Author: Brad Beckett

We really thought we had seen it all when last year when a lady tried to board a plane with her emotional support peacock.  Now we’ve learned that yet another exotic animal has crossed over into the murky world of support animals.  According to a recent article in USA Today, a man in Pennsylvania has been taking his emotional support alligator to visit with folks living in retirement centers.  Apparently, Wally the 4.5 foot alligator behaves just like a dog, at least according to his owner, Joie.  Interestingly Joie also cautioned that you do have to be careful around him…

We’ve all heard the stories and the jokes about today’s young people (millennials, in particular) still living at home.  The folks over at VisualCapitalist recently put together an interactive map illustrating in which states these youngsters are still likely to be living at home.  They point out that an estimated 34.5% of young adults (ages 18-34 years old) in the U.S live at home – one of the highest percentages in recent memory. Here are the five states with the highest proportion of young adults living at home: Rank State Population (Young Adults) % Living at Home #1 New Jersey…

According to ATTOM Data’s Year-End 2018 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, foreclosure filings have reached their lowest level since 2005.  In 2018, there were 624,753 foreclosure filings (0.47% of all U.S. housing units), which was down 8% from 2007 and 78% from its peak in 2010.  In addition they point out that bank repossessions decreased 78% since their peak in 2010 and foreclosure starts were at new record low nationwide.  ATTOM’s year-end foreclosure report provides a unique count of properties with a foreclosure filing during the year based on publicly recorded and published foreclosure filings collected in more than 2,500 counties…

Monday, January 21st, is Martin Luther King Day.  In honor of the life & legacy of Dr. King we’ve posted this infographic from the RAAB Collection about his life and impact on American history.  Happy Friday! Hat tip to the Raab Collection.

There are a whole cadre of city planners out there trying their hardest to force Americans to live in high-density neighborhoods where they can unshackle themselves from the automobile and its dreaded internal-combustion engine.  Wishful thinking on many accounts, but, interestingly, when the data doesn’t quite line up like they’d like (or expect), they still try every which way to explain these inconvenient facts and get everyone back on the “new urbanism” narrative.   Case in point.  A recent article in CityLab admits that even in America’s most transit-orientated cities, car ownership is in fact on the rise.  The author even goes…

In today’s business world is not uncommon to find people working from Starbucks or even the confines of their own home.  In fact, with ever-increasing internet speeds, it is not unheard of to have a connection as fast or even faster away from the traditional office.  We even had a post recently about cities with the fastest internet speeds.  With that in mind, Zillow looked at the nation’s 100 largest metros using Ookla’s Speedtest over a fixed broadband connection and ranked their performance.  Then, they compared that ranking to Zillow’s median home value for each area to which they conclude…

As a recent post on LendingTree points out, while the retirement stage of life is something most Americans plan for, many just aren’t financially prepared. In fact, one common obstacle to a sound retirement is simply debt. To that end, LendingTree calculated the median non-mortgage debt balances for retirement-aged people in the 50 largest U.S. metros, and then calculated the average distribution of that debt.  Among their findings were that the average of median debt for retirement-age borrowers was $20,643 and the average credit score was 701.  Indeed… “Debt is even more burdensome when it’s carried over into retirement. Paying…

The IRS recently announced that it was reopening a program that is key to home lending after the mortgage industry said its closure during the partial government shutdown might force lenders to delay or even scrap loan closings.  According to the Wall Street Journal (as posted on Realtor.com) The Mortgage Bankers Association and other industry trade groups had complained to the Treasury Department that the program’s closure as part of the shutdown could harm consumers seeking to obtain a loan. “Though the program closed because it was funded through the normal appropriations process, the administration determined it could fund it instead…

The American Bankers Association recently released their top 10 real estate finance policy issues to watch in 2019.  Briefly, they are: Ability to repay HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ) reforms Fair lending Appraisal thresholds ADC construction opportunities Mortgage servicing regulations Accounting standards and mortgage lending Reforming the GSEs Flood insurance Digital developments and fintech “The real estate finance business has been steering through continuous change for a full decade. The 2008 housing meltdown precipitated a set of policy changes that sparked legal, procedural and structural transformations throughout the market. Even commercial real estate lending, largely immune from heavy regulatory…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents held flat in December, coming in again at $1,419, while year-over-year growth was 3.2%.  In addition they point out that while rent growth has been flat since the summer they also believe the fundamentals will remain vigorous in 2019. “The multifamily sector just wrapped up its eighth straight year of robust performance. Since January 2011, rents nationally have increased by 31%, while annual rent growth has been at least 2.9% in every year save 2017. Rent growth has topped 3% in six of the last eight years.  That’s impressive performance, but…