch of banks where we can buy hundreds of properties at a time,' Devanur said.'"

"Growing appetite for short-term rentals will attract tens of billions of dollars in the years to come, said Sean Breuner, whose company, AvantStay, manages branded properties that offer concierge services. 'It is the last remaining asset class with any yield remaining,' said Breuner. 'We believe there is a huge opportunity to institutionalize.'"

The Las Vegas Sun in Nevada. "Aldo Martinez, president of Las Vegas Realtors, said several different entities that have purchased hundreds of homes in the Las Vegas Valley have done so with clauses in their purchase agreements that the properties must be 'rentable.' 'This all leads me to believe that people are thinking that home prices are going to become so out-of-whack, the average person won’t be able to own,' Martinez said. 'People are betting that would-be homeowners will have to rent.'"

"Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Fundrise, a startup firm that aims to open the rental home investment market to those wishing to invest as little as $500, secured a $300 million credit line from Goldman Sachs. Though on a national scale, Martinez said the faith shown by the investment banking giant proves that a rush of cash purchases of homes throughout the country could continue this year."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Investors account for one-fifth of all home purchases in Canada. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, investor buying has rebounded to 20.1 per cent of all purchases in the country, with a slightly higher share in Toronto and Hamilton, according to data published in the Bank of Canada’s financial system review."

"With the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reporting the national average home price is 38 per cent higher than a year ago, real estate investors are being accused of driving up prices. 'Determining the precise level at which investor activity should be a cause for concern is difficult and requires further study,' Bank of Canada spokesman Alex Paterson said."

"The Canadian Housing Statistics Program, which was launched by Statscan after the 2016-17 real estate boom, is trying to fill data gaps and uses information from a bevy of sources, including property assessments, tax filings and census data. One of the program’s most revealing reports is from 2019 and examined properties that were not 'owner occupied' in three provinces. It found the highest level of investor ownership in the residential area near the University of B.C. in Vancouver, where 47 per cent of all property types were held by investors."

"It also found that in Toronto, more than one-third of the condo market is owned by people who do not live in the units and who either rent them out or leave them empty. Andy Yan, housing expert and director of Simon Fraser University’s city program, and other affordable housing advocates question the idea that there is a supply shortage when so many property owners are investors. 'You will constantly hear it is supply supply supply, but supply for whom,' he said."

From CBC News in Canada. "The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board shows an overall 16.8-per-cent drop in rental prices: before the pandemic, one-bedroom apartments rented for an average of $2,187. Two-bedroom units now go for $2,447 per month on average, compared to $2,812 a year ago. While supply rose, demand plummeted. A year into the pandemic, Urbanation calculated an 18-per-cent drop year-over-year in Toronto proper, and a 16-per-cent decrease across the GTA."

"The rising supply of condos for rent is coming from two sources, says Murtaza Haider, a data science and real estate management professor at Ryerson University. The first is fewer people wanting to live downtown, with a significant proportion working from home and some moving out of the core. The second is short-term rental units that were converted to long-term because of new rules regulating Airbnb apartments."

"The problem, Haider says, is being compounded by the addition of thousands of condo units completed during the pandemic. Sixty to 70 per cent of the 22,000 new units became rentals, according to Pauline Lierman, the market research director for condo sales and research group Urbanation. While supply rose, demand plummeted."

"Lisa Patel, a Royal Lepage realtor and president of the TREB, says several units near York Street and Lake Shore Boulevard sat unoccupied for months until the prices dropped by several hundred dollars and landlords started including incentives like two months' free rent, parking or gift cards."

From Housing Wire. "Despite the drop in wood costs, Lennar executives said they’re cautious with ramping up with building, due to overall concerns with the material supply chain. With uncertain delivery of materials and high demand, Lennar is 'Choosing to sell homes later in the construction cycle to increase margins,' said co-CEO Rick Beckwitt."

"The one area of Lennar’s business not getting results is its investment in Opendoor, the San Francisco-based instant homebuying platform. The company’s balance sheet noted a $234 million mark to market loss in the past quarter from a stake in Opendoor, which has lost money and even seen dwindling revenue during the present housing boom."