Author: Brad Beckett

Everybody loves a “small town,” right?  The charm, the people, you name it.  A lot of those notions are pure romanticized imagination but there are some aspects of small towns that make them attractive and therefore a great place to live and invest.  The folks over at Realtor.com put pen to paper and sent their folks out to find the best small towns in America where you can find affordable, good-looking housing, safe communities and fun things to do.   They looked at over 500 U.S. cities with populations between 10k-50k and came up with rankings based on items which  include: …

According to the NAHB’s Eye on Housing Blog, nearly 6.8% of single-family homes started (close to 60k) in 2017 qualified as “tear-down starts.”  While this estimated number is down 10.2% from 2016, it is significant because of an ongoing shortage of new entry-level housing, more and more homes that might be considered starter are being knocked down due to the increased value in land.  A tear-down start is defined as a home built on a site where a previous structure or evidence of a previous structure was present before the new home was started. “Between 2016 and 2017, the number…

According to the latest CoreLogic Homeowner Equity Report, U.S. homeowners with mortgages (approximately 63% of all properties) have seen their equity increase by a total of $908.4 billion since the fourth quarter 2016, representing an increase of 12.2%, year over year.  As for Q4 2017, the total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity decreased 1% from the previous quarter.  Compared to the Q4 2016, negative equity decreased 21% from 3.2 million homes, or 6.3 percent of all mortgaged properties.  The CoreLogic Homeowner Equity Insights report, is published quarterly with coverage at the national, state and Core Based Statistical…

The U.S. Government is reporting that privately owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of  1,236,000. This is number 7.0%  below the January’s revised estimate and is 4% lower than February 2017.  Interestingly, single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 902k, which is 2.9% above January’s revised figure.  February’s rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 317k.  Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,298,000.  This is 5.7% below January’s revised rate of 1,377,000, but is 6.5% higher…

Each year millions of Americans (roughly 84% of the population) will don the color green on March 17 to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.  The folks over at the History Channel have put together this useful graphic to help us all understand “St. Patrick’s Day by the Numbers.”  Happy Friday! And, more importantly, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Hat tip to the History Channel.

According to their latest weekly survey, the Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting that refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to its lowest level since September 2008, representing 40.1% of total applications, down from 41.8% the previous week. Also in decline were the adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM), whose share of activity decreased to 7.1% of total applications.  The MBA weekly survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Click here to read the full report at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

What are the best and worst states in which to be wealthy?  For what it’s worth, the folks over at GOBankingRates took a look at data from all fifty states and ranked them based on criteria such as;  property crime, education, income taxes, property taxes and the average income of the top 1%. Indeed…this list is definitely debatable. “One conclusion that could be drawn is that more rural states appear to offer a more attractive life for the 1 percent — but not in an entirely consistent fashion.” Here is the complete list of the best states for the wealthy…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix, U.S. multifamily rents remained steady in February, rising $1 to $1,364.  Year-over-year, rent growth was 2.7% through February, which down 10 basis points from January.  Interestingly, Yardi is forecasting a slowdown and they add that a growth of 2.7% is very close to the long-term average. “Rents have barely budged over the last eight months. Average U.S. rents hit $1,363 in July, and have remained within a $2 range—between $1,363 and the all-time high of $1,365 set in August 2017—ever since. We expect growth to remain moderate this year, as metros deal with a…

We’re all familiar with investing in our own backyards, but how do you invest out of state?  Places where there might be more opportunity and better, possibly untapped, markets.  In a recent Investment Community of the Rockies (ICOR) podcast they tackle that very subject with Dave Newman, who has been successfully investing out of state for the last 10 years.  Listen as they discuss his upcoming partnership with Invest Success to bring you the best education on how to buy poroperties for pennies on the dollar. Click here to read more or listen on icorockies.com.

The folks over at Keeping Current Matters crunched the numbers, using data from CoreLogic, to focus on home price appreciation from December 2012 through December 2017.   The data show that nationwide, cumulative appreciation over the five-year period was 37.4%, with Nevada experiencing the largest high of 66% and the lowest in Connecticut at of 5%.  Now, align this data with sales and inventory and you can draw your interesting conclusions about where the market is heading. Every day, thousands of homeowners regain positive equity in their homes. Some homeowners are now experiencing values even higher than before the Great Recession.…