Author: Brad Beckett

The National Association of Realtors announced in a statement in early January that their President, Tracy Kasper, has resigned after receiving a “threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR.”  According to the NAR statement, she reported the incident to law enforcement and chose to step down for the good of the organization.  President-elect Kevin Sears will step into the role of NAR President, effective immediately. “As president and a long-time member of NAR, I always have put the interests of NAR first. As a result of the recent threat and given the…

According to the latest U-Haul annual Growth Index, Florida dominated their growth cities list again in 2023, with the Palm Bay-Melbourne market netting the largest number of movers in one-way U-Haul equipment last year.  The U-Haul Growth Index found seven Florida markets among the top 25 growth cities – marking the 7th year in a row Florida has had the most cities represented. U-Haul calculates growth cities by each city’s net gain (or loss) of one-way equipment from customer transactions in a calendar year. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from more than 2.5 million one-way U-Haul truck, trailer and…

Recent analysis from the NAHB’s Eye on Housing says that $129 billion in taxes were paid by property owners in Q3 of 2023.  They point out that In the four quarters ending Q3 2023, state & local governments collected $757 billion of property tax revenue—an 11.6% increase over Q3 2022.  Indeed… “The year-over-year growth rate of property tax revenue (trailing four-quarter total) has climbed from 1.7% to 11.6% since Q1 2022. Growth has exceeded 10% for three consecutive quarters for the first time since 2009. Gains have been driven by rising home value assessments, which can lag market prices by…

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 216k, in December 2023, with the unemployment rate coming in at 3.7% (the same as November).  Interesting, looking back over 2023, government added an average of 56k jobs per month – more than double the average monthly gain of 23k in 2022! Click here to read the full report at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in November, 2023 was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,050.1 billion, which is 0.4% higher than October’s revised estimate and 11.3% higher than one year ago.  Residential construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $896.8 billion in November, which is 1.1% higher than October’s revised estimate. Click here to read the full report at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Last summer we posted about the ratio of  unmarried men to women.  Now comes some Census data recently analyzed by Statista that shows that Americans are getting married at an older age than ever.  They point out that median average age for men to first get married has risen to 30.2 years in 2023, while for women the figure is 28.4 years.  As always, stay safe and have a Happy Friday!!! Hat tip to Statista.

Each year, Zumper’s Annual Rent Report takes a deep-dive into past year of data, knowledge of economic trends, Zumper surveys, internal data on renter search, and ongoing conversations with clients, experts, and others in the industry.  They say this intel gives them a comprehensive view of 2023 and a look at what’s to come in 2024. “More than 30 percent of renters now think the American dream does not involve home ownership…That’s a statistic no one in the real estate industry can afford to ignore. It’s also the most significant change in attitudes since we started tracking renters’ view of…

On a recent episode of the AZREIA Show, Marcus Maloney & Michael Del Prete talk with Ryan Overcash dive into the power of the mind and how it influences our success as real estate investors.  Overcash discusses the importance of building mental fortitude and resilience, and how it can impact your journey towards financial success. Click here to listen on Spotify.

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), home prices home prices rose 6.3% between October 2022 and October of 2023.  In addition, FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for October was up 0.3% from September.  The FHFA HPI is the nation’s only collection of public, freely available house price indexes that measure changes in single-family home values based on data from all 50 states and over 400 American cities that extend back to the mid-1970s. “U.S. house price gains remained strong over the last 12 months…On a monthly basis, price appreciation moderated in October, with…

Storagecafe says interstate moving is at an all-time high, with a record-breaking 8.2 million Americans making the move across state lines in 2022. On the flip side, their data show same-state relocations plummeted over the last decade, from 37.8 million Americans involved in local moves in 2013 to just 31 million in 2022. Some key points: Florida, Texas and North Carolina are the country’s top three states for net migration Nine of the top 10 states for net migration are located in Southern and Southwestern US, with Connecticut the only outlier The South is the only region showing population gains…