Author: Brad Beckett

Realty Check’s Diana Olick says that while demand is ticking up for housing, thanks to lower interest rates, there are just too few entry-level homes for sale.  She points out that the homes Homebuilders are building are largely in the move-up and luxury sectors, not entry level.   Indeed…. “Affordability is still an obstacle…The trouble is that while there are more houses coming on the market, and prices are easing slightly, there are still not enough affordable homes for sale.  Supply is increasing largely because homes are sitting on the market longer.” Click here to watch State of the Housing Market…

Have you ever been the victim of a “phishing” attack?  And no, we don’t mean the kind of fish you catch with a line and a pole.  Phishing attacks are electronically disguised emails that try trick you into giving up your personal information by pretending to be someone you know or do business with.  It is actually pretty easy to be fooled as it is one of the most common forms of cyber-attacks taking place today.  To that end, the folks over at Google’s Jigsaw blog created an interesting quiz where you can test your knowledge about what is and…

Existing home sales might be dropping overall but that doesn’t mean it’s happening everywhere.  Realtor.com recently took a look at the nation’s largest 200 markets and identified the top 10 that were skyrocketing.  They say that these strongest housing markets have “so far have eluded the shifting tides, with double-digit annual price growth.”  Be sure to check out the story as it goes into particular detail about each city and why it made their top ten list. “Even with the deceleration in home price increases … we are still seeing strong home buying in smaller metros that have good affordability…

The IRS recently issued final regulations and three related pieces of guidance implementing the new qualified business income (QBI) deduction (section 199A deduction) created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).  According to the IRS, the new QBI deduction, allows many owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, or estates to deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income. Eligible taxpayers can also deduct up to 20% of their qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) dividends and publicly traded partnership income.  The QBI deduction is available in tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017, meaning eligible taxpayers will…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in February was $1,040 (up .48%) with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,299 (up 2.04%).  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. Click here to read the full report on ABODO.com.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for February showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,212 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,442.  Year to date, one bedroom prices are down 2.5% and and two bedroom prices are up 3.7%.  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…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 2.2% in December. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 99.0 in December. However, year-over-year contract signings dropped 9.8%, making this the twelfth straight month of annual decreases. Interestingly, the NAR said, so far, the partial government shutdown has not caused any obvious damage to home sales. “The stock market correction hurt consumer confidence, record high home prices cut into affordability and mortgage rates were higher in October and November for consumers signing contracts in December,” said Lawrence Yun, the…

Tuesday, Feb 5th, 2019 is Chinese New Year – the year of the pig.  The contributions of Chinese-Americans to the greatness of this country have been incredible.  If you’re fortunate enough to live in an area of the country with a sizeable population of ethnic Chinese, be sure to find & join in the celebrations….Happy Friday!! And Happy Chinese New Year! Hat tip to unfamiliarchina.com.

According to various reports, football is America’s favorite sport – more popular than basketball, baseball and soccer combined.  To that end, WalletHub looked at over 240 U.S. cities with at least one college or professional football team in order to find the best and worst cities for football fans.  They ranked these cities using 21 metrics, each graded on a 100-point scale – with 100 representing the most favorable conditions for football fans. The top ten cities are: Pittsburgh, PA Boston, MA Green Bay, WI Dallas, TX New York, NY Miami, FL New Orleans, LA Oakland, CA Philadelphia, PA Seattle,…

A recent report by the Tax Foundation gives the ins and outs of Opportunity Zones as we start rolling through the new year.  They remind readers to consider “what we know, as well as what we don’t.”  Interestingly, they point out that the program will attract at least some investment to low-income census tracts designated as zones but they suggest these investments may come at an unspecified economic cost.   Going forward they suggest policymakers should emphasize data collection in order to measure the the program’s effects – good and bad. “…future rounds of opportunity zone regulations will likely include…