Author: Brad Beckett

We like to keep an eye on those things that affect your bottom-line and energy costs are one of those items that everyone feels.  A recent report from the NAHB’s Eye on Housing sifted through data from the U.S. Department of Energy to come up with the average monthly electric bill by state.  According to their research, the average monthly residential electricity bill in the U.S. was $111.67 in 2017.  Interestingly,  electricity accounts for 55% of total utility costs and 9 percent of all housing costs in 2017. Click here to read the full report at the NAHB’s Eye on…

According to recent data, 55% of Americans now live in the suburbs.  The WSJ’s Valerie Bauerlein and CNBC’s Diana Olick recently discussed how the suburbs are dealing with the inflow of new millennial residents…..Indeed, but can the suburbs keep up? Click here to watch at CNBC.com.

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) Report, home prices (including distressed sales) were up 3.6% year-over-year in May, 2019.  CoreLogic predicts that home prices will increase by 5.6% on a year-over-year basis from through May, 2020.  The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state. “The recent and forecasted acceleration in home prices is a good and bad thing at the same time. Higher prices and a lack of…

This will raise the hair on your neck….Remember the story we posted a couple years ago about the HVAC guy finding a secret room?  Well, now we’ve learned about a Utah contractor that refused to build a secret soundproof-room for a man recently arrested for the murder of a University of Utah college student.   According to the Deseret News, the contractor realized an eerie connection to a murder investigation when he saw a picture of investigators excavating parts of the very same home he had recently visited for an estimate.  Thankfully, they also reported that when the suspected murderer asked…

Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently released their annual State of the Housing Report – released annually since 1988.   Among their many statistical findings, they report that while household growth is now back from post-recession lows, new home construction remains depressed, with additions to supply barely keeping pace with the number of new households. They say several factors may be contributing to the slow construction recovery, including excess supply following the housing boom and persistent labor shortages.  However, they found that the number of homeowners has risen sharply. “Although household growth is returning to a more normal pace, our…

We’ve posted a lot about Opportunity Zones because we believe they have tremendous potential.  A recent article on Bloomberg Tax (who may have realized an important aspect of supply & demand) says that real estate investors are taking advantage of 2017’s tax overhaul’s opportunity zone tax breaks, but then they suggest that they’re “shooting themselves in the foot by propping up prices in already-hot urban markets.”  That so-called rush is due to the fact that at least one essential Opportunity Zone tax law provision (regarding capital gains) expires at the end of 2019.  Go figure? “The end of 2019 marks…

The removal of bureaucratic obstacles is the target of a new initiative recently launched by the Trump Administration.  In late June, the President signed an order creating the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development, which includes members from eight federal agencies.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says the council’s mission is to explore using federal programs to push local governments to soften or eliminate rules that block housing construction, which they point out is an issue that has stymied officials at all levels of government for many years. Interestingly, a…

With Summer fully upon us now is a good time to get up to speed with those deadly freaks of nature that no one wants to see firsthand, tornadoes.  Today’s infographic from Weather.gov goes over the types of tornadoes and how to identify them…..Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Weather.gov.

What are the fastest growing cities in America?  The U.S. Census Bureau recently put out this quick burst of data showing the population changes of America’s cities with 50k or more people.   The fastest growing city in America (percentage-wise)?  Suburban Phoenix’s Buckeye, Arizona. Click here to read more at the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the latest U.S. Home Affordability Report (from ATTOM Data Solutions), home prices are outpacing wages in 40% of U.S. housing markets and are less affordable that the historic average in 61% of local markets.  In addition, they report that that median home prices in Q2 were not affordable for average wage earners in 353 of 480 U.S. counties they analyzed.  To come up with their numbers, they determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to make monthly house payments (including mortgage, property taxes and insurance) on a median-priced home, assuming a 3%…