Author: Brad Beckett

Which housing markets have recovered the most since the Great Recession?  Recently, LendingTree reminded us that when the real estate bubble burst in late 2008, many Americans saw their home values drastically fall.  Since that time some markets have recovered, but the same cannot be said for all of them.  To sort it all out, they took a look at the the 50 largest metros in the U.S. to see where housing prices have recovered the most since the height of the Great Recession and where values are still struggling. While they were at it, they looked looked at how…

According to a new report from RentCafe, renters over 60 grew 43% over the last decade reflecting the lifestyle habits of America’s aging baby-boomers.   In fact, over 22% of our current population is aged 60 or more helping to push up the national median age from 36.7 in 2007 to 38.1 in 2017 – the highest it’s ever been! “The overall aging of the population is not just the result of the economic hardship following the 2007 Great Recession, reflected in declining birth rates, but also the result of the Baby Boom cohort, America’s largest living adult generation, passing age…

This is pretty cool and might be our first animated weekly infographic.  The folks over Visual Capitalist tell us there are around 326 million people living in the United States on 3.5 million square miles of land. However, throughout our nation’s history, neither of these numbers have stayed constant.  Today’s chart illustrates how both population and land mass have increased over the last 200 years…enjoy and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Visual Capitalist

According National REIA’s Charles Tassell, “Opportunity zones offer real estate investors strong incentives to invest in designated low-income census tracts…these zones could be the next thing.”  This observation and more are part of a recent article in the March issue of DS News where Tassell gives readers the ins & outs of these Opportunity Zones. “National REIA members tend to improve neighborhoods one home at a time, bringing vacant and distressed housing back online and thereby improving the communities and tax rolls. In opportunity zone communities, investors and developers could all benefit through vibrancy or redevelopment partnered with development, incentivized…

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, inflation will remain under 2% for 2019.  Their “On the Economy Blog” reported that in January 2018, inflation was steadily rising, from 1.8% to its eventual peak of about 2.4% in July.  However, that being said, their latest forecast (from December) utilizing the latest available observation for the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCEPI) indicates that models continue to expect below 2 percent inflation for all of 2019. “…inflation has averaged under 2 percent. From 2012 to 2017, the PCEPI increased by an average of 1.3 percent per year, with…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in March was $1,050 (up 1.45%) with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,311 (up 2.99%).  ABODO uses over 1 million listings across the United States to calculate the median 1-bedroom rent price by city, state, and nation and then track the month-over-month percentage change. To avoid small sample sizes, they restrict their analysis to cities meeting minimum population and property count thresholds.  Be sure to check out their extensive city list. Click here to read the full report on ABODO.com.

The U.S. government is reporting that national vacancy rates in Q4 2018 were 6.6% for rental housing and 1.5% for home-owner housing. The rental vacancy rate of 6.6% was not statistically different from Q4 2017.  The homeowner vacancy rate of 1.5% was 0.1 percentage point lower than the rate in the Q4 2017. The homeownership rate of 64.8% was not statistically different from the rate in Q4 2017.  Approximately 88.2% of the housing units in Q4 2018 were occupied and 11.8% were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 57.2% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 31.0% of…

During the last week of February, Oregon became the first U.S. state to pass comprehensive statewide rent-control legislation which aims to be the latest solution to an affordable housing crisis already exacerbated by previous regulatory bungles burdens such as urban growth boundaries and overly restrictive zoning.  As reported by the Rental Housing Journal, among many provisions, the new law makes it illegal for landlords to raise rent more than 7% plus the consumer price index during a 12-month period.  It also practically eliminates no-cause evictions and requires property owners to provide a month of free rent to subsidize “with cause”…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for March showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,208 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,437.  Year to date, one bedroom prices are down 6.7% and two bedroom prices are up 3.2%.  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 on all data available in…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales increased 4.6% in January, with all four major regions of the country seeing growth.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 103.2 in January.  However, they also report that year-over-year contract signings declined 2.3%, marking the thirteenth straight month of annual decreases. “Homebuyers are now returning and taking advantage of lower interest rates, while a boost in inventory is also providing more choices for consumers.” Said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. Click here to read the full release at…