Author: Brad Beckett

The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates in Q1 2018 were 7.0% for rental housing and 1.5% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate of 7.0% was virtually unchanged from the rate in Q4 2017.  The homeowner vacancy rate of 1.5% was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate in Q1 2017 and 0.1 percentage point lower than Q4 2017.  The homeownership rate of 64.2% was not statistically different from the rate in Q1 2017 and virtually unchanged from Q4 2017. Click here to read the full release on Census.gov.

In a recent release, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson recently unveiled a package of reforms designed to offer Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), property owners and HUD-assisted families a simpler, less invasive and more transparent set of rent structures, and places HUD’s rental assistance programs on a more fiscally sustainable path. SECRETARY CARSON PROPOSES RENT REFORM Reforms to make current rent policies simpler, more transparent and predictable WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson today unveiled a package of reforms designed to offer Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), property owners and…

You don’t need a perfect credit score or even a large down payment to buy a house.  Heck, with creative financing the dream of homeownership is within a much closer reach than most people realize.  However, today’s infographic from Keeping Current Matters attempts to slay the myths about buying a home.  They’re dead-on when they say “Arming yourself with information about what’s really going on in the housing market will ensure you become the King or Queen of your castle.”   Well said…..and if you’re a real estate investor there’s no better place to arm yourself with information than your local…

Where are America’s richest zip codes?  Bloomberg reports that you probably won’t be surprised to learn that many of these locations are in California and the New York City area.  However, states like Florida and Wyoming, both with favorable tax climates, have also made the list.  The honor of having the richest zip code in America goes to Fisher Island (33109), located just off the coast of Miami, Florida.  This 216-acre island has an average income of $2.5 million and is the only zip code in Bloomberg’s analysis where over half of all tax returns had an income of over…

The U.S. government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in March, 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694k, which is 4% higher than February and 8.8% higher than March 2017.  The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2018 was $337,200 and the average sales price was$369,900. There was an estimated 301k new single-family houses for sale at the end of March representing a 5.2 month supply at the current sales rate. Click here to red the full report on Census.gov.

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices,  home prices continued their rise in February with a 6.3% annual gain, up slightly from January.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at in at 6.5% and their 20-City Composite posted a 6.8% year-over-year gain.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco continue to report the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. In February, Seattle led the way with a 12.7% year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with an 11.6% increase and San Francisco with a 10.1% increase. Thirteen of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending…

In Black Knight’s “First Look” for March, 2018 they report that as 2017’s hurricane impact shifts away from delinquencies, foreclosure starts rose by nearly 12%  – mostly in the hurricane-impacted areas of Florida & Texas.  However, overall, active foreclosure inventory continues to shrink, falling by 10k loans in March to its lowest level since late 2006.  Black Knight derives their mortgage performance statistics from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market. Key takeaways: Nationally, there was a decline of 65,000 in serious delinquencies Serious delinquencies attributable to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma saw a reduction of 19,500…

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales were up 1.1% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.60 million.  The median existing-home price for all housing types in March was $250,400, up 5.8% from March 2017.  In addition, March’s price increase marks the 73rd straight month of year-over-year gains.  Total housing inventory at the end of March climbed 5.7% to 1.67 million existing homes available for sale, but is still 7.2% lower than one year year ago and has fallen year-over-year for 34 consecutive months.  Unsold inventory is at a 3.6-month supply at the current…

Are these places the worst in America for renters or maybe the best places to be a landlord?  I guess it all depends on your perspective.  However, a recent article in Forbes identifies Los Angeles as the “worst city for renters”  based on (among other factors) the average monthly price of $2,172 to rent an apartment – which they say is two-thirds higher than the national average.  In addition, they go on to report that LA rent “eats up” 41% of the local median household income while vacancy is low, allowing “landlords to raise rents at a much faster pace…

There has been a lot of talk about housing affordability lately.  We even had a post a while back about the ideal salary in every state to afford a home.  Now, the folks over at GOBankingRates have put together a list of the top cities in America where you can own a home for less than $1k per month.  In fact, four out of the top 10 are less than $500! To get their list, GOBankingRates took the 75 largest cities in the U.S. and ranked those with a monthly mortgage payment of $1k or less, based on median housing…