Author: Brad Beckett

Black Knight Financial Services released their Home Price Index (HPI) report for September showing that home prices were up just 0.1% from August and up 5.4% from one year ago.  Currently at $266K, the U.S. HPI has risen over 33% from the market’s bottom and is now within just 0.6% of a new national peak.  The report also shows that home prices in 7 of the nation’s 20 largest states and 7 of the 40 largest metros hit new peaks in September. 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…

Are people moving less often?  According to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau that appears to be the case.  In 2016, the percentage of Americans moving over a one-year period fell to an all-time low of of 11.2%.  In addition, among those who did move, 42.2%  said they moved for a housing-related reason (better home, etc) while 27.4% said they moved for a family-related reason. Interestingly only 20.2% said they moved for employment reasons and around 10% gave some another reason…Indeed, the full report is a data-lover’s dream. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

It’s fun to dream a little now and then.  Since it was a short holiday week we thought we’d share Curbed’s list of the 25 most expensive homes for sale in the U.S. market.  While they’re probably not on your list of potential investment properties, they (or similar homes) might be on your wish list when (notice we said when) you make it big.  Curbed’s list contains properties that are all currently & publicly for sale.  The list starts at $195 million…Enjoy. Click here to read more on Curbed.com.

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales were up for the 2nd month in a row in October coming in at the annualized rate of 5.6 million.  The median existing-home price for all housing types in October was $232,200, up 6.0% from October 2015 – which marks the 56th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.  Inventory at the end of October stood at 2.02 million homes, which is 4.3% lower than one year ago.  There is currently a 4.3 month supply of unsold inventory.   Happy Friday!!!  (and we hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!) Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist,…

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, as of Q3 2016, 1.55% of all mortgages nationwide were in some stage of foreclosure. States such as Florida and California saw foreclosures increase early in the crisis but they have fallen steadily since their peaks with foreclosure inventory rates down to 2.48 percent and 0.60 percent, compared to highs of 14.49 percent and 5.83 percent, respectively. It took Florida a few years to work through its judicial foreclosure backlog and the sheer size of the foreclosure stock, but since 2012, the percentage of loans in foreclosure has fallen quickly as its local housing…

What are the best cities across America for Thanksgiving feasts?  Home-finding site Trulia recently put that question to the test and came up with the three best cities in each U.S. region that are “truly the best places to induce the infamous Thanksgiving food coma.”  To compile this list, they sifted through neighborhood amenities data to find grocery stores, farmers markets, butcher shops, bakeries, etc. and THEN they looked for areas with the highest number of wild turkeys! While their list is a fun and whimsical way to look at Thanksgiving, we believe the best place for Thanksgiving is wherever…

Investing in Real Estate consistently ranks at the top of annual investment surveys, so it was no surprise to learn that 16% of single family rentals are owned by an investor living in another state.  Now, new data from ATTOM Data Solutions (parent company of RealtyTrac) shows that 3.4 million single-family investment homes nationwide are owned by someone living in another state – representing 16% of all SFR’s.  The five states with the most investment homes owned by out-of-state investors are California, Florida, Texas, New York, and Illinois. Click here to read the full report on RealtyTrac.

Is winter the best time to buy single-families?  According to a new report from HomeUnion, the winter “off-peak” season is the best time of the year to acquire single-family rentals (SFR’s).  In fact, they found that investors pay 7.2% less per sq. ft. during the winter versus spring & summer as well as seeing a higher average cap rate.  They attribute this fluctuation partly to concerns about schools – with more buying activity in the summer months resulting in higher home prices. “Based on seasonal cap rate fluctuations, our study conclusively found that early winter is the best time to…

The Commerce Department reported that privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,229,000. This is 0.3% above September’s rate of 1,225,000 and is 4.6% above October 2015.  Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 762k; this is 2.7% above September’s 742K.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were 439k in October.  Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,323,000. This is 25.5% above September’s number and is 23.3% higher than October 2015.  Single-family housing starts in October were…

Here’s a list you’ll want to see;  National real estate brokerage RedFin set out to discover America’s best cities that were built for the perfect pub crawl.  Using walking score data and locating a lot of bars/pubs, they determined the best route for hitting the most bars in succession in every city in America (believe it or not).  They made sure bars were no further than 300 meters (around 1000 feet) apart and literally constructed a walking list for each city in the top 10.  Be sure to read the full story on RedFin to see the individual maps…they’re pretty…