Author: Brad Beckett

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…

What is the “true cost” of home improvement?  Obviously this varies from city to region and size  to shape – AND who’s doing the work!  However, the folks over at HomeAdvisor put together some national averages for 57 common home improvement projects.  As we’ve said, having good data as a resource or a benchmark can be a useful tool.  Happy Friday…. Click here to download the full report on HomeAdvisor.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this week that national vacancy rates for the first quarter of 2016 were 7%, which is virtually unchanged from last quarter and from Q1 of 2015.  The U.S. homeownership rate for the first quarter was 63.5%, slightly lower than the last quarter of 2015 (63.8%).  In addition the Q1 2016 median asking rent for vacant for rental units was $870 and the median asking sales price for vacant for sale units was $144,700. Click here to read the full report.

An analysis of data from the Associated General Contractors of America says between March 2015 and March 2016 construction employment increased in 244 out of 358 U.S. metro areas. Interestingly, they noted that 70% of firms in the association’s annual Outlook survey reported they are having a hard time finding qualified workers. “With more than two-thirds of the nation’s metro areas adding construction jobs it is clear that the demand for construction is broad-based geographically and by project type,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, adding that construction employment hit new peak levels in 31 metro areas. “The main…

Need another reason to properly screen your tenants?  How about this one;  USA Today is reporting that “Indianapolis’ worst renter owes thousands, but landlords can’t collect,” and apparently she’s been scamming landlords for over 15 years!  Her methods include counterfeit checks and using imposters as previous landlords.  According to Marion County court records she has been involved in at least 24 eviction lawsuits and has been found guilty of numerous frauds. The cases also expose what some see as a critical gap in Indiana law. Many of Lee’s victims ultimately won financial judgments against her in small claims courts, a total of…