Author: Brad Beckett

The folks over at cost-information website howmuch.net recently crunched the data to show how much land prices have risen over the last 40 years.  Using data from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, they  put together a series of maps showing the changes in average land values from 1975-2015 in each state.  Overall, the trend is toward increasing land value, but there are exceptions.  Check out the interactive map below for more detailed information.  Happy Memorial Day Weekend! “While average land prices in the US have increased over the last 40 years, there have been fluctuations along the way. Most…

CNBC’s Realty Check with Diana Olick is reporting that Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest lender, is offering a new low down-payment loan called “yourFirstMortgage” where the down-payment is only 3% on loans up to $417k.  The program is targeted to first-time and low to moderate income buyers with a minimum FICO score of 620.  While Wells Fargo will service the loans, Fannie Mae will buy them, which means they must be underwritten to conform with Fannie Mae’s standards, which are high. “We are fully underwriting the borrowers, we are partnering with Fannie Mae to originate and sell these loans, we…

According to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, April sales of new single family homes were at seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000 (highest level since Jan. 2008).  This number is 16.6% above March’s rate and 23.8% higher than one year ago.   The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2016 was $321,100; the average sales price was $379,800. Currently there is 4.7 months supply of new homes at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full release.

Summer is the prime time of the year for Americans to change abodes.  The folks over at Realtor.com recently crunched migration data from the census bureau, cross-metro moving requests from moving.com and realtor.com to come with the top 10 cities for moving, leaving and by age group.  What they came up with is pretty interesting. “Why do people get the overwhelming urge to move in the summer? It’s one of those eternal questions, right up there with “Can love really last a lifetime?” and “Why does the Trader Joe’s line I’m in always move the slowest?” Maybe the warm weather wanderlust happens because…

This week Black Knight Financial Services released their April 2016 “First Look” report containing performance statistics derived from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market. Key takeaways: At 58,700 April saw the lowest number of foreclosure starts since April 2006 National delinquency rate is up from a 9-year low in March, but still 10 percent below last year’s level Active foreclosure inventory has now dropped below 600,000 for the first time since 2007 Click here to read the full report.

It seems like everyday we hear about another cyber attack where customer data are stolen and/or a machine gets locked down until a ransom is paid to some unknown hacker, on the other side of the planet.  Recently, IT management site ManageEngine posted an interesting article on their PitStop blog entitled “What you ought to know about the common cybercrime techniques of 2016” that does a great job spelling out the cyber threats we face and how to address them.  The article was written by an Australian, so don’t let the Aussi references throw you off – they’re relevant for…

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Senior Health and Housing Task Force, chaired by two former Secretaries of Housing & Urban Development (Mel Martinez & Henry Cisneros), released a report this week with a set of recommendations that Washington and the states could implement that “would enhance the lives of America’s seniors.”  The report says that millions of older adults will struggle to find housing that is both affordable and physically suitable. By 2030, 74 million Americans, representing more than 20% of the overall population, will be 65 years of age or more. Those 85 and above constitute the nation’s fastest-growing demographic…

This week the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final set of rules revising the overtime exemption regulations of the Fair Labor Stands Act.  Today’s infographic briefly explains the key aspect of those provisions.  Happy Friday! Click here for more information about the new rules.

This week real estate data powerhouse RealtyTrac released their 2016 2nd quarter U.S. Residential Property Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report that shows nearly 1.4 million residential properties (1 to 4 units) representing 1.6% of all residential properties were vacant as of May 2016, up 2.7% from the previous quarter when 1,361,628 U.S. residential properties were vacant.  The report also shows that 19,187 U.S. residential properties actively in the foreclosure process were vacant (zombie foreclosures), representing 4.7% of all residential properties in foreclosure — down 3.1 percent from the previous quarter and down 30.1%  from a year ago. States with the…

On this site last Fall, we reported that The U.S. Department of Labor  issued a notice of proposed rule-making and request for comments to regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that covered who is exempt from overtime pay within certain categories of employees.   Well, the day of reckoning has finally arrived. Today President Obama and the U.S. Department of Labor announced the publication of the Department’s final rule updating overtime regulations.  The new rules go into effect December 1, 2016. The text below was taken directly from the DOL’s website. Final Rule: Overtime Defining and Delimiting…