Market & Trends

The world of real estate investing moves quickly. Catch the must-know news, market information, and trends for the industry here.

Back To: All Topics 

Market & Trends

The world of real estate investing moves quickly. Catch the must-know news, market information, and trends for the industry here.

Back To: All Topics 

Amazon HQ2

Amazon in Real Estate?

What will happen when the biggest retail disruptor enters real estate? According to CNBC, the largest residential real estate brokerage company in the nation, Realogy, is leveraging the influence of the largest online retailer in the world, Amazon. The two companies formed a partnership strategically designed to “boost sales for ...
First Time Home Buyers

Fannie Mae: Housing Forecast

According to Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group, domestic growth is expected to be stronger in 2019 than previously predicted thanks to consumer spending, a strong labor market, and a recent rebound in equity valuation. This is helping to offset growing weakness in business investment and government expenditures ...
Flipping-Trends

Flipping Trends

After falling off in late 2018, the U.S. home flipping rate rebounded to a nine-year high in the first quarter of 2019, according to a recent report from ATTOM Data Solutions. ATTOM’s Chief Product Officer Todd Teta concluded that the jump in home flipping was likely due to real estate ...
FirstTime-Homebuyers

How Fewer First-Time Home Buyers Threaten the Real Estate Market

You can’t have home sales without buyers, and the most important buyers of all are first timers. While it might seem that a sale is a sale, that’s not the case. The chain of transactions that powers the housing sector begins with first-time buyers. Unfortunately, first-timers are a vanishing species ...
Regional-Investing

National Trends and Regional Investing

To profit at real estate investing, one needs to be alert to both national and local real estate trends. There are macro trends that impact every U.S. housing market: growth/recession and capital costs are national drivers. Local trends include the availability of housing stock and labor/construction costs. It is critical ...
iBuyers

iBuyers: Investor Friend or Foe?

What happens when Main Street real estate investors are pitted against Wall Street behemoths backed by billions? It’s easy to imagine gun-slinging cowboys at opposite ends of a ghost town waiting to draw. Whether a duel is destined remains to be seen, but it’s important to understand the landscape. What ...
Uncomfortable-Truths

5 Uncomfortable Truths

As someone who successfully climbed the mountain to financial independence, I have witnessed “uncomfortable truths” that stop many people. Real estate investing can be a rewarding way out of the “rat race,” but we must recognize, discuss, and overcome these uncomfortable truths if we hope to help more investors achieve ...
foreclosure starts

Increased Foreclosures in the West?

According to a new client survey conducted by Auction.com, Western markets are most at risk for increased foreclosure inventory in the second half of 2019. Most respondents (80%) expect only slight changes in foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) inflow in the next six months. On July 9, 2019, Auction.com, the nation’s largest ...
Invest in the Midwest

Invest in the Midwest

When the foreclosure crisis hit the nation in 2007, the greatest impact was reported around the periphery of the nation — home prices plunged as jobs were lost and foreclosure levels went through the roof. And investors walked away. However, markets in the middle experienced much less volatility back then ...
housing

Rental Owners Saved from Footing Tenants’ Utility Bills

On April 25, 2019, Governor Eric Holcomb signed HB 1347 into law, giving much-deserved relief to rental property owners in Indiana. Rep.Woody Burton (R-Whiteland) authored the bill and championed its cause, being a Realtor® and rental property owner himself. The bill received some push back during its committee meetings in ...
Think Realty Magazine July/August 2019

Think Realty Magazine July/August 2019

+ WHAT'S INSIDE Think Realty |  News & Events • Think Realty Benefits: ApplyConnect • Top of Mind Investor Stories |  Rebuilding Rural America •Fab and Fearless •Healthy Passive Income Fundamentals |  Developing a Niche • Generational Tenants • 9 Steps to a Deed-in-Lieu-of Foreclosure• A Legal View •Doing Well ...
Think Realty Housing News Report July 2019

Think Realty Housing News Report July 2019

+ WHAT'S INSIDE Housing News Report |  Will Opportunity Zones Boost America's Distressed Neighborhoods? •My Take: Designed for the Conveniences of Today: Even Real Estate Transactions Can Be Done From Home • Market Spotlight: Investors Still Finding Success in the Middle • Big Data Sandbox: Where are the ZIP's that ...
Florida-Spotlight

