Author: Brad Beckett

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for March showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,300 (11.6% higher than one year ago.) and $1,398 for a two-bedroom.  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 month prior to publication…..be sure to look at their entire list…

The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that total construction spending in January was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.2 trillion, nearly the same as December’s revised estimate.  However, January’s number is 3.2% higher than January 2017.  Private residential construction came in at a $523.2 billion in January, 0.3% higher than December and private nonresidential construction was $439.6 billion, 1.5% lower than December.  Total public construction spending was $300.1 billion, 1.8% higher than December. Click here to read the full release on Census.gov.

The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales “cooled considerably” in January and were down 4.7%.  In addition, available listings at the end of January were at an all-time low as well as being 9.5% below January 2017. “The economy is in great shape, most local job markets are very strong and incomes are slowly rising, but there’s little doubt last month’s retreat in contract signings occurred because of woefully low supply levels and the sudden increase in mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the NAR. Click here to read the full release at the National…

Smart phones….they’ve become one of our tools of the trade and an indispensable appendage of our daily lives.  How could we ever live without them, you might ask?  Have you ever left the house without your phone and had that “kicked in the gut” feeling?  What about good etiquette?  The folks over at statista have posed the question, by asking is it “Time for Digital Detox?”  You be the judge, but their data is certainly interesting and I’m sure we all have some of these habits……Happy Friday! Ever since the first iPhone arrived in 2007, smartphones have gradually taken over…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices,  home prices continue to rise across the country, reporting a 6.3% increase in December, 2017.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 6.0% and their 20-City Composite posted a 6.3% year-over-year gain.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.  Nine cities reported greater price increases in the year ending December 2017 versus the year ending November 2017.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate…

In a recent episode of Real Estate News for Investors, Kathy Fettke discusses the potential effect of rising interest rates, rising home prices, inflation, tax reform and whether real estate is at its “peak.”  Kathy Fettke is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Real Wealth Network and is passionate about researching and then sharing the most important information about real estate, market cycles and the economy. She’s author of the #1 best-seller, Retire Rich with Rentals, Kathy is a frequent guest expert on such media as CNN, CNBC, Fox News, NPR and CBS.  Her podcasts are a good one to add…

According to recent data published by the Mortgage Bankers Association, U.S. homeowners are seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of equity in their homes while at the same time seeing a big decline in the amount borrowed through home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) – the lowest since 2008.  Using data from the Federal Reserve, they report that estimates owners’ equity is $14.1 trillion.  However, they do suggest that as interest rates rise, HELOC’s might become more attractive to potential borrowers seeking to preserve the low rate of interest in their current mortgage. Click here to read the…

The City of Bowling Green, in northwest Ohio (home of Bowling Green University) is facing a lawsuit from a group of individuals, their landlord, and additional 20 local landlords over zoning restrictions that limit the number of unrelated individuals allowed to occupy a home.  According to the Toledo Blade,  multiple police calls to the plaintiff’s property caught the attention of the city’s zoning office, which then began an investigation.  In addition, there is homeowner’s group concerned about further so-called degradation of property values which they say has lost $54 million in value because of the disproportionate number of students living…

In a lot of ways, insurance is sort of like water….we all have to have it in multiple ways.  When it comes to your main investment (your actual home) buying insurance ranks right at the top.  The folks over at howmuch.net recently gathered the numbers from all 50 states (using data from Insurance.com) to compare average costs across state-lines.  For their map, dark red states have the highest costs and dark blue have the cheapest.  Don’t be surprised if what you might think are the cheapest states are actually the most affordable (California and Hawaii) and the most expensive are…

Recently we posted about existing home sales being down in January and now new data from the U.S. government says new home sales are also experiencing a downward trend.  The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reported that, once again, sales of new single-family houses in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593k.   This number is 7.8% below December’s revised rate and 1.0% below January 2017.  The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2018 was $323k.  The average sales price was $382,700.  Inventory of new houses…