Author: Brad Beckett

You could say that sales taxes are the form of taxation that truly affects every person – it’s the classic consumption tax.  It is also the one politicians often reach for first to ratchet-up to fund their next project du jour. That being said, the folks over at the Tax Foundation recently put together some numbers showing combined sales tax rates (state & local where applicable) for each state.  Interestingly, there are four states that do not have a state sales tax and there are some with a sales tax but no income tax. Indeed… Click here to read the…

With the pandemic and it’s social distancing still affecting our country, the folks over at Realtor.com crunched the numbers to find the best places to enjoy indoor-outdoor living.  And, if you’re like most Americans and have had to put off that vacation, living someplace that allows for a great “staycation” is just the ticket.  In addition, they report that a recent survey even said 79% of U.S. homebuyers ranked outdoor space as the #1 priority for their first home.  Indeed… “In the age of COVID-19 and seemingly endless sheltering in place, finding a home that has plenty of land and…

What housing markets have been the hardest hit by the pandemic?  CNBC’s Squawk Box spoke with Bankrate.com’s Jeff Ostrowski about which areas have been the hardest hit and which have fared the best.  In particular, Ostrowski discussed his Housing Hardship index which combines mortgage delinquencies with unemployment rates in each state.  This  score determine which states are suffering the most. Click here to watch on CNBC.com.

Redfin says they’ve seen an 8.2% drop in pending sales growth which they say could be from subsiding pent-up demand (from March & April) or the ongoing lack of inventory.  In fact, they point that new listings were down 8.3% (even though interest rates are at record-lows) leaving buyers with a very limited selection of homes to choose from.  This, combined with the recent increase in Covid-19 cases, leaves a lot to be determined going into mid-Summer.  Indeed… “The two big questions for the housing market are whether sellers will begin to come back in force, and whether homebuyers will…

The folks over at WalletHub remind us that no one likes Tax Day, except for maybe accountants and Uncle Sam.  Well, they’re probably right…..And with Tax day coming up on Wednesday, July 15th, today’s infographic has a nice little breakdown of the red, white, blue and green. Happy Friday!!! Source: WalletHub Hat tip to WalletHub.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 77.4% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by July 6th.  This figure represents a 2.3 percentage point decrease in the share who paid rent through July 6, 2019 and compares to 80.8% that paid by June 6th.  The  data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 11.4 million professionally managed apartment units across the country. “It is clear that state and federal unemployment assistance benefits have served as a lifeline for renters, making it possible for them to pay their rent,” said Doug Bibby,…

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Insights (HPI) report, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 4.8% year-over-year in May, up 3.6% from May 2019.  CoreLogic says strong demand, especially by younger home buyers, and low supply helped push home prices higher in May.  Last month they cautioned that 2021 would mark the first year home prices are expected to decline in more than nine years, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  In this month’s report, they stood by that prediction saying that home prices will decrease on a month-over-month basis by 0.1% from May 2020 to June 2020, and…

According Black Knight’s latest Mortgage Monitor, May saw the overall delinquency rate hit its highest level in 8.5 years, with serious delinquencies on the rise as well as the number of homeowners 90+ days past due increasing by more than 50% over the past two months.  However they do point out that while May’s delinquency numbers illustrate the level of hardship imposed by COVID-19 on American homeowners, daily payment data for June provides some degree of optimism.  Indeed… Click here to read the full report at Black Knight.

Just three years ago we posted about how foreign buyers spent a record $153 billion on homes in the U.S.  Now, along comes a report from the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) that says foreign buying of U.S. homes is drying up.  Citing data from the National Association of Realtors, they report that already slowing demand was accelerated by the Coronavirus pandemic – especially when you factor in new travel & immigration limitations – which further weakened demand.  Indeed… “Foreigners represent a tiny percentage of overall buyers. But because they have tended to cluster in coastal cities like New…

According to recent data from the Associated General Contractors of America, construction employment increased by 158k jobs in June, with most of the gain concentrated in home-building.  However, employment related to infrastructure experienced a decline.  The AGC said additional infrastructure-building job losses would be inevitable unless state & local budgets for roads and other public works are replenished. “The gain in construction employment in June was concentrated in homebuilding, with scattered increases in nonresidential building, while heavy and civil engineering construction employment—the category that includes many highway and other infrastructure workers—shrank by nearly 10,000 jobs…” Click here to read the…