Author: Brad Beckett

Let’s face it, bugs are just a part of everyday life.  Managing their population and keeping infestations at bay is the name of the game for exterminators and health departments across the country.  Recently the folks over at Realtor.com put together their list of the Top 10 Cities for Pest Infestations in the U.S.  They utilized rat and cockroach data from the American Housing Survey along with data about mosquitoes, termites, bedbugs, fleas, ticks and scorpions from a variety of other sources.  We wonder if folks in these cities have heard of ClearVue Traps? “The warmer climate in the Southern states…

Recently the National Association of Realtors reported that 2016’s existing home sales closed out the year as one of the best in a decade, despite sales for December being down 2.8%.   The folks over at Keeping Current Matters recently took that data and put it into a nifty chart so we can look at it in a different context.  The bottom line;  5.45 million existing homes were sold in 2016 – the most since 2006!….Happy Friday! Click here to read more on Keeping Current Matters.

In some cities across the country, Millennials are actually buying instead of renting homes.  Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, smartasset.com recently ranked 200 of America’s largest cities according to their under-35 homeownership rate (among other variables) and it changed between 2006 and 2015.  Putting all this into some perspective, consider that homeownership rates for millennials dropped from 40% in 2006 to 32% in 2015. Click here to read the full story on smartasset.com

The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced this month that construction spending during December 2016 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.18 trillion, 0.2% below November’s estimate and 4.2% higher than December 2015.  Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $466.9 billion in December, .5% higher than November’s estimate.  Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $430.1 billion in December, nearly the same as November’s estimate of $430.1 billion. Click here to read the full release at Census.gov.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported residential vacancies and homeownership statistics for fourth quarter of 2016, both of which were pretty much the same as they were one year ago.  The U.S. homeownership rate in Q4 2016 was 63.7% and the national vacancy rates were 6.9% for rental housing and 1.8% for homeowner housing.  Approximately 87.3% of the housing units in the U.S. were occupied and 12.7% were vacant.  The median asking rent for vacant for rent units was $864 and the median asking sales price for vacant for sale units was $167,700.  Lots of good data in here… Click…

Which home improvements have the greatest potential return in 2017?  The folks at Redfin put together a list of nine project trends they say will add or subtract value to your home or next flip.  Some of them are no-brainers and a couple are quite surprising.  As always, be sure to do the appropriate research for your particular area….After all, trying to stay one step ahead of market trends is never-ending quest. Redfin’s 9 home improvement projects that add (or detract) value are: Stainless Steel Appliances: A Trend Not Steeling the Show But Holding Steady  Smart Homes: A Trending Smart…

Black Knight Financial Services recently released their November 2016 Home Price Index (HPI) report that said that U.S. home prices were 0.2% for November (5.7% Year-Over-Year).  In addition, prices are now within just 0.3% of a new national peak, with home prices hitting new peaks in six of the nation’s 20 largest states and eight of the 40 largest metros​.  The Black Knight HPI utilizes repeat sales data from the nation’s largest public records data set, as well as its market-leading, loan-level mortgage performance data, to produce one of the most complete and accurate measures of home prices available for…

My Top 7 Landlord Mistakes By Larry Arth For apartment owners, managers and investors, if you have not made any mistakes in your managing and investing – especially when it comes to being a landlord to  tenants- you probably have not been in the business that long or made many investments. Learning from your mistakes so you can master your business is the key to your success. You can learn from other people’s mistakes, so I would like to share mistakes that I have either personally made or have watched investor-clients make. No. 1 – Being too quick to…

What kind of house will $250 million buy you?  Try 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, a 30′ television, an 85′ infinity pool, $30 million worth of cars, and oh, by the way it sits on a hill in Bel Air overlooking Los Angeles.  The LA Times and CNBC recently profiled the most expensive home on the market and it clocks in at $250 million.  We’re not sure the word extravagant even comes close to describing this place….but still, it’s kind fun to look at.  Let’s just say it’s a YUGE deal. Click here to read more & watch a video…

Redfin is reporting that, as of December, 2016, unsold home inventory dropped 12.7% (year over year) –  it’s largest year over year decline in over three years.  This was coupled with the fact that overall home sales only increased 0.5% from one year ago.  However, Redfin reports that the median home sale price rose 4.7% to $267,600 in December – a trend they predict will continue into 2017.  Nearly one third of homes sold in December went under contract within two weeks – a feat not seen since 2010. “We’ve never before seen homes turn over so quickly at a…