Author: Brad Beckett

According to new research from Redfin.com, 29% of their users looked to move to a different metro area in Q3, 2020.  Santa Barbara (CA) tops the list followed by followed by Louisville (KY), Buffalo (NY) and several other affordable metros in the South & Northeast with positive net in-flow (the number of people looking to move in minus the number of people looking to leave).  Indeed… “Remote work has opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to buying a home,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Many residents of expensive areas like New York or Los…

According to a recent study by Entrata, 59% of renters used all or some of their stimulus checks to cover rent during recent lockdowns resulting from the Coronavirus. Their survey was conducted with 1037 adult renters and collected between August 11th and September 3rd. “COVID-19 has affected people all over the world, and U.S. renters are no exception,” said Chase Harrington, president and chief operating officer. “Our study shows that renters struggled to pay their full rent during the lockdown period, but in many cases, residents and management were able to come together to find a compromise and help ensure…

According to the latest U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report from ATTOM Data Solutions, 6.7 million residential U.S. properties are considered equity-rich, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loans secured by those properties was 50 percent or less of their estimated market value.  However, ATTOM says there are 3.5 million, or one in 17, mortgaged homes in Q3 considered to be seriously underwater, representing 6% of all U.S. properties with a mortgage.  And, at least 25% of all properties were seriously underwater in 115 zip codes: “Among 8,679 U.S. zip codes that had at least 2,000 properties with mortgages…

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Insights (HPI) report, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 6.7% year-over-year in September. Interestingly, CoreLogic predicts that home prices will increase on a month-over-month basis by 0.2% from September 2020 to October 2020, and on a year-over-year basis by only 0.2% from September 2020 to September 2021. “COVID has contributed to the acute shortage of inventory as the pace of new construction slowed and older prospective sellers postponed listing their homes until after the pandemic. Once the pandemic passes or a vaccine is widely administered, we should see a noticeable pick-up in…

Hopefully, as you read this we will know the final results of 2020’s presidential election.  Either way, one thing is certain – the barrage of political ads came to an abrupt halt by Wednesday morning.  In that vein, today’s infographic from Statista reminds us that when it comes to ads, TV is still tops – although social media is hot on its tail.  Interestingly they point out that daily newspaper print ads were the least noticed, with only 19% saying they had seen them.  However, websites, apps and search engines reached more people than billboards and other outdoor ads.  Indeed….Stay…

How many times have you seen a great quote and copied it down to share?  Real estate investors do this all the time and for our industry there are a lot of inspiring quotes from successful people who have “been there, and done that.” The Motley Fool recently put together a list of 33 real estate investing quotes that they say will help keep you “in the game.”   Indeed, here are few of the ones we liked…get ready to cut-n-paste: “Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than…

We have been closely watching the rent control issue for quite a while and have some good news to report from last Tuesday’s election.  For the second time in two years voters in California have said no to expanding rent control.   Proposition 21 would have allowed local governments to put rent control in place for many types of housing, including single family homes and condominiums.  The LA Times says Prop 21’s failure means that “landlord groups have convinced voters that stricter limits on rent hikes are not a solution to California’s housing affordability problems.”  In addition they point out that…

The Business Insider says some apartment owners have been able to collect rents as usual, despite the pandemic, shaky economy, and rising unemployment.  Other owners have been working with tenants who can’t pay their rent.  In light of last September, when the CDC issued a moratorium for nationwide residential evictions until December 31st with several states & cities even having their own eviction moratoriums.  In their recent report, BI spoke with several rental property experts, including National REIA’s Charles Tassell about current market conditions and where the industry may be heading. “Owning rental property these days is a “mixed bag,”…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in November was $1,113 with two-bedroom units coming in at $1357.  However, despite the slight increases ABODO says these are both insignificant moves and this trend verifies their claim (that they’ve made for many months) that 2020 rent prices are just not moving.  Indeed… “With COVID-19 still raging across the globe, new lockdowns are being seen in Europe. Whether the U.S. will avoid this plight is unknown, but with the pandemic dominating the news, stimulus plans on hold, oil prices taking another hit and…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices were up 1.5% in August and were up 8% 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…