Author: Brad Beckett

We have seen a lot of stories over the past few years about migration from high-tax & high cost of living areas to ones that are lower on both accounts.  One reliable metric has been the price of one-way U-Haul rentals.  A recent report on FOX Business zeroed-in on this phenomenon by highlighting how people are in fact moving to areas with better “climates” with prices reflecting said demand. A spokesperson from U-Haul declined to comment on specific migration patterns, but did say prices often reflect ongoing trends.  “When there is a substantial difference in pricing for the same one-way…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix Multifamily Report, the average U.S. rent in August was $1,463, up $1 from July with year-over-year rent growth remaining at -0.3% (same as July).  However, they point our that larger markets are a drag on the rest: “On a year-over-year basis, national rents declined by 0.3%. But that is not to say that all markets are performing poorly. Out of our 132 Matrix markets, 108 performed better than the national average in August, leading to the conclusion that the larger markets, with significant rent declines, are pulling down the national average.” Click here to…

ATTOM data recently took a deep dive into their Q3 2020 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report to come up with the top 10 “zombi‘fied’ zip codes” – places with the highest number zombie foreclosure rates.  Interestingly, their report says that while the number of properties in the process of foreclosure (215,886) in Q3 2020 is down 16% from Q2 2020, the percentage of those properties that have been abandoned as zombie foreclosures is up from Q2 2020.  In addition, the report notes that zombie foreclosures represent a very small portion (one in every 12,500 homes) of the nation’s 99.4…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices were up 0.9% in May and were up 5.4% from one year ago.  The FHFA produces the nation’s only public, freely available house price indexes (HPIs) that measure changes in single-family house prices based on data that cover all 50 states and over 400 American cities and extend back to the mid-1970s.  The FHFA’s HPIs are built on tens of millions of home sales and offer insights about home price fluctuations at the levels of the nation, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP…

We love posting about that elusive cohort known as the millennial generation.  A recent Wall Street Journal article (reposted on Realtor.com) suggests that millennials, who have been viewed as perennial renters, are now emerging as a “driving force” in the housing market’s recovery.  Interestingly, they point out that, last year, millennials accounted for more than half of all new home loans and were consistently above that level in the first few months of 2020.  Indeed… “Millennials, they’re roaring into homebuying age,” said Rick Arvielo, chief executive of mortgage lender New American Funding. “What the industry’s been talking about for a…

Realtor.com says Tarek El Moussa has come a long way since his much publicized divorce from Christina – in fact, they say he has reinvented his life.   Well, ok then.  So what are Tarek’s seven biggest flops from his “Flipping 101” TV show?  As you can imagine, the list includes kitchens, bathrooms and bad wallpaper.  Indeed… Click here to read the full story at Realtor.com.

While Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the unofficial end of Summer, the Coronavirus has made 2020 a year like no other.  We sincerely hope you were able to enjoy this past summer season and whatever good weather it has left.  The U.S. Department of Labor says: “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” Since the pandemic has dampened this year’s…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in September was $1,109 with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,358.  ABODO says apartment prices continued to exhibit sleepy upward movement.  Indeed… “There are some hopeful signs that the pandemic is easing in some parts of the country, and the much-anticipated vaccine seems to be moving to fruition. That said, even if the virus disappeared tomorrow, we still see a stable apartment rental market because we just do not foresee things returning to normal for a while.” ABODO uses over 1 million listings across…

Bloomberg is reporting that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to temporarily halt residential evictions nationwide for individuals earning less than $99k/year to prevent the Coronavirus from spreading, according to an unnamed senior administration official.  Bloomberg says the government is using its quarantine authority to “keep renters in their homes during the coronavirus pandemic as a way to prevent an eviction crisis that could worsen economic strains.”   As this is a developing story, National REIA is closing following the issue and will keep members apprised. “National REIA is extremely concerned about the development of this new…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in July was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,364.6 billion, which is 0.1% above than June’s revised estimate.  However, July’s figure was 0.1% lower than July, 2019.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $546.6 billion in July, which is 2.1% higher than June’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.