Author: Brad Beckett

Bloomberg is reporting that 2016 could be a good year for women looking to buy real estate, particularly in cities where their incomes are rising faster than those of single men.  Reporting on data from Redfin and paired with Census data, they note that for over a year the majority of respondents to a prospective homebuyer survey have been women. Beyond higher wages, here’s another factor that could bring single women back to the market: Because of their lower household incomes, single women often shop in the same price range as investors looking for rental properties. Such investors played a…

Real estate data powerhouse RealtyTrac recently released its 2016 Rental Affordability Analysis that suggests buying a home is more affordable that renting in 58% of US markets.  The report also says that the rise in rents is outpacing wage growth in 57% of the same markets. “Renters in 2016 will be caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place, with rents becoming less affordable as they rise faster than wages, but home prices rising even faster than rents,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “In markets where home prices are still relatively affordable, 2016 may be…

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently launched a new quarterly household survey called Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME).    The report was created to monitor consumer sentiment about the housing market and will cover a wide range of topics including real estate trends, including current renters & homeowners’ views regarding homeownership, whether or not it’s a good time to buy or sell a home, and expectations and experiences in the mortgage market.  The first issue was December, 2015 and concluded: “Although only half of surveyed households believe the economy is currently improving, nearly all young renters eventually want to…

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that personal income grew 1.3% on average in the third quarter of 2015, the same pace as in the 2nd quarter.   Personal income grew in every state with third-quarter personal income growth rates ranging from 0.6% in Alaska to 2.2 percent in Nebraska and South Dakota. Click here to read the full report.

Black Knight Financial Services reported this week that foreclosure starts in November were 66k, their lowest level since April, 2006. Some takeaways: 66,600 foreclosure starts in November mark the lowest one-month total since April 2006 Foreclosure inventory down 185k from one year ago; fewer than 700,000 active foreclosures remaining Seasonal increase seen in 90-day defaults; 90-day delinquent inventory up 7k from one month ago Prepayment rate (historically a good indicator of refinance activity) down sharply in November; 16% below October’s rate Click here to read the full report on Black Knight Financial

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing-home sales were down 10.5% in November, which represents the slowest pace in 19 months.  However they did say that some of the decrease was likely because of an apparent rise in closing time-frames that may have pushed some transactions into December. “It’s possible the longer timeframes pushed a latter portion of would-be November transactions into December…As long as closing timeframes don’t rise even further, it’s likely more sales will register to this month’s total, and November’s large dip will be more of an outlier.” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist. Click…

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development office of Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity has launched two consumer videos to show what happens when a fair housing complaint is filed.  In one video, “How to File a Housing Discrimination Complaint – What every home buyer and renter should know,” viewers are given the ABCs of the fair housing complaint process.  In the second video, “Fighting Housing Discrimination – One family’s story,” a family talks about what they went through after they filed a complaint. Click here read more on Hud.gov.

Back in September we shared a report from the Wall Street Journal about how real estate industry bracing for a negative impact from new rules being promulgated by Dodd-Frank. Fast forward to this week and the WSJ is reporting that it’s now taking home buyers longer to get a mortgage which is being attributed to the new federal rules that were supposed to make mortgage terms easier to understand.  Indeed, the report goes on to say that mortgages took an average of 49 days to close in November – which represents a 3-day increase from October’s average and the longest…

US News & World Reports says that last week’s announcement by the Fed to raise rates marked an end to an historic era of near-zero interest rates.  They said for [all]  investors it “signals a shift to a rising interest-rate environment, which opens the door to a new phase of potential winners and losers.” One potential takeaway of interest to real estate investors: Invest in real estate sooner rather than later. Rising interest rates will put upward pressure on mortgage rates. “I would buy real estate now instead of later because mortgage rates will be higher. That would be an…

The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog recently posted a piece showing that over the past 240 years, the rate of inflation has been much higher and, surprisingly much lower than it is today. From the U.S. Revolutionary War to World War II, inflation swung around much more dramatically than it does today. Especially in periods of war, prices would surge, to be followed by long periods of deflation. Over long periods of time, these dramatic swings tended to balance out, but it was a far cry from what anyone today would likely consider “price stability.” Click here to…