Author: Brad Beckett

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their monthly National Economic Outlook where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook By Ingo Winzer July, 2021 Although the pandemic is still with us – now with the delta variant – most covid restrictions around the country have been lifted and economic activity is rapidly resuming. This means that economic data have real meaning again; we can compare local real estate markets and we can think about the longer-term consequences of the recession. We’re currently in a surge of spending (much…

Lumber prices are finally coming down from the stratosphere.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) suggests they’ve fallen so far that they are starting to look cheap to some buyers.  However for new home buyers the WSJ paints a different picture.  They’re reporting that home builders are saying they expect to collect higher profit margins rather than lowering their asking prices.  Well, okay then… “…That is typical following periods of rising commodities costs, when the broad economic growth that normally accompanies higher raw-materials prices enables companies to pass along more expenses.” Click here to read the full…

We’ve posted a lot about student loan debt over the past few years.  According to the federal government, outstanding student loans in the U.S. has reached over $1.7 trillion comprising over 45 million borrowers.  Today’s infographic from Statista shows how what debt has sharply risen over the last 14 years.  Stay safe and have a Happy Friday! Hat tip to Statista.

According to a recent report from HousingWire, digital closings have spiked 228% since 2019 as more of the industry moves online.  Citing data from American Land Title Association, they also said remote online notarization use jumped 547%.   Indeed… “Since the onset of the pandemic, title and settlement professionals rapidly adapted their processes to meet the needs of their customers and to continue facilitating safe and secure closings, and one of the title industry’s most important tools in this process has been remote online notarization…”  Said Diane Tomb, ALTA’a chief executive officer. Click here to read the full story at HousingWire.…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was 0.9% in June, 2021.  Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.4% before seasonal adjustment. Click here to read the full release at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the latest Mortgage Monitor from Black Knight, the delinquency rate rose 1.5% in May coming in at 4.73%.  However serious delinquencies were down 99k – marking 9 straights months of improvement.  In addition they report that the national foreclosure rate came in at 2.5%. “Though we’ve now seen serious delinquencies improve for the ninth consecutive month, there are still nearly 1.3M – more than 4X as many – as there were prior to the pandemic.” Click here to read the full report at Black Knight.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 76.5% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by July 6th, 2021.  This figure is 0.9% lower than those who paid rent through July 6, 2020.  The data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 11.7 million professionally managed apartment units across the country – representing a wide variety of market-rate rental properties that can vary by size, type and average rental price. Click here to read more at the NMHC.

The Tax Foundation says that since property taxes are tied to housing values, it makes sense that the actual dollar amounts of property taxes tend to be higher in places with higher housing prices.  They recently put together a new map for 2021 that focuses on states’ effective tax rates on owner-occupied housing. “Governments tax real property in a variety of ways: some impose a rate or a millage—the amount of tax per thousand dollars of value—on the fair market value of the property, while others impose it on some percentage (the assessment ratio) of the market value. While values…

Last month we shared ATTOM’s top 10 zip codes where flipping is on the rise. Their latest U.S. Home Flipping Report showed that both the home flipping rate and gross profits declined nationwide in Q1 of 2021.  However, that being said, we’ve come across another analysis of that same report from ATTOM identifying the top 10 markets with the fastest flip times.  They say that flippers who sold homes in Q1 2021 took an average of 159 days to complete the transactions.  ATTOM says that was the lowest level since Q3 2013, and down from an average of 175 in…

A recent report from Reason shows how the government and media relied on studies plagued by shoddy statistics to make the case for blocking evictions during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.  They point out some deep flaws in two studies that got widespread media attention and that were cited by the federal government to support its policies.  These studies claim to show that the moratoriums saved thousands of lives.   Reason lays out a pretty good case to show how their results were implausible.  Indeed… “These studies are deeply flawed. Their underlying data are incomplete and inconsistent. Their results are implausible. The…