Brandon Donnelly
THE DAILY INFILL is a blog for city builders written by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
THE DAILY INFILL is a blog for city builders written by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (US) created something known as Opportunity Zones. These are low-income and high-poverty census tracts that are designed to attract investment by offering a number of different tax benefits. I first wrote about it on the blog, here.
Now that some time has passed since the final Opportunity Zones were announced, Zillow Economic Research decided to look at the possible impact of this designation on real estate values. In other words: To what extent, if at all, are the tax benefits getting capitalized into the value of the properties?
Below is a chart showing the year-over-year change in the 12-month moving average sale price for low-income census tracts that were (1) eligible and selected as an Opportunity Zone; (2) eligible and not selected; and (3) not eligible.
My understanding is that the "not eligible" category represents census tracts with similar characteristics to the other two categories but, for whatever reason, were not eligible to become an Opportunity Zone. There are criteria.
The program is still quite new, but what Zillow found was that the eligible census tracts (green and yellow lines) seemed to exhibit similar sale price increases after the Act was signed, but before the final Opportunity Zones were announced. Once the final Zones were announced, sale prices in the selected category (green line) began to surge and move away from the pack.
This may be evidence that the tax benefits are starting to get capitalized, or it may not be. One question I have is about why pricing in the selected Opportunity Zones seems to be a lot more volatile -- even before the Act was announced.
Last Thursday the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear an appeal from the Toronto Real Estate Board regarding a 2016 Competition Bureau decision aimed at giving consumers greater online access to information, such as historical (home) sale prices.
I am not at all surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision and I have said pretty much all I want to say on this topic – over here. But since I believe this is a positive outcome for real estate consumers, I wanted to mention it on the blog because it appears to be a final decision.
Some sites, such as Zoocasa, have already started publishing sold prices. Good.
Aaron Terrazas, who is a Senior Economist at Zillow, recently gave this presentation about the US and Virginia Beach housing markets. (I discovered it through City Observatory.)
There are a bunch of interesting graphs/stats in the presentation. Home values in Virginia Beach, for example, have yet to fully recover from the 2007-2008 financial crisis. They are still 8% below their pre-crisis peak, which was in July 2007. (I presume the presentation is dealing in nominal dollars.)
I’ll give two more examples.
Below is a chart comparing average home prices for rural (dark blue/purple), suburban (blue), and urban (green) homes. In the late 90′s, suburban and urban homes were roughly equal in terms of average prices. But since then, urban homes have shown greater appreciation. The spread also appears to be widening.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (US) created something known as Opportunity Zones. These are low-income and high-poverty census tracts that are designed to attract investment by offering a number of different tax benefits. I first wrote about it on the blog, here.
Now that some time has passed since the final Opportunity Zones were announced, Zillow Economic Research decided to look at the possible impact of this designation on real estate values. In other words: To what extent, if at all, are the tax benefits getting capitalized into the value of the properties?
Below is a chart showing the year-over-year change in the 12-month moving average sale price for low-income census tracts that were (1) eligible and selected as an Opportunity Zone; (2) eligible and not selected; and (3) not eligible.
My understanding is that the "not eligible" category represents census tracts with similar characteristics to the other two categories but, for whatever reason, were not eligible to become an Opportunity Zone. There are criteria.
The program is still quite new, but what Zillow found was that the eligible census tracts (green and yellow lines) seemed to exhibit similar sale price increases after the Act was signed, but before the final Opportunity Zones were announced. Once the final Zones were announced, sale prices in the selected category (green line) began to surge and move away from the pack.
This may be evidence that the tax benefits are starting to get capitalized, or it may not be. One question I have is about why pricing in the selected Opportunity Zones seems to be a lot more volatile -- even before the Act was announced.
Last Thursday the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear an appeal from the Toronto Real Estate Board regarding a 2016 Competition Bureau decision aimed at giving consumers greater online access to information, such as historical (home) sale prices.
I am not at all surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision and I have said pretty much all I want to say on this topic – over here. But since I believe this is a positive outcome for real estate consumers, I wanted to mention it on the blog because it appears to be a final decision.
Some sites, such as Zoocasa, have already started publishing sold prices. Good.
Aaron Terrazas, who is a Senior Economist at Zillow, recently gave this presentation about the US and Virginia Beach housing markets. (I discovered it through City Observatory.)
There are a bunch of interesting graphs/stats in the presentation. Home values in Virginia Beach, for example, have yet to fully recover from the 2007-2008 financial crisis. They are still 8% below their pre-crisis peak, which was in July 2007. (I presume the presentation is dealing in nominal dollars.)
I’ll give two more examples.
Below is a chart comparing average home prices for rural (dark blue/purple), suburban (blue), and urban (green) homes. In the late 90′s, suburban and urban homes were roughly equal in terms of average prices. But since then, urban homes have shown greater appreciation. The spread also appears to be widening.
And here is a graph showing the share of mortgage borrowers in a negative equity position. That is, the value of the home is less than the outstanding balance of the mortgage.
Now this is only covers people who have a mortgage. According to this Washington Post article, about 34% of all US homeowners don’t have one. Either they have paid it off or they never had one.
Still, the above numbers stood out to me. They speak to the severity of the financial crisis. At the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, over 30% of borrowers were in a negativity equity position. And in Virginia Beach it was more than 1/3 of all borrowers at the peak.
For the full presentation, click here.
And here is a graph showing the share of mortgage borrowers in a negative equity position. That is, the value of the home is less than the outstanding balance of the mortgage.
Now this is only covers people who have a mortgage. According to this Washington Post article, about 34% of all US homeowners don’t have one. Either they have paid it off or they never had one.
Still, the above numbers stood out to me. They speak to the severity of the financial crisis. At the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, over 30% of borrowers were in a negativity equity position. And in Virginia Beach it was more than 1/3 of all borrowers at the peak.
For the full presentation, click here.
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