Author: Brad Beckett

This week representatives from the National Multifamily Housing Association (NMHA) and the National Apartment Association gave testimony before the US House Committee on Financial Services Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the challenge of meeting the increasing demand for multifamily homes for millions of working Americans. The hearing was entitled The Future of Housing in America: Government Regulations and the High Cost of Housing.  Testifying on behalf of NMHC and NAA was Clyde Holland, chairman and CEO of Holland Partner Group, where he outlined the key reasons why America faces a growing affordability problem – stagnant wages, a supply-demand imbalance and…

Black Knight Financial Services is reporting that mortgage delinquencies have hit their lowest level since 2007.  According to their “first look” report for February, delinquency rates were down 13% month over month and 16% year over year.  In addition, non-current inventory has fallen below 3 million for the first time in over 8 years. Click here to read the full report at Black Knight Financial Services.

Commenting on a recent report about disappointing home sales, the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, said “the main issue continues to be a supply and affordability problem. Finding the right property at an affordable price is burdening many potential buyers.” Indeed, February’s existing home sales numbers dropped 7.1%, this after increasing to the highest annual rate in six months.  However February’s number is still 2.2% higher than one year ago.  Interestingly, Yun also noted that real estate investors were grabbing a bigger share of the action.  Most notably: “Investor sales have trended surprisingly higher in…

According to data released by RedFin, new home listings nationwide are up 11.9%, year over year, representing the fastest rate of growth since 2013.  Meanwhile overall housing inventory fell 3.7%, year over year, to around 500k homes….However that number is a 4% increase over January.  The national median home sale price saw an increase of  4.8%., year over year. “New listings rebounded in a big way after getting off to a weak start at the beginning of the year,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “There were enough new listings in February to cut the inventory deficit in half.  More…

Cash flow…it’s the one thing every investor wants to maximize with their rental properties.  Too bad it’s not some big metaphorical spigot that can be opened up simply by turning a magic valve.  However, there are several successful ways to do this – some of which might just amaze you. The folks over Rental Housing Journal Online recently posted their free ebook “51 Ways to Increase Rental Property Cashflow” that explains how you can increase your rent every month.  One tip can even increase the monthly rent for a single-family home by $400! Maybe you bought in the right neighborhood,…

Housing-data powerhouse RealtyTrac recently released their first-ever Registered Criminal Offender Risk Index which shows that average home values and home equity were lower (while average foreclosure rates were higher)  in zip codes with a higher offender index than in those with a lower offender index. Interestingly,   The report also shows that average home price appreciation has been slightly stronger over the past year and five years in zip codes with a higher offender index than in zip codes with a lower offender index. “This new index provides concrete evidence that registered criminal offenders pose not only a potential safety risk…

The folks over at 1-800-Got-Junk? recently posted a handy decoder sheet for all those crazy codes we see on glass & plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and other materials we toss on a daily basis.  Believe it or not, those symbols actually convey some very important information about that materials composition. While many of the items we throw away are recyclable, they’re not always accepted by your local recycler.  So it’s a good idea to become familiar with what they will and will not accept.  In the meantime, the following chart is a good place to start place to start when…

According to new data released by the federal government, Housing starts for February 2016 were at 1.1 million, representing a 5.2% increase over January’s revised numbers AND 30.9% higher than February 2015.  Single families were 7.2% higher than January and multi-families were up 2.4% – which is 16.8% higher than one year ago. While starts were up from January’s numbers (the weather having played a large role) building permits declined for the 3rd month in a row BUT were still 6.3% higher than a year ago. Click here to read the full release.

A new study from the R Street Institute aims to score America’s 59 largest cities on their openness to short-term-rentals (STR’s) according to their regulatory, legal and tax-collection environment.  Using their “Roomscore,” grading system, the study assigns cities grades from A to F in multiple areas determining their friendliness or hostility to short term rentals. Of the 59 cities rated, the study found that Galveston and Savannah were the most friendly to STR listing services like Airbnb and Homeaway.  And, Atlanta, Denver and Oklahoma City were the least friendly to STR’s. “An overview of the legal frameworks that local jurisdictions…

As we approach this year’s tax deadline it’s worth taking a look at which states have the highest and lowest tax rates.  The folks over financial site WalletHub.com recently identified the states with the highest and lowest effective tax burdens correlating data across four types of taxation: Real Estate taxes, Vehicle Property Taxes, Income Taxes and Sales & Excise Taxes.  Data used to create these rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Tax Foundation, the Federation of Tax Administrators, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Automobile Dealers Association, each state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and WalletHub research. Their…