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Mortgage Madness: Borrowers Go Rate-crazy

January 19, 2023

Rise and shine! It's a new day and The Shaker is here to serve you the best mix of residential real estate news. Yummy yummy.

MORTGAGE

Mortgage Madness: Borrowers Go Rate-crazy

What you should know:

Consumers are responding to the lowest mortgage rates since September by dramatically increasing their mortgage application volume.

  • Mortgage application volume jumped nearly 28% last week compared with the previous week.

  • Refinance demand made the biggest move, up 34% from the previous week, but it was still 81% lower than the same week one year ago.

  • Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 25% week to week but were 35% lower than the same week one year ago.

METAVERSE

The Virtual Landlord Boom: Making Money in Decentraland

As the demand for virtual real estate cools off, landowners are looking for new ways to profit from their investments. Decentraland's rentals system is one of the latest ways to do this, allowing people to rent virtual land for building anything they want and providing a new source of income for virtual landowners.

  • In the past nine months, brands like Mastercard and Heineken have rented plots for one-off events or product showcases

  • Decentraland released tools that allow anyone to rent virtual land in December 2021, with the objective of democratizing access to the virtual world.

  • The rental system is also subtly changing the social fabric of the virtual world, dividing people into those who have and those who have not.

  • The earliest adopters are mostly brands and artists that want to host events or put on shows in Decentraland, with tenancies ranging in duration from a single day to multiple months.

  • The appetite for renting virtual real estate also remains small; there are currently around 300 plots listed on the marketplace and only 40 are occupied by tenants.

RENTALS

Landlords Beware: Montana Bill Requires Refunds for Unsuccessful Renters

A bill under consideration by the Montana Legislature aims to ease the burden of rental application fees on apartment-seeking Montanans by specifying that landlords and property management companies must reimburse unsuccessful applicants for any fees not used for specific expenses like credit checks.

  • House Bill 233, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Kortum, D-Bozeman, would require landlords to provide refunds to any applicant who doesn’t sign a lease “within a reasonable period of time.”

  • The bill aims to keep landlords and property management companies from taking undue advantage of the state’s tight rental market, particularly in college towns Bozeman and Missoula.

  • The bill received its initial public hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday and is co-sponsored by 29 other Democrats and 15 Republicans.

  • The bill’s supporters at the Tuesday hearing included representatives of university student governments, renters and parents who said they’d been frustrated by fees faced by their young adult children.

  • The bill’s first major procedural hurdle is a vote by the judiciary committee. If it advances, it will then face debate on the House Floor, review by the Montana Senate and scrutiny by Gov. Greg Gianforte.

SENIOR HOUSING

Residents of D.C.'s Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments Demand Justice for Alleged mistreatment

  • Residents of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments in Washington, D.C., which houses residents 62 years and older, are alleging that the property management charges them rent significantly higher than what they’re obligated to pay.

  • Another complaint concerns management’s failure to provide them with a copy of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Residents Rights and Responsibilities brochure or an on-site bilingual building manager.

  • Residents of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments formed the 2001 15th Street Tenants Association over a decade ago to hold Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners and residential property management company WinnCompanies accountable to residents.

  • Residents of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments continue to complain about rodent infestation, cracks and holes in the walls, water damage that has decayed wood, and failure to fix appliances.

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