Author: Brad Beckett

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices were up 0.9% in February and up 12.2% 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 code,…

On a recent episode of the Rental Property Owner & Real Estate Investor Podcast, Brian Hamrick talked with Joe Evangelisti about what it means to become a high performance real estate investor and the “Five Roads to Victory” that Joe teaches his clients and team members.  Joe is a second-generation builder who jumped into “fix & flips” after serving in the U.S. Navy “Seabees.”  He has amassed a real estate empire consisting of single-family homes, multi-family apartment buildings and self-storage.  He is also a high-performance coach for real estate investors and entrepreneurs and serves as the Visionary and CEO to…

The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates for Q1, 2021 were 6.8% for rental housing and 0.9% for homeowner housing.  The national homeownership rate for Q1, 2021 was 65.6%.  In addition, approximately 89% of the housing units in the United States in Q1 were occupied and 11% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 58.3% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 30.6% of the inventory. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

We all love top 10 lists and they often spell out places we wished we would have invested in before they made the list! Realtor.com, citing recent survey data, says nearly half of U.S. adults would prefer to live in a small town or rural area.  They point out that the “idyllic appeal of small-town life” has taken on a whole new dimension during the coronavirus pandemic.  To that end, their number-crunchers took a look at metros with a population <50k and then factored in affordability metrics such as median home price, year-over-year price change, ownership costs (as a percentage…

According to their Q1 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, ATTOM Data says, despite moratoria, there were a total of 33,699 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2021.  While this figure is down 78% from one year ago, it does represent a 9% increase from Q4, 2020.  In addition, there were 11,880 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in March 2021.  Again, while down 75% from one year ago March’s number is up 5% from February.  Properties foreclosed in Q1, 2021 had been in the foreclosure process an average of 930 days, up 8% from Q4, 2020 and…

The U.S. Government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in March, 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,021,000 which is 20.7% higher than February’s revised rate and is 66.8% higher than one year ago.  The median sales price of new houses sold in March was $330,800 with an average sales price of $397,800.  There were an estimated 307k new houses for sale at the end of March representing a 3.6-month supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales were down 3.7% in March to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.01 million (up 12.3% from one year ago).  Total housing inventory at the end of March was 1.07 million units, down 28.2% from one year ago.  Unsold inventory sits at a 2.1-month supply at the current sales pace with properties remaining on the market for around 18 days. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $334,000, up 18.4% from March, 2020.  Once again, it’s INVENTORY INVENTORY INVENTORY: “The sales for March would have been measurably higher,…

We’ve been following the issue about higher lumber prices for some time now.  In fact, we recently posted about how increased lumber costs are adding over $24k to the price of a new home.  The folks over at John Burns Real Estate Consulting recently put together a quick infographic illustrating the path to rising lumber prices.  Stay safe and have a Happy Friday!!! “We expect lumber prices will remain elevated into 2022, but lower than today’s extreme rates. Capacity takes time to bring online. We are aware of six mills restarting or adding capacity, but we estimate it will take…

(UPDATED) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued an interim final rule requiring debt collectors to provide written notice to tenants of their rights under the CDC’s eviction moratorium and prohibits debt collectors from misrepresenting tenants’ eligibility for protection from eviction under the moratorium.  The new rule goes into effect on May 3rd and lasts through the duration of the CDC’s moratorium, recently extended through June 30, 2021.  The CFPB believes this will give debt collectors time to come into full compliance. However they said debt collectors may begin complying with the rule before the compliance date. “With COVID-19 killing…

Looking for a summer place to rent on Long Island, New York?  If so, there is one home that has been snapped up at an incredible rate.  According to recent CNBC report, a house in the Hamptons recently rented for $2 million for the summer, as they say demand is far outstripping a record low supply of homes for sale and rent.  While this area is certainly no stranger to high rental & sales prices, the $2 million price tag has really stuck out. Brokers told CNBC that the shortage of homes for sale has also led to a shortage…