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
Top 3 Markets for Millennial Homebuyers
Millennial buyers accounted for more than a third of all home purchases in 2017, but the most competitive housing markets in the country do not have much room for them. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), “young home shoppers are relocating to more affordable parts of the country” ...
Freddie Mac to Expand 3% Down Loans for New Homebuyers
Freddie Mac is going into competition with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for low-down-payment borrowers, but that is not a bad thing for buyers or investors. Freddie Mac’s new HomeOne program can be applied to first-time homebuyers in any geographic location and any income bracket, putting a 3 percent down ...
Mandarin-Speaking Robots to Partner with Chinese Real Estate Website
If you always wanted to work with Chinese real estate investors but had no idea how you would start the conversation, Singou Technology of Macau (STM) and Chinese international real estate website Juwai.com may have some answers for you. Juwai.com announced this week that it will partner with STM to ...
Tumbleweed Buries Southern California Homes
We’ve all heard about the hazards and inconveniences associated with environmental factors like snow, water, and wind, but you might not be quite so familiar with the perils of tumbleweeds. These spiky balls of dried plant material break off in strong winds and blow around, dispersing seeds. Unfortunately for residents ...
Housing Demand Falls 6.5 Percent Thanks to Late Winter Blues
Fewer home sellers requested home tours and wrote offers last month than they, did in the middle of winter, an unusual break in the traditional spring housing “heat” most real estate professionals have come to expect. According to Redfin’s Housing Demand index, which measures how many customers exhibit behaviors that ...
Retail Vacancy Rates Close in on Record Highs
For the past 10 years, CoStar Group, a commercial real estate services firm, has been tracking how much retail space closes each year. Retail properties are used to sell consumer goods and services, but there is a great deal of variety among this type of real estate. Retail real estate ...
Homebuyers Making Offers Sight-Unseen in Traditionally Affordable Markets
Homebuyers are getting desperate for deals – any deals at all – and it is creating a buying frenzy the likes of which has not been seen in many markets in more than a decade, if ever. According to Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist of Veritas Urbis Economics, Spring 2018 could ...
Auction.com Partners With Think Realty Radio
Think Realty Radio has secured a partnership agreement with Auction.com, the nation’s leading online real estate marketplace focused exclusively on the sale of residential bank-owned and foreclosure properties. Auction.com sponsors the Think Realty Radio show on Thursdays. Think Realty, the industry leader in real estate investor resources, education and best ...
Foreclosure Rates Rising in Texas and Florida as Disaster Moratoria End
March 2018 foreclosure numbers were up 11.56 percent, or by 52,100 foreclosure starts, nationally over February 2018 according to a Black Knight report. Of that increase, Florida and Texas foreclosures were responsible for two-thirds. Of note: Compared to March 2017, foreclosure starts were still down 13.6 percent. Black Knight analysts ...
3 Listing Descriptions that Netted Sellers Double-Digit Advantages in 2017
Every homebuyer has a “wish list” for their future home, but certain items on that list could add nearly 30 percent to your sales price. According to a new report from Zillow, certain listing terms snagged sellers huge premiums on their homes at the closing table. Knowing which items to ...
How the Internet is Changing Education and Real Estate
This article was originally featured in March 2018 Think Realty Magazine and written by Aaron Norris, VP of The Norris Group. Would you rather take an investment course from a local university professor with mild success managing a small portfolio or from Warren Buffet? Your answer is hopefully the latter ...
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) May Drive Millennial Home Sales
If your friends have recently purchased a home, then the odds are good you might start thinking about doing the same. If they’re posting about it on social media, however, you’re probably going to take some action. According to a new survey from Bank of America, about a third of ...
U.S. and U.K. Warn Private Homeowners About Russian Cyberattacks on Smart Devices
The United States and Great Britain have issued a new type of national alert: a warning about cyber attacks on individuals and private property. The two countries issued a joint alert this week indicating that private homeowners should be aware their internet devices are not only susceptible to hacking by ...
