Author: Brad Beckett

With summer fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know (but were afraid to ask) about air conditioners, ventilation and home cooling in general…..Happy Friday! Hat tip to Energy.gov.

The U.S. Government is reporting that privately owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of of 1,172,000. This is 2.6% below the revised March’s number but is 0.7% than April, 2016.  Single-family housing starts in April were at a rate of 835k which is is 0.4% higher than March. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 328,000.  Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,229,000. This is 2.5% below  March but is 5.7% higher than April, 2016. Single-family authorizations…

What cities recovered best from the housing bust?  Realtor.com recently did an analysis of the biggest 150 metros from across the country, factored in their highest pre-recession home-price heights, their lowest lows of the crash and determined which ones rebounded the best through 2016.  They looked at  home prices, the amount of new home construction, foreclosure and unemployment rates and the household income of local residents.  Interestingly, they excluded markets that didn’t experience much hardship.  They found that cities who achieved some of the speediest and most definitive recoveries were knowledge hubs and those that have done a good job of diversifying their…

A recent Mortgage Bankers Association “Chart of the Week” illustrated how low inventories of homes for sale are putting upward pressure on home prices.  Last week’s chart emphasizes that if the March pace of sales persists and inventory is not replenished, current inventory will run out in about 4 months. Recently, home sales have been rising as inventory is declining. “Prior to January of 2017, months supply has not been this low since January of 2005 just prior to the peak of existing home sales, when the nature of demand and credit conditions were quite different.  The average months supply…

We’ve posted about the tax burden in each state and recently we revealed which U.S. states lack a sales tax.  Now we’re looking at those few states without an income tax.  The folks at smartasset put together a nice list of those states and how they generate their revenue.  One thing’s for certain….No matter where you go, the government will have to be fed. “While avoiding state income taxes may seem appealing, there’s often a catch. Some states tax consumers more heavily when they pay for things like groceries and gas. Others – like Wyoming and Alaska – levy high…

Bloomberg is reporting that mortgage giants Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac may soon be offering financing for buyers of manufactured homes.  They report that this move is part of an effort by the govt-backed firms to reach out to low-income buyers seeking affordable housing options.   In addition, as a condition of their 2008 bailout, they were required to develop plans to serve three target areas:  manufactured housing, rural housing and affordable housing preservation.  The draft plans released in early May will be open to public comment and subject to review by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) before taking effect…

Last week we saw a list of the 20 best college towns to buy investment property. This week we’re seeing data from Axiometrics showing continued strength in the student housing market as more investors have developed additional assets at universities across the nation.   This Fall, about 47k beds are scheduled to be delivered.  Interestingly, since 2011 over 330k new beds have come online. Click here to read more at Axiometrics.com.

An Illinois homeowner has filed a lawsuit against Zillow claiming that its Zestimate tool has repeatedly undervalued her property and hinder its sale.  According to a report in the Washington Post; the lawsuit may be the first of its kind and alleges that despite Zillow’s denial that Zestimates constitute “appraisals,” the fact that they offer market-value estimates and “are promoted as a tool for potential buyers to use in assessing [the] market value of a given property,” shows that they meet the definition of an appraisal under state law. The suit alleges that Zillow should be licensed to perform appraisals…

Local Market Monitor (a National REIA preferred vendor) recently released their National Economic Outlook for May, 2017 where they share their thoughts on developments in some of the important sub-sectors of the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – May 2017 May 12, 2017 By Ingo Winzer I noted last month that the number of jobs in the retail sector, while still higher than  a year ago, is only growing very slowly. Statistics from April point to the same disconcerting conclusion, so we’ll now examine more closely what’s going on here. There are two important reasons: when people buy less stuff,…

Data powerhouse CoreLogic is reporting that in February, 5% of all mortgages were in some stage of delinquency – down from 5.5% from one year ago.  In addition, loans that were 30-59 days past due (early-stage delinquencies) were 2.1% and the share of mortgages 60-89 days past due was at 0.7%.  Both of these two figures are virtually unchanged from a year ago. Key takeaways: Early-stage delinquencies were unchanged from a year ago The current-to 30-day transition rate increased in February 2017 from a year earlier The New York City metro area had the highest delinquency rate at 7.6% San…