Author: Brad Beckett

Which metropolitan areas have the highest rate of homeownership for low income families?  That’s the question that Redfin recently put to the test in a recent report.  Interestingly they do point out that in general, homeownership for people in the bottom income quartile is more common where housing is relatively inexpensive….that’s genius…(just be sure to look at their data set). “Homeownership allows people to share in the prosperity of their communities and gain wealth through home equity,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “In many expensive metros, low-income residents aren’t able to access the benefits of homeownership because of a…

We have had several recent posts about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s opportunity zones – one of the most exciting and game-changing investment incentives to ever to come along.  On a recent episode of the Rental Property Owners & Real Estate Investing Podcast, Brian Hamrick talks with Duane Culver about what you need to know about Opportunity Zones as well as shedding light on any lingering questions about your 2018 tax preparation.  Duane is a CPA and President of Culver CPA Group.  Discussion topics include: Qualified Business Income Deduction (QBID) and how it relates to your rental income. Do…

With flipping returns at a 7-year low, Tarek El Moussa, from HGTV’s “Flip or Flop” recently joined CNBC’s Power Lunch to discuss the state of flipping houses and the real estate market.  During the interview he discussed the current housing market as well as revealing the most flips he had going on at any one time – a head-spinning 74.  Interestingly, he said that flipping is getting a lot harder with increased home prices and emphasized that you make your money with the purchase price, not on the sale.  No word on what co-host and ex-wife Christina thought about the…

According to ATTOM’s latest U.S. Home Flipping Report (covering all of 2018 and Q4), there were 207,957 single family homes & condos flipped in 2018, down 4% from 2017.  These flips represented 5.6% of all single-family home & condo sales during 2018.  In addition, the total dollar volume of financed home flips $19.9 billion in 2018, up 8% from in 2017. “With mortgage rates remaining strong and people staying in their homes longer, we have started to see a bit of a flipping rate slowdown,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. “However, this isn’t to say…

Which housing markets have recovered the most since the Great Recession?  Recently, LendingTree reminded us that when the real estate bubble burst in late 2008, many Americans saw their home values drastically fall.  Since that time some markets have recovered, but the same cannot be said for all of them.  To sort it all out, they took a look at the the 50 largest metros in the U.S. to see where housing prices have recovered the most since the height of the Great Recession and where values are still struggling. While they were at it, they looked looked at how…

According to a new report from RentCafe, renters over 60 grew 43% over the last decade reflecting the lifestyle habits of America’s aging baby-boomers.   In fact, over 22% of our current population is aged 60 or more helping to push up the national median age from 36.7 in 2007 to 38.1 in 2017 – the highest it’s ever been! “The overall aging of the population is not just the result of the economic hardship following the 2007 Great Recession, reflected in declining birth rates, but also the result of the Baby Boom cohort, America’s largest living adult generation, passing age…

This is pretty cool and might be our first animated weekly infographic.  The folks over Visual Capitalist tell us there are around 326 million people living in the United States on 3.5 million square miles of land. However, throughout our nation’s history, neither of these numbers have stayed constant.  Today’s chart illustrates how both population and land mass have increased over the last 200 years…enjoy and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Visual Capitalist

According National REIA’s Charles Tassell, “Opportunity zones offer real estate investors strong incentives to invest in designated low-income census tracts…these zones could be the next thing.”  This observation and more are part of a recent article in the March issue of DS News where Tassell gives readers the ins & outs of these Opportunity Zones. “National REIA members tend to improve neighborhoods one home at a time, bringing vacant and distressed housing back online and thereby improving the communities and tax rolls. In opportunity zone communities, investors and developers could all benefit through vibrancy or redevelopment partnered with development, incentivized…

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, inflation will remain under 2% for 2019.  Their “On the Economy Blog” reported that in January 2018, inflation was steadily rising, from 1.8% to its eventual peak of about 2.4% in July.  However, that being said, their latest forecast (from December) utilizing the latest available observation for the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCEPI) indicates that models continue to expect below 2 percent inflation for all of 2019. “…inflation has averaged under 2 percent. From 2012 to 2017, the PCEPI increased by an average of 1.3 percent per year, with…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in March was $1,050 (up 1.45%) with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,311 (up 2.99%).  ABODO uses over 1 million listings across the United States to calculate the median 1-bedroom rent price by city, state, and nation and then track the month-over-month percentage change. To avoid small sample sizes, they restrict their analysis to cities meeting minimum population and property count thresholds.  Be sure to check out their extensive city list. Click here to read the full report on ABODO.com.