Author: Brad Beckett

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…

A city in Vermont plans to test blockchain technology for selected property sales as part of a pilot project with Propy.com, a global real estate marketplace with decentralized title registry.  According to Realtor.com, the city of South Burlington will be using blockchain technology as part of its efforts to nurture its tech industry and foster job creation.  For the project, the city will still use the traditional method for recording the deals and new titles, which will include the “hash” reference for the blockchain record. Vermont is one of the most aggressive states that’s supporting the development of…

CoreLogic recently released their Market Pulse Report for February, 2018 where they provide a lagging indicator snapshot of the U.S. housing market through December, 2017.  Among their findings, metros with low vacancy rates have faster rent growth and a possible correlation between homebuyers seeking affordable housing and their movement out of the urban core. Click here to read the full report on Corelogic.com.

Anyone who has ever flipped a house knows about the potential perils of what kind of wiring the house has and when was it last upgraded.  Depending on the age & condition of the house it could be extremely costly or maybe just a cheap fix.  However, you have to know what to look for and what you’re looking at.  Today’s infographic from John K McCraw Electrical discusses common items in older homes, what you might need a permit for, and some general due diligence items when flipping a home.   Happy Friday!!

A good rule of thumb in every business transaction you undertake is to do your due diligence – especially when hiring a contractor for work on your property.  Last month we saw where one angry remodeling contractor hired a hit-man to kill a homeowner that he was trying to scam (an extreme situation, of course) and now we’ve found a good example of disreputable contractors (who are also burglars) being rounded up by local law enforcement in Tampa, Florida.  According to a report on WFLA-TV, over 20 unlicensed contractors were arrested during an undercover sting called “Drop the Hammer.”  In…

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales were down 3.2% in January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million.  The median existing-home price for all housing types in December was $240,500, up 5.8% from January 2017 and marking the 71st straight month of year-over-year gains.  Inventory at the end of January was up 4.1% 1.52 million homes for sale, representing a 3.4-month supply at the current pace. “The utter lack of sufficient housing supply and its influence on higher home prices muted overall sales activity in much of the U.S. last month,” said Lawrence Yun,…

Almost everyone buys gasoline…period.  Even if you don’t own a car, you’re paying for fuel one way or another.  Recently, the folks over at howmuch.net put together an interesting map showing the current average price of gas (as of January) and the corresponding amount of gas tax by state.  While this might seem academic, it reveals how a necessary commodity like gasoline can affect the cost of living in each state. We gathered the data from a couple different places—we found average gas prices from AAA.com and tax information from API.org. We combined both datasets to color-code each circle on…