Author: Brad Beckett

You can’t make this stuff up, although you’ll need to use your imagination to figure out why.  According to Montana’s KRTV a woman stole a front-end loader from a construction site across town and drove it through and into a local apartment complex and then proceeded to elevate the front end and crawl into (and back out of) a 2nd floor unit.  Along the way she ran over a fence, damaged a car and hit the side a building.  There were no reports of injuries and she was later charged with two felonies for stealing the front-end loader and driving…

The recreational aspects of any given area can be a main driver in determining where to live – and we all know how a nice, clean park adds value to any neighborhood.  Recently, the folks over at WalletHub looked at the 100 largest U.S. cities to determine the best and worst cities for recreational activities.  They looked at metrics such as cost of living, the quality of parks, the accessibility of entertainment & recreational facilities and of course, the climate.  Be sure to click on the interactive map below. Here are their top 10 cities: Orlando, FL Las Vegas, NV…

A new report from Zillow says that homes with air conditioning sell for 2.5% more than those lacking this increasingly essential amenity.  Renters, too, put a slightly higher premium on air conditioning with the typical rental listing on Zillow (w/central air) renting for 2.8% more than those without.  In addition, they report that, nationwide, 66.1% of homes that have air conditioning and for those in the hottest climates – almost all of them;  IE 99.1% of homes sold in Las Vegas, and 97.9% of homes sold in Phoenix….go figure? “With summer temperatures hitting record highs across the country, today’s home…

So what motivates millennial renters to take the plunge and buy a home?    The folks over at Keeping Current Matters took data from NerdWallet and laid out the top 5 reasons millennials are choosing to buy.  The top reason?  Control over their living space (93%) followed by followed a sense of privacy & security (90%).  Now, let’s go do some flips and find these happy-go-lucky kids some places to buy!  Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Keeping Current Matters.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the median lifespan of Americans is 79 years old.  However, as Realtor.com reports, there are many places in the U.S. where people regularly blow right past 80, are healthy and active, and seem to just keep on going.”  That’s when they decided to crunch the numbers and find these geographic fountains of youth.  They located the top 10 counties where people are living the longest and then listed out what differentiates them from the rest of the nation. “If you want to live a long time, the best thing you…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined 0.5% in May, marking their 2nd lowest level over the past year.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index declined to 105.9 in May which they say was due primarily to a supply issue, and not weak demand.  A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction hasn’t closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing. “Pending home sales underperformed once again in May, declining for the second straight month and coming in at the second…

The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that total construction spending in May was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.3 trillion, which is 0.4% above April’s revised estimate.  During the first five months of 2018, construction spending amounted to $497.1 billion, which was 4.3% higher than the same period in 2017.  In addition, residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $553.8 billion in May (0.8% higher than April) and nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $451.5 billion in May (0.3% higher than April). Click here to read the full report on…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units were up 3.9% coming in at $1,008.  Two-bedroom units came in at $1,230, which is down 2.71% year-to-date.  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. “June capped a 6-month slide that looked like it might continue into July. This didn’t exactly happen as both…

We love hearing success stories like this….Man didn’t expect to buy his first rental property at the first Sheriff’s Sale he ever attended….he was warned about investing in another property he had his eye on…and he bought it anyway.  Now Salman Chaudhry owns 13 single-family homes in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and he shares with Brian Hamrick about  how his investments turned out. Click here to listen at the RPOA’s website

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for July showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment rose slightly to $1,209 (up 1%) while the two-bedroom average barely grew, coming in at $1,442 (up 0.4%).  However they do report that, year over year, one and two bedrooms are up 4% and 3.7% 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…