Author: Brad Beckett

Earlier this year a realtor in Houston, Texas enticed buyers with “free tacos” with the purchase of a home.  Now we’ve come across another “innovative” realtor in the same market that used half-naked models to help promote a listed property.  According to the Houston Chronicle, with the approval of the homeowner, the realtor posted photos of scantily-clad fitness models posing throughout the home.  Of course as the complaints started rolling in they were promptly removed.  However the models helped garner over 20k views within the first 24 hours of its posting. The report also quoted the realtor as saying she’s…

Black Knight is reporting that after rising sharply in September, mortgage delinquencies fell by 8.2% in October and are now down by nearly 18% year-over-year.  Their October “first look” report also says serious delinquencies (90 or more days past due) have hit a 12-year low and are down 90k from one year ago.  In addition, the number of loans in active foreclosure fell slightly from September and has decreased by 24% from last year.  Black Knight derives its data  from their loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market. Click here to read the full report at Black…

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for November, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – November 2018 November 27, 2018 By Ingo Winzer The Gross Domestic Product is one way of looking at the economy. It includes consumer spending, what companies invest in new equipment and buildings, changes in business and farm inventories, exports and imports, and government spending. In the news we usually hear how much it’s changed from quarter to quarter, which varies a lot. But if we look at…

Now that Amazon has revealed the three locations of their second headquarters (aka HQ2), the folks over at ATTOM Data zeroed-in on those locations (New York, Washington, D.C., and Nashville) to analyze their markets vis a vis the new Opportunity Zones created by Congress last year.  Interestingly they found that homes located in Opportunity Zones nationwide and in each of these three markets consistently were sold at a discount but also have appreciated more quickly over the past five years compared to homes outside of the Opportunity Zones.  Their analysis looked at housing characteristics, such as home values and price…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing-home sales increased in October for the first time in six months.  According to data, there were 5.22 million completed transactions in October with a median price (for all housing types) of $255,400.  In addition there were 1.85 million existing homes for sale at the end of October with properties typically staying on the market for 33 days.  Unsold inventory is at a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says increasing housing inventory has brought more buyers to the market. “After six consecutive months of decline,…

The U.S. government is reporting that privately‐owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,228,000. This figure is 1.5% above September’s revised estimate but is 2.9% below October, 2017.  Single‐family housing starts in October were at a rate of 865k, which is 1.8% below September’s revised number. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 343k.  Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,263,000. This figure is 0.6% below September’s revised rate and is 6% below the October ,2017.  Single‐family…

If you’re reading this then we made it through another Thanksgiving…Thanks be to God!  That being said, the folks over good old “tripple-A” projected that over 54 million Americans were taking to the roads (traveling 50 miles or more) this Thanksgiving season – which they said was nearly 5% more than last year!  With all those road trips in mind, and all the “are we there yets” that were undoubtedly endured, we thought we’d share this handy reference chart of highway markers from all corners of our United States of America.  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to BrilliantMaps.com.

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents were flat for the second straight month in October, dropping $1 to $1,420, while year-over-year growth was unchanged at 3.3%.  In addition they expect that the full-year rent increase for 2018 will remain near the year-to-date figure of 3.3%, with occupancy rates stable at current high levels. Click here to read the full report at Yardi.com.

Where are the best “small cities” in America?  Recently WalletHub put pen to paper and compared over 1,200 American cities with populations between 25k and 100k using 40 indicators of livability.  These include things such cost of living, housing costs, home ownership, income, school quality, restaurants per capita, coffee shops per capita and many more.  Indeed…be sure to click on the interactive map below. “Small-city life can be best for those who appreciate more wiggle room, fewer degrees of separation and shorter commutes, to name just a few of its advantages. Granted, these little urban areas demand some tradeoffs, too,…

Redfin is reporting that while U.S. home prices continued to increase (up 4.5%) , however they report that, in October, 31.3% of homes for sale had at least one price drop of more than 1% – which they say is the highest share of price drops on record since Redfin began tracking them in 2010.  In Seattle, for example, almost half of homes for sale had price drops, with an average price cut of $27,500, down from more than $30,000 a year earlier. “…Some homebuyers are adjusting their price range down, and others are backing out of home-buying entirely–deciding that…