Author: Brad Beckett

Late last month (December, 2019) the final regulations for Opportunity Zones were published by the IRS.  A recent story on Bloomberg Tax by Forrest Milder of Nixon Peabody LLP gives an overview of the final OZ regulations’ highlights and how the IRS addressed the many comments & suggestions.  However, the author cautions that it will still take time for tax advisors to sort through all of the ins & outs, especially those issues left unaddressed and/or “under-addressed.”  Indeed… “…the IRS deserves a great deal of credit for working its way through so many comments and suggestions and applying an excellent…

When you take a look at the raw numbers, they’re quite startling.  People (particularly wealthy people) who move to Florida from high-tax states can knock thousands of dollars off of their annual tax bills. States such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California are seeing an exodus of high-income earners – especially in light of recent tax reform at the federal level which capped the state & local tax deduction (SALT), which effectively subsidized these states’ high taxes.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) highlights this growing phenomenon and how it is affecting shifts…

According to their annual Migration Patterns report, Atlas Van Lines said, in 2019, 26 states registered as balanced (moves in & out were roughly equal), 13 as outbound, and 11 as inbound.  Interestingly, their data also showed an overall decrease in moves from 2018 to 2019.  Atlas has annually conducted the Migration Patterns study since 1993 which tracks the nation’s interstate and cross-border (U.S. to Canada) moving patterns as reflected in moves handled by Atlas Van Lines.  Next week, we’ll take a look at United Van Line’s annual movers study. Top 10 Inbound States (including DC): Idaho (62.3%) Washington (60.5%)…

A recent article in the Washington Post talked with seven of the nation’s leading housing organizations about what 2020 has in store for the housing market. The Post says that a strong job market along with low mortgage rates should sustain the housing market in 2020, however the problem will be low inventory. For their story, they talked with experts from the National Association of Realtors, Realtor,com, Redfin, Zillow, National Association of Home Builders, Mortgage Bankers Association, and Bankrate.com to get their predictions for 2020. Indeed… “With unemployment hovering at a 50-year low and interest rates well below historical norms,…

What are the 50 best and worst places to retire?  Obviously any answers would have an element of subjectivity, however a Dental Company from Florida (where else?) recently crunched the numbers using reliable data sources (Census, wallethub, etc) to come up with an interesting list based on eight metrics.  Of course Florida does seem to occupy half of the top 10.  If you visit their site, they do have a total of 381 cities on their complete list……….Happy investing and Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Advanced Dental Care.

Kathy Fettke’s podcast starts off the new year with a run-down of 2019’s significant stories affecting real estate investors.  She says reviewing these important stories will help investors focus on where they are coming from and give them a better understanding of what’s next.  Last Fall she said the theme of 2020 will most likely be a “Slowing but Growing Economy. This is part 1 of a two-part report. Click here to read the transcript at Realwealthnetwork.com.

Housing markets in the U.S. South will perform the best in 2020, this according to a panel of economists and real estate experts recently surveyed by Zillow.  In addition, the assembled experts predicted home values will grow by 2.8% in 2020.  Zillow says this markets at the top of the list offer affordability and amenity-rich communities that appeal to younger adults.  Indeed… “Having subjected buyers to a crucible of fierce competition for multiple years, many West Coast markets hit an affordability ceiling that set off declining home values in the most expensive of these,” said Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s director of…

Along with 2020’s decennial U.S. Census comes reallocation of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The constitution specifies that all 435 seats in the U.S. House are reallocated among the states every 10 years based on the results of a census.  The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) recently ran a story about current population projections and estimates of which states would be gaining/losing representation.  While it is somewhat Ohio-centric, they do post a chart featuring all 50 states with their projected individual gains & losses.  Indeed… Click here to read the full story at Cleveland.com.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for January, 2020 showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,217 (down 0.4%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,460 (down 0.3%).   Year to date, one bedroom prices are down 0.3% and two bedroom prices are up 0.6%.  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…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices rose .2% in October as well as being up 5% from October 2018. 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…