August 03, 2023

Tuesday was the deadline for Los Angeles tenants to pay back rent they owed from the pandemic, but many may not be able to. With eviction filings already on the rise in LA County, advocates worry the situation will worsen. Meanwhile, the city’s homelessness rate is increasing, and Mayor Karen Bass recently renewed its homelessness emergency declaration.

Homes in predominantly Black Philadelphia neighborhoods are appraised $26,000 less than comparable homes in mostly white areas. Ninety-five percent of the city’s appraisers are white, so many attribute the disparity to appraisal bias. To fight the trend, Philadelphia plans to adopt the Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal computer program, which is “like a flight simulator for appraisers,” says Brad Swinney, chair of the Appraiser Qualifications Board.

Homeless encampment sweeps did little to connect people experiencing homelessness with city service and permanent housing, found a recent audit by New York City’s comptroller, Brad Lander. The audit also found the city’s Department of Homeless Services was not adequately tracking or following up with people from the sweeps, and public spaces didn’t remain cleared.

Nearly 1.1 million apartments are under construction, marking the largest apartment construction boom in decades. Meanwhile, median rents fell in May and rose slightly in June. But renters are still spending a significant share of their income on rent. “We’re building a multidecade record number of units. It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housingshortage or the affordability problem for renters across the US,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.