Author: Brad Beckett

Either you’re hot or your not, right?  The folks over at Realtor.com recently put together their list of America’s 10 Hottest Suburban Neighborhoods where people are moving, seeking more affordable and family-friendly living.  In fact, they point our that in some of the country’s top metro areas the suburbs are actually growing faster than their urban core.  To come up with their list they looked at a plethora of data from every zip code in the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. “Most high-growth urban areas just don’t have enough land, so prices are higher and homeownership is typically lower…It’s tempting…

A real estate investor from Pennsylvania’s Diversified Real Estate Investor Group (DIG) has won the annual Ugliest House of the Year 2016 contest for a renovation he did on a 1945 two-story home, according to a release put out by HomeVestors. Tom Beerley, a HomeVestors franchisee in Pennsylvania, won the ugly house contest with his entry, a 1945 two-story run-down home with trash piled throughout. The homeowner’s financial problems had led to the cancellation of trash services, creating hoarding living conditions. Other issues of the once beautiful home included exposed beams, a damaged ceiling, and no running water. Eventually the…

Information powerhouse CoreLogic recently released their monthly U.S. Home Price Insights (HPI) Report that shows home prices are up 7.2% in December (year over year) and up 0.8% from November 2016.   In addition, CoreLogic’s HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase by 4.7% through December 2017, and increase monthly by 0.1%.  The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state. “Last year ended with a bang with home prices up over…

What are the Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends for 2017?  The folks over at digital marketing & communications firm Liana came up with a pretty good list as we begin trudging through 2017.  The number one item?  Live streaming….are you ready to go live???   Happy Friday! Click here to read more at lianacms.com.

Where does your state rank according to its “well-being?”   For what it’s worth, the folks over at Gallup recently released their annual Well-being Index for 2016 where they interviewed over 177k adults throughout the year in all 50 states across America’s.  Hawaii was the top state with an index score of 65.2 while West Virginia was the least with an index score of 58.9. Overall the Well-Being Index score for the whole country was 62.1 in 2016.  The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest possible well-being and 100 represents…

Home advisor is reporting that Harvard’s Joint Center for housing Studies recently released their Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity that showed spending on home improvement (remodeling, repairs etc.) jumped 11.3% between 2014-15 and estimated that it rose 6.9% in 2016.  In addition, they predict a 6.7% increase for 2017. “The rise in home values has boosted people’s perception of their own financial well-being, and has also increased their ability to take out home-equity-based loans if they need them for home improvement projects.” Click here to read the full story on Homeadvisor.com.

In a recent RPOA Real Estate Investor Podcast real estate investor Joshua Schaub talks about his high-end student housing portfolio and his criteria & strategies for locating, acquiring, rehabbing and managing them for maximum profit.  Joshua also takes listeners through a case study of his most recent single-family purchase and how he “house-hacked” his first investment property. “Often times in Real Estate, it can be the little things that differentiate your property from the competition.  For Joshua Schaub, it was being located on the right bus line that fueled his early investment success.” Click here to hear more at RPOAonline.org.…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that nationwide one-bedroom rental prices dropped by an average of .65% since the first of the year to an average of $1,000.  The largest drop was experienced in Rochester, NY where average rents fell 8.7% to a median of $707.  That was followed by Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA, both falling more than 6%. The largest rent increases went to Miami, FL (up 7%) and Lexington, KY (up 6.9%). The city with the highest rate?  No surprises here…..It’s San Francisco at $3,499 followed by the New York City area at $2,796.  ABODO produces their…

A new report from audit, tax & advisory giant KPMG says a majority of real estate industry leaders plan to increase their U.S. real estate investments this year.  According to their 2017 Real Estate Industry Outlook Survey: Real Estate Expansion Lives On, 52% of real estate executives believe that improving real estate fundamentals in 2017 will be the biggest driver of their company’s revenue growth; 91% are bullish on access to equity capital, and 25% are expecting an improvement in 2017.  Interestingly, 51% indicated that foreign investment in U.S. real estate will increase in 2017 – as we have been…

The S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released their latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices which showed a 5.6% annual gain in November 2016, up from 5.5% in October. Their 10-City Composite posted a 4.5% annual increase, up from 4.3% the previous month and their 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.3%, up from 5.1% in October.  In addition, they report that home prices have continued to rise across the country over the past 12 months. “With the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rising at about 5.5% annual rate over the last two-and-a-half years and having reached a new…