Author: Brad Beckett

We’ve been talking a lot about Opportunity Zones and you will undoubtedly hear more about them going forward.  A new report by Yardi takes a look at the tax incentives for investing in the 8,700+ opportunity zones across the country that were created by the tax reform passed by Congress in 2017.  Yardi says there are roughly 1.9 million multifamily units, 960 million square feet of office space and 180 million square feet of self storage space that are either in place or under construction in these opportunity zones.  They say the “opportunity is enormous” as there is a huge…

We recently posted about how mortgage delinquency rates were the lowest in 20 years and that potentially means fewer foreclosures for home flippers.  However, in a recent special report about flipping, CoreLogic says that flipping rates are actually near historic highs, but flippers are “playing a different game.”  To come up with this theory, CoreLogic took a deep-dive into home flipping by investigating flipping rates nationally and across  the country’s metro areas.  They also estimated the gross economic returns to home flipping and tested to see what factor is most correlated with such returns. “…we also find that flipping rates…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents rose slightly in March, coming in at $1,430 with year-over-year growth dropping slightly to 3.2%.  Yardi says that market dynamics continue to be healthy almost everywhere. “The dynamics continue to be healthy almost everywhere. That gives investors a choice between potentially higher growth and higher yields in faster-growing, less-liquid markets, or slower, steadier growth in larger, more liquid markets.” Click here to read the full report at Yardimatrix.com.

According to recent data from the Joint Center on Housing Studies (reported by Mortgage News Daily), $425 billion was spent nationally in 2017 on home maintenance & improvement – representing a 10% increase from 2015 and more than 50% from the 2010.  In addition they report that nearly 80% of America’s housing stock is at least 20 years old with twice that share of homes having been built 50 or more years ago.  They say that since new construction is still well behind its pre-recession levels older home have been remodeled in greater numbers. “The foreclosure crisis left many homes…

According to recent analysis from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the digital economy accounted for 6.9% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, amounting to $1.35 trillion.  Interestingly, as noted in the chart below, “real estate and rental & leasing” had the largest share of the nation’s GDP.  The GDP is the value of the goods and services produced by a nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production.  The GDP by industry, or value added, is a measure of an industry’s contribution to overall GDP. According to the BEA’s initial…

We recently posted that there are 34 states (and D.C.) ithat allow medical marijuana usage with at least 10 states (and D.C.) having some form of legal recreational use.  Now we’ve come across a recent post from data-wrangler Statista where they report that, in 2018, the U.S. added over 64k full-time jobs (a 44% over 2017) into a growing $10 billion per year marijuana industry.  In addition, they cite a study by cannabis website Leafy that says there are an estimated 211k people full-time employees in the industry with another 100k jobs indirectly depending on it.  Is this America’s “hidden…

According to new research from Zillow, real estate investors appear to be flocking to Opportunity Zones.  Their data show that areas designated as Opportunity Zones saw a surge in sale prices since that designation was made, which they say is an early sign that investors are eager for the tax breaks. Interestingly, they said that Census tracts that were eligible but were not chosen as Opportunity Zones saw a slowdown in sale price appreciation, while prices in designated Opportunity Zones grew by more than 20% annually.  Indeed… “It’s still early, but we’re already seeing some signals that folks have begun…

According to the latest CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report, as of January 4% of home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency – the lowest level in 20 years.   This rate includes all home loans 30 days or more past due and includes those in foreclosure.   In addition, CoreLogic points out that no state logged an annual gain in its serious delinquency or foreclosure rate, however North Dakota posted a gain in the overall delinquency rate. Click here to read the full report at CoreLogic.com.

Today is April 15th….aka tax day.  With that in mind the folks over at Keeping Current Matters put together this map of the last tax filing season’s average tax refund by state.  They also reported that the IRS said Americans can expect an estimated average refund of $3,143 this year when filing their taxes, which is down slightly from the average refund of $3,436 last year. We shall see….CBS News is already reporting that refund sizes are significantly down. “Tax refunds are often thought of as ‘extra money’ that can be used toward larger goals. For anyone looking to buy…

The folks over at WalletHub remind us that no one likes Tax Day, except for maybe accountants and Uncle Sam.  Well, they’re probably right…..And with Tax day coming up on Monday, April 15th, today’s infographic has a nice little breakdown of the red, white, blue and green. Happy Friday!!! Source: WalletHub