Author: Brad Beckett

In their latest U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, ATTOM Data Solutions reports that in Q3 2017 there were over 4.6 million U.S. properties that were seriously underwater, down by more than 800k properties from the previous quarter and down by more than 1.4 million properties from Q3 2016 — the biggest year-over-year drop since Q2 2015.  In addition the report says there were over than 14 million properties (26.4% of all U.S. properties with a mortgage) that were equity rich which was down slightly from the Q2 but still up by 905k compared to one year ago. “Accelerating home…

Now that December is well underway Christmas will be here before you know it!  Our friends at The Home Depot out together this handy Christmas lights reference guide so you’ll know how many Christmas lights to purchase.  Happy Friday!!!! Hat tip to the Home Depot.

According to the Humane Society over 43 million households that have at least one cat.….That’s a lot of purring!  With that in mind, the folks over at Realtor.com crunched the catnip (we meant numbers) to come up with America’s Best Cities for Cat Lovers.  They looked at the percentage of listed homes with pet amenities, availability of pet services (groomers etc), veterinarians per capita, cat ownership rates, percentage of realtor.com rental listings that allow cats, and several other factors from 150 of the nation’s largest metros. The top ten cities are: Albany, NY Eugene, OR Seattle, WA Portland, ME Manchester,…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, over the last 12 months home prices continued rising across the country.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.2% annual gain in September, up from 5.9% in August. Their 10-City Composite came in at 5.7%, up from 5.2% tin August. The 20-City Composite posted a 6.2% year-over-year gain, up from 5.8% the previous month.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Diego reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.  Seattle led the way with a 12.9% year-over-year price increase, followed…

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) U.S. house prices rose 1.4% in Q3 of 2017.  Year over year, prices rose 6.5% from Q3 2016 to the third quarter of 2017.  In addition, FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up 0.3% from August.  Their HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “With relatively favorable economic conditions and a continued shortage of housing supply, price increases in the third quarter were generally robust and widespread,” said Andrew Leventis, Deputy Chief…

Here’s a city list that might be good or bad depending on your propensity to consume adult beverages.  Financial news & opinion site 24/Wall St. recently reviewed data from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) to identify the metropolitan areas with the highest levels of binge & heavy drinking within each state. Next, they identified the “drunkest city” in each state for their report.  According to the report, excessive drinking claims the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year and is responsible for about 1 in every 10 deaths among working age adults.  They also cited…

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reported that sales of new single-family houses in October, 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685k.  This number is 6.2% above September’s revised rate and is 18.7% higher than one year ago.  The median sales price in October was $312,800 and the average sales price was $400,200.  There was an estimated 282k new houses for sale representing a 4.9 months supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release.

On a recent issue of The Real Estate Investing Playbook, Jeff Watson and John Cochran are talking about wholesaling and how some investors may have been taught it flat out WRONG and it may be a felony in your state if you wholesale the wrong way.  Jeff & John go into deep detail on the two different ways to wholesale real estate and most importantly how to do it in a legal and profitable way.  They even provide show notes to help make sure you understand. Click here to listen. Click here for the show notes.

Okay, this is one of the coolest things we’ve seen in a while (well, maybe a close 2nd to the secret room post).  According to a recent report from Fox News, a former ICBM silo near Topeka, Kansas has been listed on short-term rentals site Airbnb as a place to stay.  The former Atlas missile silo, now known as the “Subterra Castle” was used during the Cold War and was refurbished into an underground mansion in the early 90’s. “The structure, built in 1959, was originally part of a ring of nine Air Force silos built around Topeka, The Journal…

A recent Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) chart of the week took a look at the change in single-family homes for owner-occupied versus renters during the period of 1987-2017.  Their data found that while 1987-97 saw a 90% growth in owner-occupied, a major shift occurred beginning in 2007. “Falling home prices and rising rents tend to bring some owner-occupied units into rental tenure, while rising home prices and falling rents draw some of the single family rental stock back into owner-occupation over time…however, both rents and prices have been rising, reflecting demand for both tenures.” Click here to read more on…