Author: Brad Beckett

Short-term rentals are hot right now – as well as controversial.  In her latest podcast, Kathy Fettke discusses several new startups that turn vacant apartment units into quasi-hotel rooms until they can be rented out.  In other words, making an empty unit contribute to the bottom-line (via Airbnb) until the next occupant moves in. “WhyHotel started experimenting with the idea near Washington, D.C. during the Trump inauguration. The company anticipated a lodging shortage and provided 50-furnished units in a 22-story apartment building called “The Bartlett” in Arlington’s Pentagon City. They were ready by January 13th, in time for the big…

According to the latest CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report, 4.5% of mortgages nationwide in May were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due including those in foreclosure).  This represents a 0.8 percentage point decline in the overall delinquency rate compared with May 2016 when it was 5.3%.   In addition, May’s foreclosure inventory rate (measuring the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process) was 0.7% compared with 1% in May 2016. Those properties in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due including loans in foreclosure) was 2%, unchanged from April and…

We keep seeing this time and time again;  according to a recent Bankrate.com survey, for the 3rd year in a row real estate is American’s top investment choice.  Right behind real estate we find cash and rounding out 3rd place we find the stock market.  Want to get started in real estate investing?  Visit your local NREIA-affiliated real estate investor association! “If you have a long time horizon, you will win in real estate,” says Abhi Golhar, a 32-year-old Atlanta-based real estate investor who owns and rents out single-family homes. Click here to read the full report.

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, however it is always good to see these numbers in black & white.  The National Association of Realtors’ recent 2017 Housing Pulse Survey found that 84% of Americans say purchasing a home is a good financial decision – the highest since 2007!  Happy Friday!!! Click here to read the full story.

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for August showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,176 and $1,399 for a 2-bedroom apartment.  San Francisco continues to dominate their National Rent Index of 100 cities at $3,420/$4500 with Toledo, Ohio rounding out the bottom at $470/$590.  Be sure to take look at their entire data set which 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…

On August 21st, the entire continent will experience a solar eclipse – some will even see a total eclipse which hasn’t been seen in the US since 1979.  During this natural phenomenon, the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere (the corona) can be seen and will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Outside this path people will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon will cover part of the sun.  According to NASA,  the whole continent will experience a partial eclipse lasting 2 to 3 hours and halfway through anyone within…

By now we’ve all heard of so-called “tiny houses.”  But are they a passing fad or do they really have a future?  Recently Curbed.com posed that question in an article “Tiny Houses: Big Future or Big Hype,” where they looked deeper into the industry and talked with advocates about the challenges & opportunities the industry is facing as it struggles to become mainstream. “Most define the tiny home as a building between 100 and 400 square feet (Curbed counts everything under 500 square feet), and many of them are portable. The admittedly loose definition, and the lack of longstanding…

The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader is reporting that a group called American Farm Investors is buying up tracts of farmland in central Kentucky which they lease back to tenant farmers, who in turn farm the land and pay rent from their proceeds (not sharecropping).  Interestingly, the corn and wheat grown on these farms is sold to big name whiskey distilleries like Jim Beam, Makers Mark and others.   The Herald-Leader also reported that roughly 40% of AFI’s investors live in Kentucky while the rest are from out of state. The bottom line;  it’s all about diversification. “AFI leases its land to tenant…

A lawsuit on behalf of property owners filed by Ohio’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law has resulted in a federal court certifying a class-action lawsuit against a Northeastern Ohio city that says “all homeowners who were forced to endure government searches as a precondition to the sale of their homes are entitled to demand refunds of illegal “Point of Sale” inspection fees.”   The 1851 Center is a non-profit, non-partisan legal center dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of Ohioans from government abuse and, as such, litigates constitutional issues related to property rights, voting rights, regulation, taxation, and search and seizures.…

The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that total construction spending in June was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.2 trillion, which is 1.3% lower than May, but is 1.6% higher than June 2016.  Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $940.7 billion, which is 0.1% below May’s figure.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $502.9 billion in June, 0.2% below May’s estimate. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $437.8 billion in June. Click here to read the full report.