Author: Brad Beckett

Today Congress passed, and President Obama is expected to sign, a year-end omnibus budget bill that included over $1 trillion and new spending as well as over $600 billion in tax cuts.  Included in those tax cuts was an extension of a tax-break for homeowners relieving them of paying income tax on the difference between what they owe on the mortgage and the amount raised in a short sale – especially if the lender reduces the owed principal amount.  The tax break expired at the end of 2014 and was reauthorized today and made retroactive for all of 2015 and…

The National Multifamily Housing Council/Kingsley Associates recently released their 2015 Resident Preferences Survey which analyzes data from nearly 120k responses across the country about their priorities for home features, community amenities and more based on a variety of demographic factors. Click here to read more on NHMC.

This week the National Association of Realtors released their 2015 Remodeling Impact Report, which highlights reasons homeowners choose a remodel, the interior and exterior projects that most appeal to potential buyers, the typical cost for these remodeling projects, and the projects that yield the biggest financial results upon resale.  Interestingly, the report looks at increased happiness certain projects bring upon completion. Click here to read the full report.

Coming on the heels of Redfin’s Estimator, real estate online powerhouse Zillow recently launched “Price This Home, a new tool that enables home sellers to create a custom, private value estimate for their home based on comparable home sales and listings, personal knowledge of their home and surrounding neighborhoods, and local market conditions.” The Price This Home tool uses the Zestimate home valuation as a base, and then allows the homeowner to select information that will give them a more customized value estimate.  To create a Price This Home value estimate, homeowners take several steps: Verify their home facts are…

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported this week that housing starts jumped 10.5% in November to 1,173,000 which marked the eighth straight month that starts remained above 1 million units, the longest stretch since 2007.  In addition, November’s number was 16.5% higher than one year ago.  Building permits rose as well, 11% higher than October’s number and 19.5% higher than one year ago. Click here to read the full release.

The US Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Economic and Market Analysis Division prepares Comprehensive Housing Market Analyses that assist and guide HUD in its operations.  The factual information, findings, and conclusions contained in the reports could also be useful to builders, mortgagees, and others concerned with local housing conditions and trends. For each analysis, HUD economists develop a factual framework based on information available, as of a particular date, from both local and national sources. Each analysis takes into consideration changes in the economic, demographic, and housing inventory characteristics of a specific housing market area during three periods: from…

A California couple that purchased a property out of foreclosure were later denied a permit to rebuild (the previous house was destroyed by fire) because the local planning authority declared the property to be entirely within a Stream Environment Zone – apparently because of a small creek and some runoff towards the rear of the parcel.  The Pacific Legal Foundation is currently suing the planning authority, on their behalf, in federal court claiming a violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Shown below is the media release issued by the Pacific Legal Foundation: Lake Tahoe regulators sued for…

CoreLogic is reporting that in the 3rd quarter of 2015 mortgaged residential properties with negative equity stood at 4.1 million, or 8.1%.  That figure was down 20.7%  year over year from 5.2 million homes, or 10.4% , compared with 3rd quarter of 2014.  Negative equity (aka “underwater” or “upside down”) means that more is owed on mortgages than the home is worth.  A decline in home value, an increase in mortgage debt or a combination of the two can bring on this situation. “Home price growth continued to lift borrower equity positions and increase the number of borrowers with sufficient…

Last month during a routine tax-lien sale in Franklin County, Ohio (home of Columbus) the county treasurer offered 800 properties for sale however no one bought them. The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the county found a buyer four days later but only after they removed nearly a fourth of the portfolio.  In addition, Cuyahoga County (home to Cleveland) suspended its tax-lien sale on 3,500 properties earlier this year after an offer didn’t meet expectations.  While there are a lot opportunities in these type of sales, discerning investors know when to buy and when to stay away. In fact: “Some…

This week Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released its 2015 report on Rental Housing that claims a record number of renter households face severe affordability problems, as rents grow faster than incomes and increased supply fails to meet demand.  The report also calls for more efforts from the public sector (surprise) as well as the private sector to expand the range of rental housing options.  Editorial note;  That certainly sounds like opportunity! “Rental housing is home to a growing share of the nation’s increasingly diverse households. But even with the strong rebound in multifamily construction, tight rental markets…