Author: Brad Beckett

So, where will Amazon put their second headquarters?  If you actually knew the answer to that question you could make a killing in the real estate market, however that hasn’t stopped many from speculating.  A recent story in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says that there are plenty of real-estate investors poised to buy property in whichever city Amazon chooses and many aren’t waiting for it to be announced.  Indeed…if you own property in one of their 20 finalist cities, and your city gets chosen, you might just hit the jackpot. “Pittsburgh’s selection as a finalist helped boost a…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 0.5% in September.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 104.6 in September as well as reporting that, year-over-year, contract signings are down 1%, marking the ninth straight month of annual decreases.  The Realtors once again say that low inventory is partly to blame for the housing market’s slowdown but buyers might just be waiting for more inventory before they pounce.  Indeed… Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says that even though we are still seeing year-over-year declines, the latest…

The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in September, 2018  were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 553k.  This is figure is 5.5% below August’s revised rate and is 13.2% lower than one year ago.  The median sales price of new houses sold in September was $320k with the average sales price at $377,200.  There were an estimated 327k new houses for sale, representing a 7.1 months supply at the current sale rate. Click here to read the full report at census.gov.

Halloween is just around the corner and with that notion (or potion, if you will), the scary folks over at smartasset came up with their list of the top 25 cities in America for trick-or-treating.  To get their list, they looked at housing density, housing stock, crime rates, percent of residents under 15 and weather.  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to smartasset.

Have you ever bought a property, sight-unseen?  According to recent data from Redfin, one in five recent homebuyers said they made an offer sight-unseen.  That figure is 35% less than a similar survey conducted last November. Redfin obtained their data from a survey in May of 1,463 people across 14 major markets who had bought a home within the last year. “Now that most homes are staying on the market for longer than a week, there just isn’t as much pressure for buyers to make offers so hastily,” said Jessie Culbert, a Redfin agent in Seattle. “That’s a big change…

According to the latest CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index (SFRI), single-family rents in August 2018 were up 3.1% year over year. CoreLogic’s SFRI index measures rent changes among single-family rental homes, including condominiums, using a repeat-rent analysis to measure the same rental properties over time. In addition, the report shows that single-family rents climbed steadily between 2010 and 2018. However, year-over-year rent growth has slowed since February 2016, when it peaked at 4.1%, and has stabilized over the last year with a monthly average gain of 2.8%. Click here to read the full report at CoreLogic.com.

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for October, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – October 2018 October 23, 2018 By: Ingo Winzer After the wrenching ups and downs of real estate markets over the last ten years, it’s fair to ask where we are now. Home construction can give us a partial answer. Back in the boom days before 2008, when sub-prime mortgages put an extra 5 million people into a home, builders were putting up units as fast as they…

While not exactly sexy, this is an interesting item from a data and public health perspective.  According to research from the NAHB’s Economics analysis of the Survey of Construction (SOC), about 9% of new single-family homes started in 2017 were served by individual wells and more than 16% have private septic systems.  Interestingly, New England has the highest occurrence of septic systems and wells in the nation.  The SOC classifies community or shared water supply/wells as public water rather than individual wells. Nationally, more than 9% of new single-family homes started in 2017 are served by individual wells, and the…

According to a new report from Freddie Mac, over three-quarters of Americans now see renting as more affordable than owning a home.  The data, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com), also says demand for “for-sale” housing could remain soft in the coming months with 58% of renters saying they don’t currently have plans to buy a home. “Demand for rentals swelled after the recession, as millions of families lost their homes to foreclosure and tight credit made it difficult for young people to buy homes. Rents rose by double-digit percentages in many cities and the share…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing-home sales fell 3.4% in September and down 4.1% from one year ago.  According to data, there were 5.15 million completed transactions in September with a median price (for all housing types) of $258,100.  In addition there were 1.88 million existing homes for sale at the end of September with properties typically staying on the market for 32 days. “There is a clear shift in the market with another month of rising inventory on a year over year basis, though seasonal factors are leading to a third straight month of declining inventory…Homes…