Author: Brad Beckett

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released their latest population estimates that show that America’s median age continues to rise.  In fact, their estimates show the nation’s median age (the age where half of the population is younger and the other half older) rose from 35.3 years on 4/1, 2000, to 37.9 years on 7/1 , 2016.  Residents age 65 and over grew from 35 million (12.4%) in 2000, to 49.2 million (15.2%) people. “The baby-boom generation is largely responsible for this trend,” said Peter Borsella, a demographer in the Population Division. “Baby boomers began turning 65 in 2011 and will…

Countless news stories have been written about the U.S. federal government’s debt and continued deficit spending….but what about the states?  The folks over at howmuch.net recently pull together data from the Tax Foundation to illustrate how much debt each state caries, per capita.  For comparison, each citizen already has $42,500 on their shoulders from the federal government.  Yikes!  Happy Friday, I think. Hat tip to howmuch.net.

Where do you get the “biggest bang for your buck” in the nation’s largest housing markets?  Trulia recently put that to the test by examining the nation’s 100 biggest metros to find the neighborhoods that offered the best value for first-time buyers.  They generated a neighborhood value score that takes into account the cost to live in a neighborhood and the level of amenities.  Trulia used listing prices and measured entry-level affordability, then added school information, crime statistics, commuting times and other neighborhood amenities such as restaurants.  Their findings?  They found reasonably priced neighborhoods that offered the best combination of…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales rose 1.1% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.62 million.  The median existing-home price for all housing types in May was $252,800.  Total housing inventory at the end of May increased 2.1% to 1.96 million existing homes available for sale, but is still 8.4% lower than one year ago and has fallen year-over-year for the past 24 consecutive months. Unsold inventory is sitting at a 4.2-month supply. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said “the job market in most of the country is healthy and the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is calling for action to reduce injuries to seniors living at home.  In a new wide-ranging report, they hope to focus attention on the rapidly growing problems of senior falls and fall prevention.  The report found that while extensive research on specific fall prevention and strategies and their effectiveness exists, there was a significant gap on how to overcome obstacles to improve policies and programs designed to reduce senior falls.  This is definitely a need that real estate investors can help meet in the marketplace. “Approximately one-third of adults age 65 years…

According to a new report from the National Association of Home Builders, nearly 10.2% of single-family homes started in 2016 qualify as tear-down starts, up from 7.7% in 2015.  The NAHB says that while single-family starts have been relatively flat, (roughly 10% in 2016),  increases in tear-down starts in 2016 reflects the continued recovery of the single-family housing market.  A tear-down start is defined as a home built on a site where a previous structure or evidence of a previous structure was present before the new home was started.  Overall they report that were 79k Single-family Tear-down Starts in 2016. Click…

The U.S. Government is reporting that privately owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,092,000.  This is 5.5% below April’s estimate and is 2.4% below May. Single-family housing starts in May were at a rate of 794k; this is 3.9% below April.  The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 284k.  Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,168,000. This is 4.9% below April 0.8% lower than May 2016.   Single-family authorizations in May were at a rate of…

Last month we posted a link to a podcast with Frank Rolfe, the 5th Largest Park Land Owner in the US (200+ parks), who talked about building a mobile home park empire.  Recently, Time Magazine ran a story entitled “The Home of the Future” about mobile home parks, their attraction and why they might be one of the hottest sectors in real estate.  While not for everyone (and certainly not everywhere) this article presents an interesting perspective about these moveable abodes. [Frank] Rolfe boasts that mobile-home parks provide the steadiest income stream of any form of commercial real estate,…

Local Market Monitor (a National REIA preferred vendor) recently released their National Economic Outlook for June, 2017 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. National Economic Outlook – June 2017 June 13, 2017 By: Ingo Winzer Continuing the trend of recent months, in May the number of jobs in retail sales was no better than last year. This very worrying development isn’t really so surprising because we’ve seen that the income of consumers has barely increased for years, while the amount of debt they’re carrying has grown. At some point that has to translate…

The quality and value provided by the local public school district is a huge factor in determining the value of a home.  Good or bad schools can make or break the selling price of that dream home.  According to research from HomeUnion, a home’s value increases when it’s near quality schools, “so savvy buyers typically search for properties near highly ranked public schools to build long-term equity.”  Indeed….They crunched the numbers of neighborhoods with the most affordable homes and highest-ranked public schools and suggest that buyers targeting these zip codes will see property values increasing faster than any others in…