Author: Brad Beckett

Last year we posted about Zillow getting into the “instant offers” business where potential sellers submit their property address and get no-obligation offers from “qualified” investors. Their program has been going for about a year in Las Vegas and Orlando but recently they announced that Phoenix was being added to the mix.  Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting (provided by MarketWatch) that Zillow is getting into the home flipping business.  According to the report,  Zillow will purchase homes in Las Vegas and Phoenix, renovate and flip them within 90 days.  There goes the neighborhood…. Click here to read more…

Yes, you read that headline right….subprime mortgages are making a comeback and they have a new name;  “nonprime.”  Realty Check’s Diana Olick is reporting that although the subprime mortgage industry vanished after the so-called Great Recession it is now being reinvented as the “nonprime” market.  In addition, she reports that Carrington Mortgage is now offering mortgages to borrowers with “less-than-perfect credit” and that demand from both borrowers & investors is exceeding expectations.  Indeed…..things might get weird, again…buckle up. “California-based Carrington Mortgage Services, a midsized lender, just announced an expansion into the space, offering loans to borrowers, “with less-than-perfect credit.” Carrington…

Tuesday, April 17th is the filing deadline for U.S. federal income tax returns.  With that in mind, today’s infographic from PDFelement shows us how the tax system works, how revenue is generated and the basics about what Americans do with their tax returns. Interestingly, they point out that there has been a gradual tax revenue increase in the United States over the last 5 years.  Happy Friday!!!  Don’t forget to file your taxes! Hat tip to Wondershare’s PDFelement.

U.S. Property Taxes Levied on Single Family Homes in 2017 increased 6% to More Than $293 Billion, according to a recent report by ATTOM Data Solutions.  The conclusion was part of their annual property tax analysis covering more than 86 million single family homes across the U.S.  It shows that, in 2017, property taxes levied on single family homes totaled $293.4 billion.  This figures is 6% higher than 2016 and averages out to nearly $4k per home (an effective rate of 1.17%).  ATTOM’s report analyzed property tax data collected from county tax assessor offices nationwide at the state, metro and…

Are rising home prices making homeownership more difficult for many potential buyers?  According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (reprinted on Realtor.com), roughly one in five conventional mortgage loans made this past winter went to borrowers spending more than 45% of their monthly incomes on mortgage payments and other debts, the highest proportion since the housing crisis.  In addition, they report economists are saying rising debt levels are a symptom of a market where home prices are sharply rising in relation to incomes, which they blame on a lack of supply. “Economists warn that lenders must tread…

We’ve had numerous posts about millennials, that generation born between 1982-2004.  It’s a fast moving demographic with a set of rules seemingly all their own.  With that in mind, a new report from ApartmentList.com found that 7.9% of non-student millennials receive help from parents with their monthly rent, and 17.1% expect help with a down payment when purchasing a home.  They got their numbers from over 13k respondents to a survey they conduct annually.  They also cited a recent USA Today/Bank of America poll where 40% of millennials received help from parents with everyday expenses, including rent, child care, phone…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents rose $4 in March to $1,371.  Year-over-year, rent growth was 2.5% higher – the first increase since summer 2017.  Interestingly, Yardi reports rents had not moved more than $1 in either direction since July. “March’s performance is decidedly mixed. It is encouraging to see rents growing at a time when the overall trend is toward deceleration. Rents had not moved more than $1 in either direction since last July. On the other hand, first-quarter rent gains were weaker than previous years…” Click here to read the full report at Yardi.com.

Bloomberg is reporting that credit card spending is surging.  According to a recent data from the Nilson Report, credit card spending surged 9.4% last year to a total of $3.5 trillion.  It was also revealed that credit card delinquencies were on the rise as well.  This was all bolstered by reports from the Federal Reserve that U.S. household debt climbed in Q4 of 2017 at the fastest pace since 2007. Click here to read the full story on Bloomberg.

Ignorance of the law, or even skirting the rules because that’s how it’s always been done can get you every time.  Recently, the SunHearld (Biloxi, Mississippi) reported that several real estate investors in Gulfport were charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for allegedly holding secret meetings to rig bids and allegedly deciding ahead of time who was going to bid on a particular house and how much the others might be paid for not bidding.  The investors claimed it was all happening out in the open and that the attorneys representing the mortgage companies knew what was going on.  Either…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedrooms dropped slightly to $1,026.  This figure is down 1.9% since the beginning of the year and marks the third consecutive month of falling rent prices.  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. “Bucking last year’s trends, national median one-bedroom rent prices continue their downward trend…