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 

dollar bill

Oklahoma Real Estate Agent Lists Home In Good Condition for $1

For anyone who has ever watched “The Price is Right,” the idea of pricing something at one dollar is inherently strategic. Taking this tactic to the extreme of listing a four-bedroom, four-bathroom home for a single dollar, however, takes guts. A real estate professional in Edmond, Oklahoma, named Ryan Hukill ...
Washington DC

Real Estate Fund Betting on D.C. for Amazon’s HQ2

When Third Avenue Real Estate Fund announced it would buy $10 million worth of shares in a real estate investment trust (REIT) with extensive holdings in Crystal City, an urban neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Arlington County, Virginia, it cited, among other factors, the likelihood that Amazon’s second national ...
San Francisco bridge

Nestpick Names San Francisco “Best City for Young Entrepreneurs”

Nestpick, a furnished apartment search engine based in Berlin, Germany, recently released its “2018 Millennial Cities Ranking” report. The report debuted last year, in 2017, and Nestpick conducted the study “in order to pinpoint which cities are successfully attracting this generation and therefore a core future workforce.” The company managing ...
partnership with ownamerica

Think Realty Deepens Partnership with OwnAmerica

Affinity Worldwide recently made an equity invesment in OwnAmerica. The purchase deepens the partnership with OwnAmerica and two of Affinity Worldwide’s real estate-related entities, Think Realty and National Real Estate Insurance Group. The terms of the investment were not disclosed. OwnAmerica is a leading platform that operates a national marketplace for Single Family ...
fair housing filings

Fair Housing Filings Continue to Rise

According to the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)’s 2018 Fair Housing Trends Report, incidences of fair housing discrimination complaints rose slightly in 2017 after rising in 2016. It is important to remember that a complaint does not necessarily mean that the allegation is accurate or, in fact, an infraction. The ...
outdoor living

Zillow Research Reveals 3 Outdoor Trends to Showcase in Summer Listings

If your home offers outdoor entertainment options, chances are you will beat the competition when it comes to selling for top dollar in your local market. A new report from Zillow Research indicates homes with outdoor living additions may sell for double-digit premiums over comparable properties without those upgrades. For-sale ...
US Embassy Tbilisi to bring American NASCAR driver, Jennifer Jo Cobb, to Georgia

US Embassy Tbilisi to bring American NASCAR driver, Jennifer Jo Cobb, to Georgia

Jennifer Jo Cobb will take her first lap as an international speaker. The U.S. Embassy Tbilisi will host Cobb from May 26 to June 2. Throughout the week, she will speak in multiple locations to groups of female and male leaders about empowerment, leadership, entrepreneurship, overcoming personal obstacles and the benefits ...
The Best Months and Days to Sell a Home

The Best Months and Days to Sell a Home

Although the best month in which to sell your home is officially May, the best day of the year to sell is June 28. According to new data from ATTOM Data, homeowners who sell in May net an average of a 5.9 percent premium on market value. Those who sell ...
Lennar to make Alexa Standard in New Homes

Lennar to make Alexa Standard in New Homes

Calling the decision to make a variety of smart-home features standard in its new homes a new “hallmark of why we buy a new home,” David Kaiserman, president of Lennar Ventures, proudly announced the homebuilder will now make Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant, a standard feature in all of the ...
Millennial Buyers are Skipping the “Starter Home”

Millennial Buyers are Skipping the “Starter Home”

Millennial home buyers account for about a third of all home purchases today, and many are opting to purchase properties outside of the norm for a first home.  “They rented for longer, and now they’re going to where they want to stay,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for advisory firm ...
California Passes “Solar Mandate” on New Construction

California Passes “Solar Mandate” on New Construction

Yesterday, California’s Energy Commission voted to require solar panel installations on nearly all new homes by January 1, 2020. Not surprisingly, solar shares surged upward in the wake of the vote while homebuilder shares fell, since the move will add somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 to construction costs. However, noted ...
The Future is Now for Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate

The Future is Now for Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate

From Hollywood to Wall Street, the term artificial intelligence (AI) is an agenda item. Everyone wants at least one peek into how AI will impact their business or industry. It probably comes as no surprise, then, that the giant data company Salesforce is been dedicated to the advancement of AI, ...
Los Angeles and Atlanta Top “Most Popular Neighborhood” Lists

