Author: Brad Beckett

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales were down .07% in July, marking the fourth straight month of declines.  The median existing-home price for all housing types in July was $269,600, which is up 4.5% from July 2017 and marks the 77th straight month of year-over-year price gains.  Total housing inventory at the end of July decreased 0.5% to 1.92 million existing homes available for sale (unchanged from one year ago). Unsold inventory is at a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace – also unchanged from one year ago. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says…

According to recent data analyzed by the NAHB’s Eye on Housing, the number of single-family homes built-for-rent has been increasing over the last four quarters.  Using data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, they report that construction starts of single-family homes for rent totaled 42k homes, compared to 29k in the prior four quarters. In Q2 2018, there were 13k single-family built-for-rent starts.  Interestingly, this class of single-family construction excludes homes that are sold to another party for rental purposes and only includes homes built and held for rental purposes. Click here to read the full…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently filed a formal complaint against Facebook for violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing landlords and home-sellers to engage in housing discrimination when utilizing their online advertising platform.  The “HUD Secretary-initiated” complaint follows an investigation into Facebook’s advertising platform that includes targeting tools enabling advertisers to filter prospective tenants or home-buyers based on protected classes. The full release is below: HUD FILES HOUSING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT AGAINST FACEBOOK Secretary-initiated complaint alleges platform allows advertisers to discriminate WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today a formal complaint…

What exactly is a Credit Freeze and what are the benefits of putting one in place?  It can get confusing and there is a lot of misinformation out there.  To that end,  these and many other questions (including the advantages and disadvantages) about Credit Freezes are discussed in a recent article on MyFico.com.  It’s worth checking out. “Simply stated, a credit freeze (a.k.a. “Security Freeze”) places a lock on access to your credit report. That means that once the freeze is activated, lenders and other companies can’t review your credit, which in turn stops thieves from opening new accounts in…

We have had several posts about where Americans are moving and in what numbers, but a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (and then posted on Realtor.com) examines new data that suggest fewer Americans are moving to seek job opportunities.  According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 3.5 million people relocated for a new job in 2017.  That number is 10% lower than in 2015 and continues to trend lower as the population actually increases. “Experts cite a number of factors that in some periods have kept people in one place, including a depressed value for their home…

The U.S. Government is reporting that privately owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,168,000, which is 0.9% above June’s revised figure.  However, July’s number is 1.4% lower than July, 2017’s rate.  Single-family housing starts in July were at a rate of 862k, which is also 0.9% above June’s revised figure.  The rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 303k.  Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,311,000, which is 1.5% above the June’s revised rate and is 4.2% higher…

According to New York Fed’s most recent Quarterly Report on Household Debt, Americans’ total household debt has risen for the past 16 quarters and the total is now $618 billion higher than the previous peak of $12.68 trillion, in Q3 of 2008.  In addition, overall household debt is now 19.2% above the post-financial-crisis low reached during Q2 of 2013. The report is based on data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample of individual- and household-level debt and credit records drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data.  The New York Fed also issued an accompanying blog…

Conventional Mortgage rates can be like a moving target (click here to see what they are today).  Failure to lock in that great rate of the moment might cost you thousands over the life of the loan.  Today’s infographic from Keeping Current Matters gives us a quick snapshot of the average interest rate and mortgage payments over the last four decades.  They also remind us that current rates are still well below the historic norm!  Happy Friday!!! Hat Tip to Keeping Current Matters.

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for August, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy.  Interestingly, they find “the high level of consumer spending a bit disturbing” and suspect it might have been built on borrowed money & credit cards. National Economic Outlook – August 2018 August 14, 2018 By Ingo Winzer I normally don’t pay much attention to the Gross Domestic Product. I’m not an economist and how you can accurately estimate the output of as large and complicated an economy as the US to…

Every area has them…..empty “big box” stores.  Whether they were a Walmart or a Kroger’s there’s usually one thing for certain;  they generally sit empty for a long time and are often eyesores to the community.  A recent article in Texas’ San Antonio Express-News discusses an unlikely use for these shuttered spaces (that has also generated some controversy) as detention centers for illegals. While this is certainly one way to repurpose a nonproducing asset, it was completely unforeseen: “According to a special warranty deed, Walmart placed restrictions on the property forbidding the space from being used as a grocery store,…