Author: Brad Beckett

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for February, 2020 showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,220 (up 0.3%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,464 (up 0.3%).   Year to date, one bedroom prices are flat and two bedroom prices are up 0.7%.  Zumper analyzes rental data from over 1 million active listings across the United States. Data is aggregated on a monthly basis to calculate median asking rents for the top 100 metro areas by population, providing a comprehensive view of the current state of the market. The report is based on…

In a recent episode of the Rent Perfect podcast, David Pickron talks about the increase of short-term rentals and how property owners are finding new and creative ways to be landlords.  David is joined by his wife Stephanie, to discuss how they have turned to this new type of investing to expand their portfolio and share some of their hard-earned knowledge on how to attract renters and keep them coming back year after year. “The experience of being a landlord has never been more complicated… or more rewarding. Making sure that things go right with your investment is perfectly possible,…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the publication of guidance clarifying how housing providers can comply with the Fair Housing Act when assessing a person’s request to have an animal in housing to provide assistance because of a disability. HUD says their notice will “…help housing providers in this process by offering a step-by-step set of best practices for complying with the Act when assessing accommodation requests involving animals and information that a person may need to provide about his or her disability-related need for the requested accommodation, including supporting information from a health care…

The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates in Q4 2019 were 6.4% for rental housing and 1.4% for homeowner housing.  The national homeownership rate for Q4 2019 was 65.1% (a six-year high).  In addition, approximately 88.5% of the housing units in the United States in Q4 2019 were occupied and 11.5% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 57.6% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 30.9% of the inventory. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that pending home sales were down 4.9% in December with the NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) decreasing to 103.2.  However, they reported that year-over-year contract signings were up 4.6%.  Once again, the reoccurring theme of low-inventory continues to be a serious concern: “Mortgage rates are expected to hold under 4% for most of 2020, while net job creation will likely exceed two million,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. While he noted that these factors are promising for the housing market, Yun cautioned that low inventory…

A few weeks ago we posted about which states might be gaining or losing seats in Congress as a result of the upcoming Census.  Today’s infographic from the U.S. Census Bureau gives a snapshot the 2020 Census and the process involved with counting our citizens.  The U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to conduct a census of America’s population every 10 years.  Happy Friday!!! [Source: U.S. Census Bureau] Hat tip to the U.S. Census Bureau.

How long does the average homeowner stay in their home?  According to data from the American Community Survey (crunched by the NAR’s Economist Outlook blog) it’s about 13 years.  In addition, they say that compared to prior years, homeowners have been spending more spend more time holding onto their homes with the median tenure increasing by 3 years since 2008.  To get their findings, they looked at median years of residence for owner-occupied homes located in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas.  Be sure to click on the interactive map below to drill down a little further.  Also, they do…

Consumer finance education site LendEDU took a look at hundreds of America’s cities to find & rank those which are best positioned for economic advancement over the new decade.  Their report analyzed a several factors including recent income growth, population changes, and educational attainment levels.  Interestingly, several of the cities are in California which has been experiencing population loss for a variety of reasons. Indeed… “The 2020s will inevitably bring drastic changes that will impact the lives of millions of Americans; this list estimates which places in the U.S. will experience the most profound economic changes, whether for better or…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, the rate of home price increases reported a 3.5% annual gain in November.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 2.0% and the 20-City Composite posted a 2.6% year-over-year gain.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate both nationally as well as in 20 metropolitan regions. “The U.S. housing market was stable in November,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of…

The U.S. Government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in December, 2019 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694k, down slightly from November but up 23% from one year ago.  The median sales price of new houses sold in December was $331,400 and the average sales price was $384,500. The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 327k, representing a 5.7 month supply at the current sales rate.  An estimated 681k new homes were sold in 2019, which is 10.3% higher than 2018. Click here to read the full report…