Author: Brad Beckett

Taking place this week in the Caribbean is National REIA’s annual educational conference and cruise –  aka “a vacation with an education!”  With that in mind, a recent post on Realtor.com found the best affordable Caribbean beach towns to buy a home – or maybe a rental?  The towns they’ve identified have what they call a solid mix of safety, affordability, great beaches, and easy-going real estate rules. Their criteria included price per square meter, crime rates, life expectancy, population growth, and economic factors…just to name a few.  Of course they ruled out highly restricted and/or unstable places like Cuba and…

We have had several recent posts about the economic condition of the home flipping market. With that in mind, a recent post on BizWomen says that in several housing markets there is a shortage of distressed and run-down properties that is making it harder for house flippers to find profits.  They point out that profits from flipping have shrunk to 38% from 42% over purchase prices, however they add that they’re actually lower when you factor in the renovation and remodeling costs.  And, as always, we have to mention that one elusive generational cohort’s effect on the market: “Realtor.com, while…

A homeowner in Westborough, Massachusetts that was having rehab work on her home got more than she bargained for.  According to Boston TV’s Channel 25, when contractors were performing the work on the 19th century home they discovered a trove of dozens of historical letters and items from the 1870s behind one of the walls.  Apparently, the items fell through from the attic at some point and remained hidden and in remarkably good shape all these years.  No word on whether the potential value of the find is able to cover the rehab costs. The letters are written from sons…

According to ATTOM Data’s 2018 U.S. Home Sales Report, people that sold a home in 2018 realized an average home price gain (since purchase) of $61k, representing a 12-year high.  The report says that the $61k average home seller profit represented an average 32.6% return on investment, which was the highest average home seller ROI since 2006. “While 2018 was the most profitable time to sell a home in more than 12 years, those along the coasts, reaped the most gains. However, those are the same areas where homeowners are staying put longer,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at…

Where are the richest and poorest counties in every state?  The folks over at personal loan provider Titlemax took a deep dive into the poorest and wealthiest counties in America and ranked them by median income at the county level.  The more green a county, the more “green” it has…..the more pink means less “green,” go figure.  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Titlemax.

With homeowners sitting on record amounts of equity a new startup will buy a home and rent it back to the [former] owners for up to five years.  It’s called EasyKnock and they say that with their “Sell and Stay program,”  homeowners can access their home’s equity (in as little as 21 days) by selling it to them, allowing the owners to stay put and not upend their lives.  They also allow the home to be repurchased at any point.  They say homeowners “get the money you need, on terms you can control.”  Indeed… “Our Sell and Stay program, the…

The Wall Street Journal is reporting (as reposted on Realtor.com) that so-called progressive Democratic lawmakers across the nation are proposing tighter controls and/or new taxes on landlords and property owners.  The article discusses recent efforts in Illinois, New York (city & state) and Oregon as well as celebrity Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said she wants to “stand up to the luxury developer lobby” during her campaign last Fall.  In New York state, the attitude of one assemblyman seems to sum up their mission quite succinctly;  “Landlords have had their run of the playground, and we’re taking it back,.”  However…. “Members…

Remodeling Magazine recently released their 32nd annual Cost vs. Value Report comparing remodeling projects & upgrades with the value they retain when the property is sold in 136 U.S. housing markets.  It’s all about the ROI… “While the overall changes since last year are modest, the 2019 Cost vs. Value report reflects the robust market that the remodeling industry has enjoyed over the past year. All projects covered in the report show an increase in value over the previous year…” Click here to read the full report at Remodeling.com.

A new report from RENTCafe says that high-income earners are the fastest growing renter segment in America.  Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, they say the annual increase in the number of high-income renter-occupied households (those earning $150k+) has been consistently growing faster than owner-occupied households.  In fact, between 2007 to 2017 those rich enough to own, but preferring to rent, grew by 175% compared 67% in homeowners in the same income bracket.  Indeed… “The attitude toward renting at any income level is changing. With renters becoming the majority population in many U.S. cities, the spike in the national…

According to a recent report from ATTOM Data Solutions (as reported by Bloomberg), 1 in 11 mortgaged properties in America are “seriously underwater” – representing over 5 million properties.  Drilling down into the data reveals that in 27 zip-codes, more than half of the homes are “seriously underwater,” meaning they have a loan-to-value ratio of at least 125%. “At the end of 2018, the most “seriously underwater” zip code was Trenton’s 08611 — in New Jersey’s capital — where 70.3 percent of mortgaged homes were valued at $100 or less for every $125 owed. The St. Louis zip code 63137…