Author: Brad Beckett

What happens when you try to sell a property and a 3rd party throws a wrench into the process at the last minute?  That’s what happened to a couple in Florida that had a contract to sell their house (and adjacent lots) for a new development but a neighbor put in an application to have their home designated as a historic property.  According to the Wall Street Journal article (as reposted by Realtor.com), everything then “stopped in its tracks.”  Indeed…. “Third-party historic designation is among the most contentious tools that historic preservationists have at their disposal. It pits homeowners against…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents flattened in September, coming in at $1,471 with year-over-year growth coming in at 3.2%.  Yardi says multifamily rent growth performance is still “very respectable compared to long-term historical trends.” Click here to read the full report at Yardimatrix.com.

This week’s infographic is really a no-brainier.  It illustrates just a few of the awesome benefits of joining a real estate investors association, or REIA as they’re commonly known.  You really do get “a bang for your buck” when you become a part of a local community of real estate investors.  Click here to find a REIA near you!  Happy Friday!!! Click here to find a REIA near you!

According to the latest Corelogic Loan Performance Insights Report, all but six states posted an annual drop in mortgage delinquency rates.  According to their data, in July 2019, 3.8% of all home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency – which was the lowest for the month of July in over 20 years.  In fact CoreLogic says that since March, 2018 the overall delinquency rate for each month has been lower than during the pre-crisis period of 2000 through 2006, when the rate averaged 4.7%.  In addition, the share of mortgages that were 30 to 59 days past due was…

We have all watched those TV reality shows….you know the ones that make it look really easy to flip an old rundown house into thousands of dollars in profits.  Well, Tarek & Christina aside, the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Utah recently announced that they were charging a Utah-based company with lying to consumers in order to convince them to attend allegedly free real estate seminars across the country.  HousingWire is reporting that the FTC says the company (Zurixx) promised to give away the secrets to making money flipping houses at their events, but actually charged just thousands…

According to a recent poll, 63% of adult Americans said they drank coffee the previous day.  That’s quite a lot of caffeine-infused individuals running around our cities.  So, to that end, the folks over at WalletHub crunched the numbers to come up with the top 100 coffee cities in America.  They looked at the nation’s 100 largest cities across 14 key metrics for coffee-lover friendliness using items such as coffee shops, coffee houses and cafés per capita to the average price of a pack of coffee. “Coffee first became popular in the U.S. after the Boston Tea Party, when the…

Apparently “untethered from family and enticed by new job opportunities,” Zillow says young adults are more mobile today than they have been in nearly 60 years.  In fact, the percentage of young adults (ages 25-34) who have lived in their current home for less than two years rose to 45.3% in 2017  – which is 11.6 percentage points higher than it was in 1960.  Indeed… “Today’s young adults are of course different in many ways from their counterparts in 1960. They tend to be more educated and are more likely to be renters, for example. And renters in general move…

According to new research from ATTOM Data Solutions, 74% of the U.S. housing markets is unaffordable for average wage earners searching for a median-priced home.  So, where are the areas that are affordable for average wage earners?  Using data from their Q3 2019 Home Affordability Report, they found the best and worst places for home affordability in America.  They determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to make monthly house payments (mortgage, property taxes and insurance, etc) on a median-priced home, assuming a 3% down payment and a 28% maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio.  Indeed……

The free market is a wonderful thing but, as we’ve now seen in California, the politicians have put so many restrictions on providing affordable housing that a backyard shed in San Diego is renting for just over $1k per month.  According to the listing on Zumper (as reported by FOX News) a 200 sq. foot “studio” (looks like a shed to us), located in one of San Diego’s most walkable neighborhoods,  is renting for $1,050 per month!  The rental comes with plumbing, bathroom & shower, kitchen (with a small refrigerator and stove), laminate flooring and even has air-conditioning….but no parking…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that pending home sales increased 1.6% in August, which they say was a welcome rebound after a prior month of declines.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) increased to 107.3 in August, up 1.6% from July. In addition, they reported that year-over-year contract signings were up 2.5%. “It is very encouraging that buyers are responding to exceptionally low interest rates,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “The notable sales slump in the West region over recent years appears to be over. Rising demand will reaccelerate home…