Author: Brad Beckett

The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced new rules to adjust civil penalty amounts for violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules, in effect raising maximum penalties by 78%.  The action was taken in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act (passed by Congress in 2015) to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect.  The law directed agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation each year using a much more straightforward method than previously available, and required agencies to publish “catch up” rules by July 1, 2016 to…

According to the latest Yardi Matrix the average national apartment rental rate rose $10 in June, reaching another all-time high of $1,213.  Rents rose 0.9% on a month-over-month basis with the nationwide occupancy rate at 96.1% in June.  For the 2nd quarter, rents were up 2.7% (5.6% year-over-year) while rent growth fell 30 basis points in June (year-over-year) and was down 110 basis points from the recent high in October 2015. “The big question of the day has to do with Brexit, or Britain’s vote to exit the European Union, which is roiling global financial markets. We foresee little immediate…

The National Association of Home Builders’ Eye On Housing recently crunched the numbers from the Census Bureau’s quarterly tax data. and found that $525 billion in taxes were paid by property owners over the four quarters ending in Q1 2016.  This represents a 4.4% increase ($22 billion) over the previous trailing four quarters – the largest percentage increase in 7 years. Key takeaways: Q1 of 2016 marked the first time since 2010 that four-quarter property tax revenues grew faster than sales tax receipts. Property taxes accounted for 39.3% of state and local tax receipts Individual income taxes represented 28.7% of…

Housing data powerhouse RealtyTrac recently released a special report ranking the best bargain beach towns for Summer 2016 based on median home prices, average summer temperatures, air quality and density of registered criminal offenders.  The report analyzed more than 1,400 cities in coastal counties across the nation.  Each city was garnered index score from 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible. “Buying a second home or investment property in a beach town can help families save on summer vacations for years to come and also potentially generate vacation rental income….While real estate close to the ocean tends to…

Corelogic has released their Home Price Index and HPI Forecast for May 2016 showing that home prices are up 5.9%, year over year (which includes distressed sales) as well as increasing 1.3% 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 May 2016 to May 2017, and on a month-over-month basis by 0.8%. “Housing remained an oasis of stability in May with home prices rising year over year between 5 percent and 6 percent for 22 consecutive months,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The consistently…

As we close out the 2nd quarter, historical data is now coming in and it looks like 2015 was a great year for investment home sales.  Why? consider that 2015 marked the first year-over-year increase in investment home sales since 2011 (after trending downward), 62% of all investment homes purchased were single family homes, and 2015 saw a 7% increase in investment home sales.  Bottom line – it’s always a good time to invest in real estate…just do it wisely.   Happy Friday….

BuilderOnline recently posted an interesting story about how demographics tell of solid & strengthening housing demand as Millennials age, work, form households, and make families.  Using data from the U.S. Census bureau, they suggest sheer numbers are not a guarantee of good times but instead suggest people patterns around work choice, proximity to jobs, use of time, and educational attainment will serve as the windows of opportunity & risk.  Indeed… “We may have gotten used to overstating–understandably–the economic importance of the Baby Boom by conflating the impact of the generational cohort’s coming of age with the effect of women’s game-changing…

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is reporting that pending home sales declined in May by 3.7% (year over year), the first decline in nearly two years.  The blame?  Low inventory.  The data was released as part of the NAR’s Pending Home Sale Index (PHS) which measures housing contract activity, and is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops.  The PHS generally leads existing home sales by one to two months. “Total housing inventory at the end of each month has remarkably decreased year-over-year now for an entire year…There are simply not enough homes coming…

HousingWire is reporting that the Governor of New York recently signed “sweeping” legislation that attempts to reform the state’s foreclosure process as well as addressing issues with zombie foreclosures.  The legislation combats the blight of vacant and abandoned properties by expediting the rehabilitation, repair and improvement of these properties, and enables the state to assist homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure.  Additionally, the legislation imposes impose a pre-foreclosure duty on banks and servicers to maintain zombie homes, creates an electronic registry of abandoned properties, and expedites foreclosure for vacant and abandoned properties to get them back on the market.  The legislation also…

This week S&P/Case-Shiller released their monthly Home Price Indices for April which showed that home prices increased 5%, year-over-year;  virtually unchanged from last month.  In addition, their 10-City Composite is up slightly at 4.7% for the year and their 20-City Composite’s year-over-year gain is 5.4%. “The housing sector continues to turn in a strong price performance with the S&P/Case-Shiller National Index rising at a 5% or greater annual rate for six consecutive months,” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.” “However, the outlook is not without a lot of uncertainty…