Market Spotlight: Florida

Not all that long ago, a combination of risky loans and overzealous speculation by real estate investors and developers hit Florida harder than many other parts of the nation, turning it into one of the poster children for the housing crisis that followed. During its darkest hour, the number of ...
Top-Markets-with-Greatest-Seller-Gains-2019

State of Nation’s Housing Report Released

The State of the Nation’s Housing 2019 report, published by The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, was released June 25. The housing report asks what real estate investors — and anyone invested in U.S. housing — want to know: Can the market provide a broader and more ...
Binghamton-NewYork

Top 10 Metros with the Lowest Property Tax Rate

In a recent analysis by ATTOM Data Solutions on 2018 property taxes, there were a total $304.6 billion property taxes levied on single-family homes in 2018. The report also showed that the average property tax amount on single-family homes in 2018 was $3,498 – an effective tax rate of 1.16 ...
Smart Technology in Apartments

Smart Technology in Apartments

Smart home technology, once reserved for single-family homes, has invaded the multifamily, co-living and apartment space. The trend in property technology isn’t moving out of the industry anytime soon. But while benefits like unlocking the door from your smartphone are attractive to tenants, smart technology may mean even more for ...
Annual Foreclosures

Continuing a Trend, Annual Foreclosures Rates Drop in Every State Except One

For 11 consecutive months, the annual rate of foreclosures has dropped, according to a recent report from ATTOM Data Solutions. In May 2019, the real estate analytics provider found that foreclosure filings were reported on a total of 56,152 U.S. properties, which is a 1 percent increase from April, but ...
Silicon Valley San Francisco

The Urban Market Debate

When people think of vacation rentals, usually the serenity of the beach or mountains comes to mind, not the hustle and bustle of a city. There is a growing debate in the vacation rental/short-term rental industry if urban properties really are vacation rentals. Short term is considered anything less than ...
Why Mortgage Applications Have to Change

Why Mortgage Applications Have to Change

Ah, the continued plight of the American mortgage system. While each year millions of homeowners finance and refinance real estate with few problems, the system is increasingly fraught with new complexities and potential pitfalls. Updates are constantly needed to keep up with a number of outside factors and trends. Without ...
Think Realty Housing News Report June/July 2019

Think Realty Housing News Report June/July 2019

+ WHAT'S INSIDE Think Realty |  News & Events • Think Realty Supplier: Motili Investor Stories |  Loan Turned to Own •Why Mortgage Applications Have to Change Fundamentals |  How Wholesaling Can Work for You • Operation Safety • Mind the Gap • "It Depends"• A Legal View Strategy |  ...
GSE Reform

GSE Reform: Housing Finance Savior or Looming Disaster?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in play and with them the financial heart of the real estate marketplace. As they evolve – if they evolve – transactions worth trillions of dollars are at stake as well as billions of dollars in potential profits. The battle for Fannie Mae and ...
Solar-Economy

The New Solar Economy: A Hazy Path Toward Harnessing the Power of the Sun

With the ongoing certainty of sunrise, the use of renewable energy is becoming cheaper, more attractive, and more common. The promise of free fuel coupled with better technology is changing the energy economy by reducing our need for oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power. Every Tesla and Prius you ...
Home Values California-Homes

Zillow: Monthly Home Values Drop for First Time in Seven Years

All good things must come to an end, and that includes nearly a decade of growth for home values. Month-over-month home values have increased steadily since 2012, according to Zillow. But in April, however, the median home value fell 0.1 percent from March, which is the first time the market ...
Economic-Outlook

An Economic Outlook

The current economic expansion is set to complete its tenth year this fall, surpassing the 120-month expansion of the 1990s for the longest in U.S. history, dating back to the mid-1800s. However, despite a low unemployment rate and robust job growth, several forward-looking indicators have started flashing warning signs causing ...
homebuyers

Report: Springtime Homebuyers Face Far Less Competition

Prospective homebuyers are enjoying more than just warmer weather this Spring. Home shoppers are also facing less competition, as only 15 percent of offers faced competition in April, according to a recent report by real estate brokerage Redfin. The rate is a whopping 60 percent drop when compared to April ...