Author: Brad Beckett

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for August showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,233 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,477.  Year to date, one bedroom prices are up 2.1% and two bedroom prices are up 2.2%.  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 on all data available in…

Are there still affordable lake towns left in America?  That’s a good question and one that the folks over at Realtor.com put pen to paper to figure out.  They say you don’t have to be a “gazillionaire to afford a home in bona fide lake town – you just need to know where to look.”  So they took a look listings with phrases such as “lake view” and “lake house” in over 900 metro areas and measured the percentage of vacation homes, dining, drinking, and outdoor activity establishments.  Indeed…the secret is now out. “Buyers should consider how will they personally…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in August was $1,075 with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,360.  They say the trend they identified in July (where decliners were moving more sharply downward than gainers) has become less pronounced in both one and two-bedrooms.  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.…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in June was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,287.0 billion, which was 1.3% below May’s revised rate.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $507.2 billion in April, 0.5% below May’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

What companies are the top private employers in each U.S. state?  Well, today’s infographic from Visual Capitalist suggests that we are a “Walmart Nation” thanks to the fact that they alone are the top employer in at least 21 states.  Who comes in #2? The healthcare industry of course, followed by the education establishment.  That’s certainly something interesting to ponder……Happy Friday! Hat tip to VisualCapitalist.com.

Rents for single-family rentals (SFRs) increased 3% year-over-year in May according to CoreLogic’s latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) report.  The index measures rent changes among single-family rentals using a repeat-rent analysis to measure the same rental properties over time. CoreLogic says rents have been climbing steadily since 2010 with annual increases over the past 12 months fluctuating between 2.9% and 3.2%. Key findings: Rents for lower-priced homes increased faster than those of higher-priced homes. Phoenix once again outpaces other metros for rent increases. Houston and Orlando had the largest deceleration in rent growth in May. Click here to read the…

According to their latest U.S. Home Sales Report, ATTOM Data Solutions says that U.S. single family homes and condos sold for a median price of $266k in Q2, which was up 10.8% from Q1 and up 6.4% from one year ago.  This figure represents a new median home price peak.  In addition, they report that homes sold during this period had been owned an average of 8.09 years, up 3% from the previous quarter and also reaching a new high. “As warmer weather brings a rush of house hunters to the market, the latest spike in median home prices marked…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that pending home sales increased 2.8% in June, which the attribute to favorable market conditions and predicted this is likely the start of a positive trend for home sales.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) increased to 108.3 in June, up 2.8% from May.  In addition, they reported that year-over-year contract signings were up 1.6%, breaking a 17th straight month of annual decreases. “Job growth is doing well, the stock market is near an all-time high and home values are consistently increasing. When you combine that…

We’ve seen it before….there can be treasures or even crazy things hidden in the walls of your next flip.   Now we’ve come across a story from Kansas City’s Fox4 about a homeowner having some rehab work down on her house.  When the workers were doing some tuck-pointing on an exterior column, they discovered a trove containing hundreds of 70+ year-old beer cans, whiskey & bourbon bottles, and assorted spirits.  Apparently a former resident from the 1940’s didn’t want anyone to know about their drinking habit so they created a secret chute to hide their evidence in a porch column. “It…

The U.S. government is reporting that national vacancy rates in Q2 2019 were 6.8% for rental housing and 1.3% for homeowner housing.  The national homeownership rate came in at 64.1%.  In addition, the report says that approximately 87.8% of the housing units in the U.S. were occupied and 12.2% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 56.3% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 31.5 percent of the inventory in the second quarter 2019. Click here to read the release at Census.gov.