Author: Brad Beckett

A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis notes that September marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, marking the critical stage of the financial crisis.  They say that many economists argue that one of the main reasons why the subsequent recession was “great” was due to high levels of leverage and debt, particularly in the financial and household sectors.  To that end,  they’ve tracked the evolution & composition of domestic debt in the U.S. going back to 1990. “While total domestic debt has not fallen substantially in the last 10 years, there have…

Owning a 2nd home or a vacation rental can be very lucrative as well as having a great place to get away.  A recent report from Realtor.com points out that not only do many second-home markets have solid returns, but some even post profits that rival or surpass those in the nation’s hottest markets.  So, of course they put pen to paper to find the country’s most profitable vacation-home markets.  They looked at the 500 largest metropolitan areas (limited to two per state) where second homes made up at least 12% of all of the properties and focused on all…

We have had several posts about how blockchain technology could revolutionize real estate transactions while at the same time being more secure and saving an incredible amount of money in the process.  A recent article on Bloomberg talks about one county in Ohio that plans to move all 438k of its parcels onto a digital ledger in the next two to three years.  They report the move will cut the time to transfer a title to hours or even seconds and reduce closing costs that typically run thousands of dollars.   In addition, they say sellers, real-estate agents, title companies, lenders…

When you’re researching a property, have you ever wondered, “did someone ever die or get killed here???”  An eerie online site called DiedInHouse.com will, for a small fee, generate a report using millions of records to determine if a death occurred at any valid US address.  Their reports can also contain information about that death as well as any meth lab activity, fires or other data that might be available but unknown to potential buyers (or even the seller). According to an article on Forbes, the service was founded several years ago when its founder went searching for information after…

Bank of America recently released their Fall Homebuyers Insights Report that explores the attitudes, preferences and behaviors of the modern homebuyer. For the first time, their survey also took a closer look at current renters who plan to someday own a home. The report also finds that, among millennials 72% say owning a home is a top priority.  Once again, we’re talking about millennials. Key findings include: Current renters are torn when it comes to the “own vs. rent” debate, with 49% believing renting long-term will be more expensive than buying a home. But, 51% say renting will be just…

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…