Author: Brad Beckett

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales increased 3.8% in March with three of the four major regions seeing growth.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) increased to 105.8 in March.  In addition, they report that year-over-year contract signings declined 1.2%, marking the 15th straight month of annual decreases. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, noted that pending home sales data has been exceptionally fluid over the past several months but predicted that numbers will begin to climb more consistently. “We are seeing a positive sentiment from consumers about…

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 4% annual gain in February, down from 4.2% in January.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 2.6% and the 20-City Composite posted a 3% 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.

The Treasury Department recently released a second set of guidelines for Opportunity Zones that Kathy Fettke says should clear up unanswered questions.  In a recent episode of Real Estate News for Investors, Fettke discusses the recently released guidelines and how they will impact investors.  She says that while there has been strong interest in the tax break program, many Investors have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for details. “…we’ve been very enthused about this program. It allows you to sell an asset, use the capital gains for an Opportunity Zone project, and reduce the amount of tax owed on…

The U.S. government is reporting that national vacancy rates in Q1 2019 were 7% for rental housing and 1.4% for home-owner housing.  The national homeownership rate came in at 64.2%.  The report says that approximately 87.9% of the housing units in the U.S. were occupied and 12.1% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 56.5% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 31.4 percent of the inventory in the first quarter 2019. Click here to read the full release at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Black Knight’s “first look” report for March, 2019 says that there were just over 39k foreclosure starts, marking the lowest single-month volume in over 18 years.  In addition, they also reported that prepayment activity increased by 28% month-over-month (the largest single-month increase in 2.5 years), the national delinquency rate fell by 5.3%, and outstanding 90-day delinquencies have fallen below 500k for the first time in over 12 years.  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 Knight.

The U.S. Government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in March, 2019 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692k.  This figure is 4.5% higher than February’s revised figure.  The median sales price of new houses sold in March was $302,700 and the average sales price was $376k.  The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 344k, representing a 6 month supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

We recently posted about the NAR’s 2019 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study.  Today’s infographic from the Realtors zeros-in on the varying behavior, motivations, and financial situations of recent homebuyers and sellers by generation.  Interestingly, one in six Gen Xers purchased a multi-generational home, overtaking younger boomers as the generation most likely to do so; with 52% of those Gen X buyers indicating that they did so because their adult children have either moved back or never left home.  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to the National Association of Realtors.

With mobile phones pretty much becoming ubiquitous and landlines rapidly disappearing we have seen a steady increase in the speed and reliability of mobile phone networks across the country.  Lately, the “5G” wars have started to intensify as this new generation of coverage starts to fully roll out.  But what exactly is behind the hype and when will we see it?  After all, we heard it all before with 3G and 4G/LTE.  Statistical news site Statista says that when it does get here it’ll be really fast.  Indeed…. “Both peak and regular use download speeds as well as other specs…

We have seen a lot of “airbnb-like” sites pop up over the years – for things like camping, hunting & fishing, and even one where you can sleep on a boat. Now we’ve come across a platform where you lease your farmland (or find some land to lease).  It’s called Tillable, and they will help you get a fair-market offer on renting your land for the next growing season.  They say they will “handle all the details, ensuring farm data is tracked and the land is treated with respect.”   Tillable also says it improves farm management with their digital leases,…

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for April, 2019 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – April 2019 April 15, 2019 By Ingo Winzer Banks as financial intermediaries are an essential part of the economy, lending money from those who have it to those who need it. Historically they funded merchants, monarchs and governments. More recently they made money from industrial corporations. But as funding sources have changed, banks have come to rely more on consumers for their profits. The problem with this…