Author: Brad Beckett

A new study from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows that, on average, government regulations account for nearly a quarter of the price of the average new home.  Three-fifths of that final number, 14.6%, is due to a higher price for a finished lot resulting from regulations imposed during its development.  The other two-fifths of the house price, 9.7%, are from costs incurred by the builder after purchasing the finished lot. “It really makes it hard to satisfy the lower end of the market, which is a lot of first-time buyers,” said Paul Emrath, vice president for survey…

RealtyTrac recently featured an interesting article by NoteSchool’s Eddie Speed & KevinShortle entitled “Make 5 Times the Profit by Combining Real Estate Investing with Notes.”  In the piece, the duo discuss how a husband & wife team purchased a vacant home using real estate and note investing techniques, instead of the traditional approach of buying and then reselling to a rehabber.  It’s quite fascinating. “Most real estate investors lose out on tens of thousands of dollars in profit on every deal they do. This happens because they don’t have a clear understanding of how to architect a deal using both…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix the average national apartment rental rate rose $13 in April, reaching another all-time high of $1,194.  Rents rose 1.1% on a month-over-month basis and were up 2.6% year-to-date. “…fundamentals continue to be supportive of steady rent growth. Occupancies remain at or near all-time highs in most metros. Nationally, the occupancy rate for stabilized and completed properties was 96.0% as of February, the highest in the current cycle, according to Yardi Matrix’s database. The growing amount of supply – more than 300,000 units will come online in 2016—will increase vacancies in some submarkets, but by…

Owning rental units is a great way to build wealth and diversify your portfolio.  However, as the folks over at FortuneBuilders remind us, there is a lot of work, time and effort that goes into maintaining those investments.  The infographic below spells out the “most common mistakes and tenants to avoid” with your rental properties.  Happy Friday…. Click here to read more at FortuneBuilders.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that entry-level home construction is being squeezed by so-called “impact fees” being imposed by municipalities across the country.  Citing data from Zelman & Associates, they show that since the downturn builders have been cutting prices while cities have been increasing fees – often serving as a stealth tax to fill budget holes and make up for lost revenue.  These increased costs have had the counter-effect of pricing entry-level buyers out of the market and the unintended consequence of pushing home prices above the FHA limits. “Builders have faced other cost constraints besides permitting fees…

Using housing data spanning 11 years from Black Knight Financial Services, The Washington Post recently produced an interactive online article suggesting that the nation’s housing recovery was uneven and has “exacerbated inequality” by leaving behind those of more moderate means.  Their analysis says that winners & losers were created along the lines of income, race and geography.  The information used reflected repeat sales & loan data from 2004 to 2015 from across the country, drilling down to 19k zip codes at the neighborhood level.  The bottom line;  the data is interesting, useful and should be taken as such – especially…

In the first part of a new report on flipping from CoreLogic, they show that in the 1st quarter if 2016 home flips represented 4.4% of all home sales – which is well below the peak of 6.4% in 2005.  Additionally, they note that while the number of flips has dropped 70% since 2005 the number of homes sold in 2016 is drastically lower than in the 2nd quarter of 2005.  CoreLogic used more than 100 million residential property public records to show the markets in which the level of flipping activity is high and the markets in which it…

Corelogic has released their Home Price Index and HPI Forecast for March 2016 showing that home prices are up 6.7%, year over year (which includes distressed sales) as well as increasing 2.1% month over month.  In addition,  CoreLogic’s HPI Forecast predicts that home prices will increase by 5.3% on a year-over-year basis from March 2016 to March 2017, and on a month-over-month basis by 0.7%. “Home prices continue to rise across the U.S. with every state posting year-over-year gains during the last 12 months,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Improved economic conditions and tight inventories continue to…

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac recently released their Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) showing that many of the nation’s housing markets continue to improve.  The national MiMi value stands at 83, which indicates a housing market that’s on the outer range of its historic benchmark level of housing activity.  In addition, the national MiMi value has improved 7.46% (year over year). “The U.S. housing market is poised to have its best year in a decade. The National MiMi currently stands at 83, the highest since September of 2008. And the trends are nearly all positive. Home purchase applications are headed higher, with the…

Housing Wire is reporting that mortgage servicer Ocwen has once again run afoul of the National Mortage Settlement and has had more than 17k loans placed on foreclosure hold.  According to the Settlement’s director, Joseph Smith, Ocwen is not yet back in compliance with one of the performance metrics of the NMS that it failed back in 2014 and it has been forbidden from taking foreclosure actions on those 17k+ loans. “Smith’s office announced in October that Ocwen failed metric 31, which tests whether the mortgage servicer, Ocwen in this case, sent a loan modification denial notification to a borrower that…