Author: Brad Beckett

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) announced in late August that they were extending their moratorium on foreclosures and evictions through December 31, 2020.  The foreclosure moratorium applies to homeowners with FHA-insured Single Family mortgages. “President Trump is taking unprecedented measures to ensure American homeowners have the resources and support they need to get back to financial stability during the economic recovery,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “Because homeownership is the largest wealth builder for the majority of the nation’s families, providing relief from foreclosure and eviction to those who are in jeopardy of losing their hard-earned…

Have you ever been out looking for that next flip and had the “check engine” light come on in your car?  If you’re like most people, it can induce panic until you learn that it is connected to the emission control components and can be one of 100+ things including; loose gas cap, dirty catalytic converter, oxygen sensor, etc.  Not that it shouldn’t be taken seriously, but it might not be as bad as it seems.  Today’s infographic from the Infographic Journal shares the mystery of 52 of our car’s dashboard indicators.  Stay safe and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat…

On a recent episode of CNBC’s Power Lunch, real estate reporter Diana Olick discusses the increased demand for housing in the suburbs from what she calls “pandemic induced urban flight” and the impact it’s having on home prices across the nation.  Interestingly, she points out that in Denver, Colorado an influx of new buyers from across the country has pushed up new sales 80% year over year. Click here to watch on CNBC.com.

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 4.3% annual gain in June.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 2.8% and the 20-City Composite posted a 3.5% 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. “Housing prices were stable in June,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment…

According to the Mortgage Banker Association’s latest National Delinquency Survey, mortgage delinquencies spiked 386 basis points from Q1 to Q2, coming in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.22% – which they say is the highest overall delinquency rate in nine years. The MBA says that the pandemic’s effects on some homeowners’ ability to make mortgage payments could not be more apparent.  Indeed… Click here to read more at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Where are the hottest real estate markets in this crazy year of 2020?  Realtor.com tells us to follow the zip codes as they recently released their annual market report.  We have seen a lot of positive news about how real estate is leading the economic recovery as we (hopefully) emerge from the pandemic.  To come up with their hot markets list, they analyzed over 16k zip codes based on time on the market and searches by zip code on realtor.com.   They point out that pent up demand is driving buyers to these markets. Indeed…. “The hottest zip codes have…

The Tax Foundation says property taxes are an important tool to help finance state & local government.  Interestingly, they point out that property taxes accounted for 72.1% of local tax collections nationwide and 31.9% of total U.S. state and local tax collections – which they say is a greater portion than any other source of tax revenue.  It is also worth noting that the median property taxes vary widely among the U.S. 50 states.  Indeed… “Because property taxes are assessed as a percentage of home values, it follows that higher property taxes are paid in places with higher housing prices.”…

We have been hearing about this from several sources and now Redfin says they have concrete evidence that rural and suburban neighborhoods are becoming more desirable to homebuyers than cities.  According to their data, at the beginning of August, home prices in rural areas were up 11.3% (year-over-year) while homes in urban areas only experienced a 6.7% increase.  Redfin said this trend of higher price growth in the rural areas has been happening since April.  In addition, they say there’s simply more demand (and less supply) for rural and suburban neighborhoods than cities as the pandemic influences homebuyer preferences.  Indeed……

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales jumped 24.7% in July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.86 million (8.7% higher than one year ago).  Total housing inventory at the end of July was 1.5 million units, down 2.6% from June and down 21.1% from one year ago.  Total unsold inventory was at a 3.1-month supply at the current sales pace with properties remaining on the market for around 22 days. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $304,100, up 8.5% from July, 2019. “The housing market is well past the recovery phase and…

Just last month we posted about mortgage interest rates hitting an all-time low.  Today’s infographic from Keeping Current Matters puts interest rates into perspective over the last 50 years.  They remind us that “it helps to see the dollars and cents you’ll save when you purchase a home while mortgage rates are low.”  Indeed…It’s almost hard to fathom buying a home at 12%.   Stay safe and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Keeping Current Matters.