McKae Properties Real Estate Market Commentary

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! The year starts out with the California Legislature passing additional laws in the Rental Marketplace.   AB 2493 – Tightens Rules for Application Fee Screening This new law authorizes a landlord or their agent to charge an application screening fee only if the landlord or their agent, at the time the application screening fee is collected, offers an application screening process, as specified. This bill would also prohibit a landlord or their agent from charging an applicant an application screening fee when they know or should have known that no rental unit is available at that time or will be available within a reasonable period of time. AB 2347 – Alters Rules for Eviction This law extends the time in which a defendant, in a summary proceeding for obtaining possession of real property, must file a response from 5 to 10 days, excluding specified days, after the complaint is served on the defendant. AB 2801 – Changes in Security Deposit Rules This law lim...

The FED target for interest rates in two years is 3-3.25%.  There was some upset investors after the last FED meeting that took the Stock Averages down precipitously.  The expectations were there would be a series of interest rates cuts in 2025, that the FED determined would not occur.  Well, what does it matter?  Think about you are traveling  from your home to Lake Tahoe, or from Sacramento to Menlo Park or Menlo Park to Sacramento.  The trip from the Bay Area or visa versa will take 3 hours, give or take 15 minutes.  You can go on via Hwy 5, or 80, or 680, or 580 or some combination of all of them.  But when it comes to arrival you will be there at about the same time.  So why is there the big hullabaloo over how many rate cuts we get in 2025.  You could start out from Sacramento get onto 5 and then there is an accident.  Or you could do the same on 80, another tie up.  Take the cut off onto 680 from 80 and another tie up....