Author: Brad Beckett

Earlier this month a group of tenants and landlords in Seattle, Washington teamed up with the Institute for Justice to file a class action lawsuit against the city for its use of invasive, warrantless searches to inspect rental units. According to a recent article in the Rental Housing Journal, the lawsuit doesn’t seek to stop the city from inspecting rental units (where the tenants agree to the inspection) or keep the city from addressing problem properties. It does, however, want the city to stop entering  private homes of Seattle’s renters without consent or a legally obtained warrant that is based…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently awarded over $23 million to nearly 80 fair housing organizations working to protect consumers from housing discrimination through their Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI).  These grants will be used by fair housing organizations across the country so they can carry out testing and enforcement activities.  Be sure to look at the list of recipients in your city and state. “It’s been 50 years since the passage of the Fair Housing Act, yet the fight against housing discrimination continues,” said Secretary Ben Carson. “Today we are making another investment to support our…

In their most recent U.S. Home Flipping Report, ATTOM Data Solutions is reporting that the number of single-family homes and condos flipped in the third quarter of 2018 was down 12% from one year ago, representing its lowest level since Q1 2015.  There were 45,901 homes flipped in Q3 2018 representing 5% of all single family home & condo sales during the quarter.  In addition they report that the share of flipped homes sold to FHA Buyers was at its lowest level in over 10 years. “We’ve now seen three consecutive quarters with year-over-year decreases in home flips. The last…

It seems like day doesn’t go by without sending or receiving an important file for business or maybe a photo to a friend from your recent trip.  But how did all this file sharing come about and where is it going?  DailyInfographic.com says over 20 million people share files daily on a variety of platforms.  But, did you know all of this got started back in 1978 with something called Usenet?  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to DailyInfographic.com.

Debt is almost one of those facts of life like death and taxes.  Recent data even show that Americans have over $13 trillion in household debt.  With that in mind the folks over at Realtor.com analyzed mortgages taken out in the first 8 months of 2018 and calculated the median debt-to-income ratio for borrowers in the 200 largest metropolitan areas (limiting it to two metros per state) to find those markets where buyers’ budgets are stretched the most.  Indeed…. “…make no mistake—the real estate implications of high debt loads can be huge, constraining buyers and potentially slowing price appreciation to…

In case you haven’t been paying attention (which we highly doubt), interest rates have been creeping over the last several months and, according to recently analyzed data by the NAHB’s Eye on Housing, are now approaching an eight-year high.  They say that the 30-year FRM – Commitment rate, inched up considerably by 20 basis points to 4.83% from 4.63% in September, with October’s increase being the highest since early 2011.  Indeed…. “…As a result of rising mortgage rates, affordability is at the lowest level in a decade and new home sales have been soft in recent months…” Click here to…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for December showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,212 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,430.  Year over year, both one and two bedroom prices are up 1.9% and 3.9%, respectively.  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 the…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in October was estimated at $1,308.8 billion, which is nearly identical to September’s revised estimate and 4.9% higher than October, 2017.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $539 billion in October, which was 0.5% below September’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in December rose slightly to $1,025 (up .57%) with two-bedroom units coming in again at $1,279 (up .08%).  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. Click here to read the full report at Abodo.com.

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 2.6% in October.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 102.1 in October.  However, year-over-year, contract signings are down 6.7%, marking the tenth straight month of annual decreases.  The Realtors say that recent rises in mortgage rates have reduced the number of eligible homebuyers.  Indeed…The NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun notes: “…that a similar period of decline occurred during the 2013 Taper Tantrum when interest rates jumped from 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent. After 11 months – November 2013…