Author: Brad Beckett

According to recent data from the Associated General Contractors of America, construction employment increased by 464,000 jobs in May, however the AGC cautioned that the industry remains far short of full employment.  In addition, they said the industry is experiencing a 12.7% unemployment rate, the highest for May since 2012. “The huge pickup in construction employment in May is good news and probably reflects the industry’s widespread receipt of Paycheck Protection Program loans and the loosening of restrictions on business activity in some states.” Said Ken Simonson, the AGC’s chief economist. Click here to read the full report at the…

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 80.8% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by June 6th.  This figure represents a 0.7-percentage point decrease in the share who paid rent through June 6, 2019 and compares to 80.2% that paid by May 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. “While our Rent Payment Tracker metric continues to show the resilience and strength of the professionally managed apartment industry, it does not necessarily tell the whole story, as it doesn’t…

The Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says Cleveland, Ohio is a “house-flipping hot spot” and the Coronavirus pandemic has helped.  In a recent article they discuss how real estate investors are moving away from the sunbelt to lower-price markets (like Cleveland) and scooping up homes that they turn into rentals.  Their story focuses-in on one Cleveland house-flipper that sold nearly 200 renovated rental houses to investors last year.  Currently, she has about 60 fix-n-flips in the pipeline along with a waiting list of individual investors that has been growing since the pandemic began. “Greater Cleveland has been one of…

According Black Knight’s latest Mortgage Monitor, April saw the largest single-month increase in delinquencies on record, coming in at nearly 3 times the previous record in November, 2008.  Black Knight’s delinquency numbers include both homeowners past due on mortgage payments who are not in forbearance, as well as those who are in forbearance plans and did not make an April mortgage payment. Black Knight’s monthly monitor reviews some of the high-level mortgage performance statistics reported in their most recent First Look report, as well as an update on delinquency, foreclosure and prepayment trends. They then drill further down into April’s…

Real Estate News for Investors is reporting that some of America’s biggest SFR landlords are betting on a surge in demand for single-family rentals in our nation’s suburbs.  Kathy Fettke says that several big players (including JPMorgan Asset Management and American Homes 4 Rent) recently announced a joint venture to build 2,500 new single-family rentals in western and southwestern high-growth markets.  They say the deal will capitalize on a post-pandemic desire to move away from apartments in crowded cities and help address a lack of existing home inventory.  Indeed…. “…a move towards more a spread-out living in the wake of…

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Insights (HPI) report, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 5.4% (year over year) in April 2020 compared with April 2019 and increased month over month by 1.4% in April 2020 compared with March 2020.  However, they also caution that 2021 will mark the first year home prices are expected to decline in more than nine years, due to the lingering impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Indeed… “The very low inventory of homes for sale, coupled with homebuyers’ spur of record-low mortgage rates, will likely continue to support home price growth during the…

According to recently released U.S. government data, May saw the biggest ever increase in jobs coming in at 2.5 million, as the U.S. economy roars back to life as it heads into a post-pandemic environment.  As reported by CNBC, the May jobs report “stunned Wall Street with the largest number of payrolls gained on record and a drop in the unemployment rate during a month when most expected grim comparisons to the Great Depression.”  Highlighting the numbers were the leisure and hospitality industries posting a rebound in May with a net addition of more than 1.2 million jobs, by far…

How have consumer spending patterns changed during the Coronavirus pandemic? The folks over at the Visual Capitalist put together a deep dive into the credit & debit spending of American consumers over the past few months.  They point out that  in 2019, nearly 70% of U.S. GDP was driven by personal consumption, however a transformation of sorts has taken place as the pandemic put the brakes on the economy.  As always, stay safe and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to the Visual Capitalist.

The economists at Realtor.com recently revised their 2020 Housing Market Predictions to take the Coronavirus Pandemic into account. They issued their update in in Mid-May as a way to gauge the “ups and downs” of the housing markets as it finds its footing in response to the Coronavirus.  Among their predictions; Home price growth will flatten, with a forecasted increase of 1.1% Inventory will remain low, but the rate of decline steadies and the mix of homes for sale shifts toward greater availability of lower-priced homes Mortgage rates remain low and may slide under 3% by the end of the…

Around three percent of all homes in the process of foreclosure are Zombies (sitting empty), according to ATTOM Data’s latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report.  According to the report, there were just over 1.5 million residential properties in the U.S. are vacant, representing 1.5% of all homes.  Of these, there were 258k homes are in the process of foreclosure, with about 7,650, or 3%, classified as “zombie foreclosures” in Q2 of 2020. “The foreclosure and zombie-property picture hasn’t changed much in the second quarter of this year as most lenders are barred from taking action against homeowners who are…