Author: Brad Beckett

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported a 6.4% annual gain for May, 2018.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 6.1%, down from 6.4% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 6.5% year-over-year gain, down from 6.7% in the previous month.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco continued to report the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. In May, Seattle led the way with a 13.6% year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with a 12.6% increase and San Francisco with a 10.9% increase. Seven of the 20 cities reported greater…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units increased slightly coming in at $1,013 (down 3.15% year-to-date).  However, two-bedroom units posted a large gain came in at $1,262, which is $32 higher than July’s number.  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 thr full report on ABODO.com.

This weekend several states across the fruited-plain will be kicking off sales tax holidays for the back to school season.  Whether you think these are good or bad public policy is irrelevant;  the bottom-line is saving money!  The folks over that the Tax Foundation recently put together this handy chart showing which states are holding sales tax holidays as well as any threshold limits.  Click here for a detailed list of all the states and their exemptions.  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to the Tax Foundation!

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in June was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.3 trillion, which is 1.1% lower than May’s revised estimate but is 6.1% higher than June, 2017.  During the first six months of this year, construction spending amounted to $619.9 billion, which is 5.1% more than the same period in 2017.  In addition, residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $568.3 billion in June, which is 0.5% below May’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report on census.gov.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for August showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment decreased ever so slightly to $1,208 (down 0.1%) while the two-bedroom average grew, coming in at $1,446 (up 0.3%).  Year-over-year, both bedroom types are up around 3%.  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…

The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates in Q2 2018 were 6.8% for rental housing and 1.5% for homeowner housing.  The rental vacancy rate was 0.5 percentage points lower than the rate in Q2 2017  and not statistically different from the rate in Q1 2018. The homeowner vacancy rate was virtually unchanged from the rate in Q2 2017 and Q1 2018.  The homeownership rate of 64.3% was not statistically different from Q2 2017 nor from Q1 2018.  In addition, approximately 87.7% of the housing units in the United States in Q2 2018 were occupied and 12.3% were…

Back in January, 2016 we reported about the federal government requiring real estate companies in New York and Miami to disclose the names behind all-cash real estate transactions.  The measure was supposedly “temporary” and targeted properties purchased with cash in New York City and Miami-Dade County that met certain thresholds.  Now, flash-forward to the present; a recent article in the Miami Herald discusses some recent all-cash real estate deals (where the buyers are anonymous) that are being snagged by that very same Treasury Department rule.  However, in May of this year the thresholds for triggering those reporting requirements were quietly…

Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for July, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy.  Interestingly, they report that “…the new manufacturing jobs have a special impact on real estate markets because they provide fairly high pay….[AND]…..Real estate investors might want to assemble a list of such markets and keep track of new plant announcements..” National Economic Outlook – July 2018 July 24, 2018 By: Ingo Winzer Manufacturing is no longer the engine of the US economy, like it was 50 years ago, but it’s had…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales in June increased in all four major regions but overall year-over-year activity lagged for the 6th straight month.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index rose 0.9% to 106.9 in June, up from May.  However, the NAR says demand is still exceeding supply.  A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction hasn’t closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing. “Home price growth remains swift and listings are still going under contract at a robust pace…

The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in June, 2018, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 631k, which is 5.3% lower than May’s revised rate but is 2.4% higher than June, 2017.  The median sales price of new houses sold in June 2018 was $302,100 and the average sales price was $363,300.  There were an estimated 301k new houses for sale at the end of June representing a 5.7 months supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release on census.gov.