Author: Brad Beckett

Home-finding site Trulia recently conducted a report on homeownership entitled “When it comes to the American Dream of homeownership, immigrants are closing the gap on the native-born.”  They showed that the homeownership rates for immigrants has slowly gained ground against US-born residents.  In addition, they they found that states where immigrants have resided in the U.S. for the longest periods of time there are higher rates of immigrant homeownership.  The report uses data from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey.  There is a lot of good information that can be gleaned from this report, but…

Why Single-Family Rental Homes Are Best For Investors By John Triplett NationalREIA You can often hear discussions at local real estate investor clubs about the relative merits of investing in single-family homes or in multifamily homes. With the trends today, single-family homes are proving to be the best for many real estate investors, according to veteran investor Larry Arth. In a recent interview, Arth set out the reasons single-family homes for rent work so well for so many investors. “If you find a need and fulfill it, you have a good business.” Based on that statement, “There has proven to…

Is Airbnb a threat to the hotel industry?  We have seen industry disruption before  – and no I don’t mean the buggy-whip and candlestick makers from around the turn of the 20th century.  I’m talking about how Uber and Lyft have revolutionized getting a ride from point A to point B – remember YellowCab?  So is it now time for the hospitality industry to be disrupted?  A recent article in US News & World Report explores that subject and concludes that, no, they’re not a threat to the hotel industry per se….However they have started to grab a larger share…

What cities across the US are the most stressed-out?  Using 11 metrics covering such items as sleep, working hours, commute time, unemployment rate and even the number of yoga centers per capita, recently the number-crunchers over at Realtor.com came up with a top 10 list.  And, in case you wondered about the opposite list – with the most relaxed cities – they covered that as well.  So if you’re looking for a relaxing area to call home, look no further than the upper mid-west.  The entire list in itself is pretty interesting. “Where you live can have a major effect…

Today is Veterans Day…November 11th.  Here’s a little history about this important day;  In 1918, the armistice of the First World War officially took effect on the 11th day, of the 11th month, at the 11th hour.  The following year President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11th as Armistice Day.   It would later become a holiday to honor veterans of World War I and then not to long after World War II, all American Veterans.  Finally, in 1954, it was renamed “Veterans Day” to honor all American veterans who served in times of war and peace…..Be sure to thank someone who…

Back in September we posted a cool infographic to help explain this thing called blockchain.  Quite frankly, it’s kind of hard to get our arms around (it all started with Bitcoin, after all) but we know it has the potential to have a large impact on the entire real estate industry.  Most recently the folks over at Real Estate Tech News posted a story about three ways blockchain will change real estate – all of which make sense, no matter what the technology is applied to. “A blockchain creates a digital ledger shared amongst a computer network. Whenever an information…

Everyone loves to find that proverbial hidden gem.  Recently, data powerhouse RealtyTrac took a look at high-yield single-family rental markets that it believes are “hidden gems” – that is, undiscovered by the the big guys.  Drawing from the 473 analyzed counties in their 2016 Single Family Rental Market Report they pared the list down to 28 counties where institutional investors (purchasers of 10+ properties per year) account for less than 3% of all single-family purchases and where the potential gross annual rental yields for properties purchased in 2016 is at least 10%. Click here to read the full report on…

What are the best small cities in America?  The number-crunchers over at WalletHub recently compared 1,268 cities (between 25k and 100k people) using 30 key indicators of livability – such as housing costs, the quality of their schools, number of restaurants, coffee shops and more.  People who live in smaller cities have many advantages over their big city cousins but the one that stands out the most might be a cheaper cost of living.   Be sure to look at their entire list to get a better picture. WalletHub grouped cities in percentiles, with a 99th percentile representing the top 1…

This week data powerhouse CoreLogic released their National Foreclosure Report showing that there were 36k completed foreclosures in September, down 69.7% from one year ago.  Nationwide there were approximately 340k homes in foreclosure (down 31.1% year over year) representing 0.9% of all homes with a mortgage.  The five states (representing 36% of all foreclosures) with the largest number of foreclosed homes were;  Florida (53k), Texas (27k), Michigan (27k), Ohio (23k) and Georgia (21k). “Completed foreclosures have fallen by a total of more than 100,000 homes during the 12 months prior to September 2016,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of…

The National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing recently reported that the 55+ housing market strengthened in 3Q 2016, according to their Housing Market Index.  The third quarter results show single-family 55+ housing at 59 points, up 2 points from the previous quarter.  This marks the 10th consecutive quarter that the number has remained above 50 on the single-family HMI.  The NAHB produces two separate 55+ HMI’s, one for the single-family market, and another tracking the condominium market. The condo HMI was up 1 point at 48. Click here to read the full report at the NAHB’s Eye on…