Author: Brad Beckett

Which cities across the nation have highest and lowest average down payments?  The folks over at Realtor.com turned over all the rocks to come up with a list of the highest & lowest down payments based on the percentage of a home’s sale price.  Interestingly, only two of the top 10 cities exceed the 20% threshold while all of the top lowest were less than 10%. Lenders prefer those gold standard 20% down payments because they ensure that buyers have enough skin in the game—and buyers aspire to them to avoid costly private mortgage insurance, which would allow them to put down less cash…

The National Association of Realtors recently reported that pending home sales increased 3.1%.  This figure is according to their Pending Home Sales Index which rose to 107.5 and is 4.1% lower than one year ago.   Interestingly, the index is based on a large national sample, typically representing about 20 percent of transactions for existing-home sales.  An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the housing market has gotten off to an uneven start so far in 2018. “Contract signings…

What’s the difference between a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA?  The handy chart shown below from Equity Trust takes a look at the similarities and differences between various features of each kind of account.  In addition, Equity Trust offers members of National REIA a very special offer that includes a free account for one year.  Happy Friday!!!!! Hat tip to Equity Trust.

How much salary does someone need in order to afford the average-price home in each state?  A new study from GOBankingRates reveals that the minimum salary in one state can be vastly different than that of another.  To arrive at their conclusions, GOBankingRates looked at the average monthly mortgage payment for each state along with the average APR on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and then assumed no more than 30% of monthly income was devoted to housing. “Before you buy a home, it’s important to find out if you can afford the monthly mortgage payment.  To do this, some financial…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices,  home prices continue to rise across the country, reporting a 6.2% increase in January, 2018.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at in at 6.0% and their 20-City Composite posted a 6.4% year-over-year gain.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.  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…

Recently we posted an infographic showing that for the first time in American history, older people are projected to outnumber young people. Now comes a recent story in the Wall Street Journal (and posted on Realtor.com) showing that, according to their analysis of numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans are relocating to retirement hot spots around the country and returning to suburbia.  The numbers point to a growing population (up 2%) in federally designated retirement destination counties over the past year – representing nearly three times the annual rate of the national population growth. “Almost three-quarters of a million…

Leave it to Jeff Watson to share with real estate investors how to “legally” take advantage of the recent tax reform package passed by Congress earlier this year.  Listen to Watson share how he went from being strictly an attorney to owning his first multiple family property and being a landlord. Jeff cautions listeners on what mistakes NOT to make in THIS shifting Real Estate market so that you can master the necessary systems that will afford you the ability to scale your business, despite the possibility of the inevitable crash. This podcast divulges the what, why, how and MAJOR…

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has a fascinating State-by-State Property Tax Visualization Tool that presents information about property taxes in all 50 states (and DC).  Their interactive map allows users to easily view and compare key property tax statistics among all 50 states along with companion tables & charts that display numerical values for key property tax system variables for each state, DC, and the U.S.  The average reliance across the whole county is 30%. “Reliance on the property tax varies markedly across the U.S.  In New England, local governments rely heavily on the property tax, with local governments…

The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in February, 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618k, which is 0.6% below January’s revised number.  However, February sales were 0.5% higher than one year ago.  The median sales price of new houses sold in February was $326,800 and the average sales price was$376,700.  There was an estimated 305k new houses for sale at the end of February representing a 5.9 months at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release on Census.gov.

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for March, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – March 2018 March 22, 2018 By: Ingo Winzer One reason a lawyer might pay off a porn star with a home equity line rather than a credit card is that interest rates on credit card balances are very high, around 15 percent at a time when inflation is only 2 percent. The high rates are needed partly because banks constantly have to write off credit card balances…