Author: Brad Beckett

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in August was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,287.3 billion, which was 0.1% above July’s revised rate.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $507.2 billion in August, 0.9% higher than July’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for October, 2019 showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,241 (down 0.7%) and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,485 (down 0.6%).  Year to date, one bedroom prices are up 2.1% and two bedroom prices are up 2.2%.  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…

Here’s an interesting scenario;  What do you do when your business partner goes rogue and ends up destroying your entire Real Estate Portfolio? That’s what happened to a recent guest on the Rental Property Owner & Real Estate Investor Podcast.  However, as host Brian Hamrick helps explain, the good news is that this investor picked himself back up and committed himself to building an even bigger & better portfolio, applying the life-lessons he learned along the way. “…Seth is going to dig deep and share his most painful experience, the disastrous breakup of his business partnership and the Red Flags…

The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in August, 2019 were 7.1% higher than July’s revised rate and 18% higher than in August, 2018.  The median sales price of new houses sold in August was $328,400 and the average sales price was $404,200.  The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 326k representing a 5.5 months supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Today’s infographic from the Visual Capitalist tells us that today’s average consumer is dramatically different than those from prior years.  In fact, they say modern consumers are becoming increasingly more distinct and that we need to rethink and update our image of them. Well, ok then…..let’s get cracking…..Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Visual Capitalist.

As we close out another summer, Realtor.com has come in with their list of the hottest markets from August – and some of them are in places  you might not be able to find on a map.  They say the hottest real estate markets in America are smaller cities that might lack name recognition but make up for it in affordability and cheaper alternatives to larger & pricier cities.  Indeed… “Smaller markets with smaller price tags continue to heat up feverishly,” says Javier Vivas, realtor.com’s director of economic research. “Buyers have more success in markets that have plentiful supplies of…

Black Knight’s “first look” report for August, 2019 says that there were 36,200 foreclosure starts which was the lowest single-month total since December 2000.  In addition they report that the number of loans in active foreclosure inventory was around 253k (the fewest since 2005) and that August’s prepayment rate was up 62% a year earlier. Click here to read the full report at Black Knight.

With the 2020 Census happening sooner rather than later, Bloomberg Tax is reporting that investors across the country who’ve been asking officials to expand areas designated as Opportunity Zones might get their chance when Census Tracts are redrawn.  They say that officials from the U.S. Treasury will have to decide how this action will affect these census tracts.  A Treasury spokesperson said that revision gains would “further the goals of the opportunity zone legislation.”  In addition, current projects may need to be grandfathered if their location gets moved outside of an Opportunity Zone tract.   Indeed… “The Census Bureau is…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, the rate of home price increases reported a 3.2% annual gain in July, virtually the same as June.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 1.6% and the 20-City Composite posted a 2.0% year-over-year gain.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate both nationally as well as in 20 metropolitan regions. Click here to read the full report at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

If you’ve been following the Rent Control issue, you will undoubtedly be familiar with current epidemic of “do-something-ism” regarding the issue. Just recently, California’s governor signed landmark Rent Control legislation (even after voters rejected rent control at the polls last year) that limits (among other things) rent increases to 5% per year.  The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal recently posted a short essay called “A Conspiracy of Entitled Incumbents, California’s new rent control law will please homeowners while setting back housing construction and affordability” that quite succinctly sums it all up.  Indeed… “…shambolic housing policies such as California’s latest version of…