New data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis report that personal income increased 0.3% in July. In addition, wages & salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.4% in July, the same increase as in June. “The increase in personal income in July primarily reflected increases in wages and salaries, personal dividend income, and rental income” Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Author: Brad Beckett
Brad Beckett
Director of Education & Outreach, National Real Estate Investors Association
The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 0.7% in July and have now fallen on an annual basis for seven consecutive months. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 106.2 in July as well as reporting that contract signings are now down 2.3% year-over-year. The Realtors say that once again “inadequate supply” is to blame: “The reason sales are falling off last year’s pace is that multiple years of inadequate supply in markets with strong job growth have finally driven up home prices to a point…
Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of Summer so here’s a quick infographic with some interesting statistics about the U.S. labor force, courtesy of MoneyTips. Of note; Over the past year the number of employed Americans has increased by 1.8 million and the unemployment rate dropped from 4.3% to 3.9%……On that terrific note, be safe and have a Happy Labor Day Weekend!!! Hat Tip to moneytips.com.
In a recent episode of Real Estate News for Investors, Kathy Fettke discusses how Landlords in Portland (Oregon) and Seattle are being “choked” by new & proposed rental laws. Portland landlords are gearing up for a fight over legislation that would limit their use of an applicant’s criminal history as well as a proposal to reduce income and security deposit requirements. In Seattle, the city is facing a lawsuit over a more stringent version of those rules that were passed last year, and went into effect in February. The bottom-line here is that what starts on the coasts could spread…
Believe it or not, we’ve found another “airbnb-like” site to post about only this time it is geared toward camping. Hipcamp allows users to book unique camping experiences at over 300k campsites, ranches, vineyards, public parks and more – in all 50 states! From public parks to private land, they’re perhaps the most comprehensive guide to camping in the nation. Hipcamp partners with property owners to create new places for people to get outside. “Hipcampers” book and pay for their stay directly through Hipcamp and the hosts keep 90% of the payment – as well as setting their own prices. …
According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, home prices once again are showing no signs of slowing down as they continued to rise across the country over the last 12 months. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.2% annual gain in June, which was slightly down from May. Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 6.0% and their 20-City Composite posted a 6.3% year-over-year gain. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking…
Just as we’ve had several posts about keeping an eye on the millennial generation, we also need to be watching that other elusive group, baby boomers (those born between 1946 & 1964). A recent report by Fannie Mae and the University of Southern California says in the coming years boomers will be exiting the homeownership arena as they become renters, move to care facilities or even die. They note that boomers currently inhabit 46 million owner-occupied homes that are worth an estimated $13.5 trillion. For their report, they analyzed the attrition rates of past generations of older homeowners and used…
According to the latest ATTOM Data Solutions U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, year-over-year foreclosure starts increased in 44% in 96 of the 219 metropolitan statistical areas (44%) analyzed for the report. There are a total of 30,187 U.S. properties that started the foreclosure process for the first time in July, which is up 1% from June and up less than 1% from 2017. ATTOM says this represents the first year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts nationwide following 36 consecutive months of year-over-year decreases. In addition, twenty-one states posted a year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts in July, including Florida (up 35%); California (up…
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will conclude their single-family rental pilot programs and then terminate their participation in the single-family rental market except through their previously existing investor programs – Fannie Mae’s Multiple Financed Properties and Freddie Mac’s Investment Property Mortgages. The FHFA’s announcement does not preclude the Enterprises from proposing changes to their existing programs to meet the needs of the single-family rental market, or from developing proposals that are calculated to utilize single-family rentals as a pathway to homeownership. “What we learned as a result of the…
The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in July 2018 were 1.7% lower than June’s revised rate but is 12.8% higher than July, 2017. The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2018 was $328,700 and the average sales price was $394,300. The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 309,000 representing a 5.9 months supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release on Census.gov.