Los Angeles and Atlanta Top “Most Popular Neighborhood” Lists

Zillow recently announced its 20 “most popular neighborhoods” results, and Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, are home to the first- and second-place results. Presidio Heights, located in San Francisco, rounded out the top three. Zillow identified neighborhoods with the highest number of page views per listing during the first ...
Hawaiian Volcano Continues Destruction in Big Island Residential Areas

Hawaiian Volcano Continues Destruction in Big Island Residential Areas

When Kilauea Volcano, a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, erupted last week, the flow of molten lava represented a huge danger to the inhabitants of the island, several thousand of whom lived in areas directly in the path of the lava. For example, in Leilani Estates, a subdivision that has ...
FHA Borrowers Can Now Access Solar Panel Installation Loans

FHA Borrowers Can Now Access Solar Panel Installation Loans

More and more homeowners are expressing the desire to install solar panels in their homes, and an increasing number of lenders are working hard to help them obtain the funding to do so. One lender, Guild Mortgage, recently announced it would assist homeowners using FHA loans to purchase their properties ...
Freddie Mac Offering Affordability Incentives to Multifamily Owners

Freddie Mac Offering Affordability Incentives to Multifamily Owners

Freddie Mac will offer low-cost loans to owners of multifamily properties who keep their buildings affordable to households earning 80 percent or less of an area’s median income for the duration of the loan. “Freddie Mac is the country’s largest backer of apartment loans,” observed Wall Street Journal writer Laura ...
A New Luxury Trend Strips Down Properties Before Showing

A New Luxury Trend Strips Down Properties Before Showing

Although most homeowners do not want to start “from scratch” when they move into a home, certain high-end buyers like nothing better, and high-end sellers are accommodating that desire by employing a practice known as “white-boxing” to make their homes a blank canvas for the next buyer. White-boxing involves stripping ...
Regional Spotlight: New Orleans

Regional Spotlight: New Orleans

New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), is anything but simple. From its 73 “official” neighborhoods that some locals claim do not really exist to its storied history replete with pirates, natural disasters, and one of the country’s first “skyscrapers” (erected in 1807), the city is a beautiful and confusing cultural and architectural ...
A New Room Takes Top Place in Remodeling

A New Room Takes Top Place in Remodeling

A new survey from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) indicates remodeling the bathroom is more important to homeowners than remodeling the kitchen, although both rooms dominate other remodeling projects. The survey, which asked respondents about their remodeling projects in 2017 and what types of changes they made, indicated ...
Building Community in Real Estate

Building Community in Real Estate

It is not uncommon to hear real estate investors refer to their businesses as “supporting the community.” This statement is highly accurate, given that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates that there are nearly 28 million small businesses in the country and, of that 28 million, roughly 10 percent ...
3 Bathroom Trends Evolving in 2018

3 Bathroom Trends Evolving in 2018

Meet the Expert: Katrina Rice is a professional kitchen and bath designer with 84 Lumber’s Kitchen & Bath Design Studio in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania. 84 Lumber’s Kitchen & Bath Design Studios exist in more than 30 of 84 Lumber’s 250 stores nationwide and are staffed by experienced professionals. She is ...
D.C. Congressmen Sleeping on Cots, Can’t Afford Housing

D.C. Congressmen Sleeping on Cots, Can’t Afford Housing

According to a report from the New York Post, some lawmakers are sleeping on cots in their offices in order to save money on renting a D.C. apartment during the times of the year Congress is in session. One representative told the Post, “Washington is too expensive.” He added, “If ...
DocuSign Value Soars After Initial Public Offering

DocuSign Value Soars After Initial Public Offering

E-signature company DocuSign, which led the charge into digital real estate closings, went public last week. All signs indicate that the company will continue to gain value as more and more real estate professionals realize the value of a digital closing. The company started the initial public offering (IPO) with ...
Doctors Could be the Key to Your Next Commercial Investment

Doctors Could be the Key to Your Next Commercial Investment

Doctors and medical experts have always tended to be in real estate as well as medicine. They often own the buildings that house their practices and, once they get a taste of the joys of real estate ownership, start expanding their portfolios with both commercial and residential properties. Recently, I’ve ...
Progress Report: The Evolution of the Build-to-Rent Industry

Progress Report: The Evolution of the Build-to-Rent Industry

Lately, the hottest topic in real estate investing is “building-to-rent.” Before the housing crash, very few investors would have considered this strategy because everyone wanted to own their own home and lenient mortgage lending requirements made that a very real possibility for most people. Today, however, thanks to the combination ...