Author: Brad Beckett

Is ecommerce giant Amazon entering the home building space?  A recent report on CNBC says they’ve recently taken a stake in Plant Prefab, a Southern California company that builds prefabricated custom single and multi-family homes that uses an automation in an attempt to keep costs low.  The investment was made by their Alexa Fund and follows Amazon’s launch of over a dozen new smart home devices powered by their Alexa platform.  By the way, these aren’t your normal run-of-the-mill prefab homes. “Voice has emerged as a delightful technology in the home, and there are now more than 20,000 Alexa-compatible smart…

According to the latest ATTOM Data Solutions Foreclosure Activity report, nearly one in every 2k U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing in August, 2018.  According to the report,there were 70,166 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in August, up 9% from July and down 7% from one year ago.  The states with the highest foreclosure rates were New Jersey (one in every 690 housing units); Maryland (one in every 918 housing units); Nevada (one in every 984 housing units); Delaware (one in every 1,012 housing units); and Florida (one in every 1,229 housing units). Click here to read the full report…

Fire Prevention Week runs October 7-13, 2018 and the best way to celebrate is to check all your properties’ smoke alarms for functionality and age.  If you find one that’s more than 10 years old, it’s time to replace it.  And when you do, National REIA recommends both ionization and photoelectric technologies be used in all your properties.  You should also have a working & tested carbon monoxide detector and fire extinguisher in each unit as well.  In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure!  Today’s infographic also reminds us to “Look, Listen and Learn”…

What exactly are these “Opportunity Zones” that were created in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017?  A recent article in HousingWire gives readers “the skinny” about these overlays and suggests they “are probably the buzziest potential solution for the affordability crisis and local economic stimulus out there at the moment.”  They also report that the program is meant to encourage investors to reinvest their capital gains and those can come from any investment – stocks, bonds, real estate or partnership interests.  In addition, they explain how they work, who benefits and how they might revitalize struggling communities.  Indeed……

CoreLogic recently released their Market Pulse Report for September, 2018 where they provide a lagging indicator snapshot of the U.S. housing market through July, 2018.  Among their findings, how disasters & housing affect the economy, home mortgage payments up 15%, how states are seeking loopholes to counter the federal SALT deduction and understanding the risks a volcano poses. Click here to read the full report on CoreLogic.com.

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in October dropped slightly to $1,020 (down 0.2%) with two-bedroom units coming in at $1,269 (down 2.7%).  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. “The economy is hot, unemployment is low, and inflation is beginning a more rapid increase. All these factors lead us…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for October showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,211 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,443.  Year over year, both one and two bedroom prices are up 1.6% and 3%, respectively.  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 available in the…

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in August was estimated at $1,315.5 billion, which is 0.1% higher than July’s revised estimate and 6.5% higher than August, 2017.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $548.9 billion in August, 0.7% below July’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full release on Census.gov.

Here is another post that will make you look twice;  A new report from the Urban Institute says that manufactured homes appreciate as well as site-built homes.  They cite data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) MH Index showing that manufactured housing is 35-47% cheaper per square foot than site-built housing and that prices of the MH purchased by their GSEs perform similarly to those of site-built properties. “The FHFA’s new MH index, still in the experimental stage, indicates that the prices of the MH purchased by the GSEs perform similarly to those of site-built properties…the index suggests a…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 1.8% in August and have now fallen on an annual basis for eight consecutive months.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) declined to 104.2 in August as well as reporting that contract signings are down 2.3% year-over-year.  The Realtors say once again that low inventory continues to contribute to the housing market’s slowdown.  However, take note of the regional differences in the chart below “Pending home sales continued a slow drip downward, with the fourth month over month decline in…