Renters Warehouse CEO Announced As New Think Realty Resident Expert
Kevin Ortner, CEO of Renters Warehouse, has been named Think Realty’s newest Resident Expert! His first two courses, Buy & Hold Strategies and Building your Rent Estate Portfolio, will focus on helping investors build wealth through rentals. Think Realty selected Ortner as a Resident Expert for his expertise in the ...
2018 Could be the Worst Year Yet for Housing Affordability
Thanks to rising home prices, rising interest rates, and rising demand for housing, housing affordability is likely to plummet over the course of 2018. Housing affordability, which is defined as the median price of a home that a household earning median income can afford using a third of their income ...
Price-Gouging Charges Leveled Against California Landlord
When wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in California last fall, tens of thousands of residents were displaced. As those households began to seek new places to live and to rebuild, many investors flocked to California as well. This is part of the housing/natural disaster cycle: When disaster strikes, real estate ...
Smart Wallpaper is Flame-Retardant, Alerts Homeowners in Event of Fire
Researchers at Shanghai’s Institute of Ceramics have developed a wallpaper that not only delay the spread of a fire but might call the fire department for you as well. The paper consists of fire-resistant materials including graphene oxide and hydroxyapatite nanowires. The combination enables the wallpaper to “sense” when heat ...
Detroit Resident Makes Over Neighborhood, Builds Rental Portfolio
Jeff Cowin moved into Detroit’s Virginia Park historic district in 2010 when the area was still full of abandoned homes, blighted buildings, squatters, and crime. At the time, neither Cowin nor the neighborhood had any idea just how positive the new homeowner would be for the area. Today, Cowin’s street ...
Metro Detroit Home Prices Set to Rise
Thanks to relatively low unemployment, rising interest rates, a dearth of new construction, a large population of new metro residents, and tight housing inventory, Detroit, Michigan’s housing market could be heading into a heated territory. According to reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the area’s unemployment is hovering ...
Zillow Makes Waves with Pilot of Home-Sales Platform
This week, Zillow announced it will begin both buying and selling properties directly from and to homeowners, meaning that it will purchase homes directly from sellers, then resell those properties to buyers. The program will start as a test in two markets, Las Vegas and Phoenix, this spring. The move ...
JFK Airport in New York No Longer in the “Top 20” for World’s Busiest Airports
New York’s JFK Airport is, according to the International Air Transport Association, no longer among the world’s 20 busiest airports. The reason, the ATA speculated, is likely “explosive growth of Asian airports” in New Delhi, India, and Guangzhou, China. Both locations’ airports recently entered the top 20. Atlanta, Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson ...
Activists Express Concern Over Amazon HQ2 and Housing
Shortly after naming 20 cities to its “short list” as finalists for its second headquarters, Amazon.com issued a demand for confidentiality on all offers and negotiations between those cities and itself on the topic of HQ2. According to Amazon, the project will bring in $5 billion in investments to the ...
Chinese Investors Still Buying U.S. Real Estate
Although the rhetoric has been heated on both sides as President Trump and President Xi trade threats about various tariffs and taxes to potentially be imposed on each other’s respective countries, Chinese real estate investors do not seem to be too worried about a potential trade war and its effects ...
Top 3 Hottest Luxury ZIP Codes in the United States
New data from Realtor.com indicates that luxury home prices in certain markets around the country are spiraling through the roof, and the trend does not appear to be cooling anytime soon. Researchers combined data on markets where median list price exceeds $1 million and markets where median list prices have ...
Mississippi Investors Plead Guilty to Bid-Rigging
Mississippi real estate investors who agreed not to bid against each other at foreclosure auctions are now facing fines and even jail time. Last week, three more investors pled guilty to designating a winning bidder in advance of auctions and accepting payoffs from each other in exchange for agreements not ...
