Author: Brad Beckett

Information powerhouse CoreLogic recently released their monthly U.S. Home Price Insights (HPI) Report that shows home prices are up 6.7% in October (year over year) and up 1.1% from September 2016.   In addition, CoreLogic’s HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase by 4.6% through October 2017, and increase monthly by 0.2%. “Home prices are continuing to soar across much of the U.S. led by major metro areas such as Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Denver.  Prices are being fueled by a potent cocktail of high demand, low inventories and historically low interest rates,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO…

Attom Data Solutions (parent to RealtyTrac) recently released their Q3 2016 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report, which shows that over 13 million U.S. homeowners (23.4%) were equity rich (with a loan-to-value ratio of 50% or lower).  However their report revealed that over 6.1 million homeowners (10.8%) were seriously underwater (those owing at least 25 percent more on outstanding mortgages than the estimated market value of the home).   Interestingly, the share of seriously underwater homeowners was 20% or higher in seven of the 88 metro areas analyzed in the report: Las Vegas (25%); Akron, Ohio (24.2%); Cleveland, Ohio (22.8%); Toledo,…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for December showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,129 and $1,340 for a 2-bedroom apartment.  San Francisco continues to dominate their National Rent Index of 100 cities at $3,300/$4500 with Toledo, Ohio rounding out the bottom at $440/$550. “During this past month, we continued to see the polarizing trend in the rental market that has emerged in the past few months, as rents in the most expensive markets were mostly flat or down, while rents in many other major markets were on the rise.” Click here to read…

As if being poor weren’t bad enough, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has decided to ban smoking in all units of public housing (approximately 225k), across the country.  The new rule is to be implemented over the next 18 months and was first proposed by HUD in the Fall of 2015.  Of course residents who choose to smoke can go outside and/or to designated areas.  Their rationale, as is often the case with regulations is this kind, is to help the children. “Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, healthy home free from harmful second-hand…

The U.S. Department of Commerce is reporting that construction spending during October, 2016 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,172 trillion which is 0.5% above September’s number and 3.4% higher than one year ago.  Total spending through October was $972.2 billion, 4.5% higher than one year ago.  Breaking this down a little, private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $885.9 billion in October, 0.2% below September’s number.  Private nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $466.2 billion in October, 1.6% higher than September.  Nonresidential private construction was at a seasonally…

What is the purchasing power of women when it comes to buying a home?  Mortgage insurer MGIC recently pulled together the following data to illustrate the purchasing power of women when it comes to homebuying.  After all, the 2nd largest group of homebuyers, after married couples, are single women.  Happy Friday! Click here to read the full story on MGIC.

According to apartment data provider REIS the national apartment market’s vacancy rate was 4.4% in Q4 2016.  In their data from the top 50 apartment markets, they report new construction levels that haven’t been seen since 1998.  In addition, they predict vacancies to modestly rise for the next 5 years and a drop off in construction starting at or around late 2018.  Reis covers Apartment markets throughout the nation, collecting property level structural information such as year built, year renovated, size, and unit mix, as well as performance information such as rental and vacancy rates. Click here to read…

The folks over at Realtor.com recently came up with a list of five trends that they believe will shape the world of real estate in 2017.  As in years past, their economic team analyzed economic indicators and market data to come up with their predictions for the coming year.  Be sure to read the full article to get the gist of their predictions.  Remember….everyone has a crystal ball. “With more than 95% of first-time home buyers dependent on financing their home purchase, and a majority of first-time buyers reporting one or more financial challenges, the uptick we’ve already seen may…

This week S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller released their National Home Price Index which showed that home prices rose 5.5% in September, year over year (up 0.4% from August).  Their 10-City Composite posted a 4.3% annual increase and their 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.1%.  Seattle, Portland, and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities over each of the last eight months. 12 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending September 2016 versus the year ending August 2016. “The new peak set by the S&P Case-Shiller CoreLogic National Index will be seen as marking a…

In their “first look” report for October 2016, Black Knight Financial Services is reporting that foreclosure starts have hit their lowest level since January 2005.  According to the report, October saw were 56,500 foreclosure starts (lowest in nearly 12 years) as well as a lower prepayment level than September.  Black Knight gathers its month-end mortgage performance statistics from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market. Click here to read the full report.