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
Down Payment Program: Employers to Help Employees
A new program from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow borrowers to crowdfund their down payments from multiple sources, including their employers. HomeFundMe was created by mortgage banking firm CMG Financial, and allows employers to contribute directly to employees’ accounts for the express purpose of helping that employee purchase ...
Realtor.com Report: Housing Inventory Ongoing Problem
Late last week, Realtor.com released its “State of the Housing Union,” an annual report published shortly prior to the president’s State of the Union address. The association stated, “The housing market outlook is looking bright on several fronts: strong buyer demand, particularly among first-timers, and a growing U.S. economy urging ...
Amazon’s HQ2 Short List Silenced, for Now
The location of Amazon’s second headquarters will benefit in enormous ways from the influx of jobs and development that will come with HQ2 but cities vying for the position will be keeping quiet about what they’re offering while the contest continues. According to CNBC reports last week, Amazon has requested ...
Waste DNA Testing, Key to Solving Pet Owner Issues
Dog-friendly rentals are in big demand, and landlords are coming up with some great amenities for their four-legged tenants. But, despite the good behavior of most tenants and dogs, some pet owners don’t pick up after their pets. Tenants either don’t see it, or ignore it, and it’s left for ...
How Housing Agencies are Affected by Government Shutdown
Last week, spending authority for most government agencies expired on midnight, January 29, 2018, as a result of ongoing conflict in the U.S. House of Representatives that prevented a national budget bill from being passed. At time of publication, the Senate had voted to pass a temporary spending bill to ...
3 Markets Might Benefit Most from Amazon’s HQ2
Last week, Amazon announced its 20 finalists for its second headquarters, nicknamed HQ2, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. Cities that made the top 20 were elated and eager to remind everyone exactly why their location looked so good: • “We are excited to learn that Atlanta has been ...
7 Advantages of Attending Events in Person vs Online
When real estate investors think about attending conferences, expos, and in-person education and training, they often cite the following reasons for not getting out and meeting people face to face: No one wants to meet me. I can get everything I need online. I’m too busy. Then they elaborate that ...
12-Year Low in Foreclosure Activity for 2017
ATTOM Data Solutions, today released its Year-End 2017 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 676,535 U.S. properties in 2017, down 27 percent from 2016 and down 76 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in ...
The Case for Real Estate as an Investment
Yes, as you may have heard, Bitcoin has gone through the proverbial roof of late and cryptocurrencies are all the rage. There are also plenty of sexy startups out there and I’m sure your friend has a great stock tip or two. And you probably know at least one gold ...
Real estate investing is all about the personal touch, so it’s not surprising that most investors are not too concerned about one of the hottest topics in tech these days: robots replacing humans in many areas of employment, even possibly realtors. However, a startup called Homie is hoping to change ...
Breaking News: Amazon Announces 20 Finalists for HQ2
Amazon announced today it has narrowed the list of possible locations for its second headquarters, HQ2, down to 20. Not surprisingly, the list features a number of metro areas in the Midwest and South, which are the most affordable regions of the United States, and steers away from what the ...
Buying Cheaper than Renting in More than Half of Markets
The national housing market is definitely heating up, but it still makes more sense to buy instead of rent in more than half of all housing markets. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 54 percent of all U.S ...
Foreclosure Wave Heads for Puerto Rico
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, it was quickly named the worst natural disaster on record to ever hit the region. Maria was the 10th-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, and the deadliest storm of the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season. It was also far and ...
Hottest & Coldest Names for Home Buyers
ATTOM Data Solutions released a unique set of data, nothing like what is usually gathered and recorded. In the following maps comes the hottest and fastest declining first names of homebuyers. Much like the lists of top baby names, this list shows the most popular names of buyers and those ...
5 Indicators a Real Estate Event is Worth the Investment
One of the most frustrating things that active real estate investors can encounter is a wasted real estate event. We don’t mean an event you paid for through the nose on credit, and then found yourself still unable to invest. Those are an entirely different topic, and not one we’re ...
3 Effects Tax Cuts Could Have on Economy & Housing
When President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on December 22, 2017, he accomplished a number of things with a single swipe of a pen. Those things included: Cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent Cutting the top individual tax rate to 37 percent Reducing ...
64 Percent Live Where Cheaper to Rent than Buy
ATTOM Data Solutions, today released its 2018 Rental Affordability Report, which shows buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 240 of 447 U.S. counties analyzed for the report — 54 percent. The analysis incorporated recently released fair market rent data for 2018 from the U.S ...
Reform Boon for Commercial Real Estate
Starting this week, new tax rules will usher in the New Year with a big win for residential and commercial real estate investors. It’s still too early to know the full impact of the legislation, but many tax professionals say real estate investors and other property owners have hit the ...
Luxury Real Estate Lags Behind Mainstream Housing
According to Realtor.com, U.S. luxury housing lagged behind the mainstream real estate market in 2017 and is likely to continue to slow in 2018. Of course, that does not mean that the sector is not still growing. In fact, analysts reported that average sales price in the luxury market, defined ...
Global Economic Rankings Will Affect U.S. Real Estate
When the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) announced in early January that China’s economy would surpass that of the United States “by 2032,” the reaction from the U.S. media was not surprising. The U.S. has been a dominant economic force in the world for a very long time ...
FHA May Refuse to Insure Loans on Energy Efficient Properties
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) recently released new restrictions on the types of mortgages it will insure and eliminated certain energy-efficient homes in the process. In early December 2017, the FHA reversed a policy from the previous presidential administration that allowed the FHA to insure mortgages on homes carrying liens ...
Rents Continue to Rise into 2018
Although rental rate growth slowed over the course of 2017, Zillow reported at the start of 2018 that rates were starting to rise again. Over the past 12 months, median rents nationwide rose about 2.4 percent. This manifested in a median rental price of $1,435 per month, which, Zillow analysts ...
Gary Harper Joins Think Realty Resident Experts
Effective leadership is not only a necessity in our society, but it is also a necessity for a successful business. Gary Harper, president and founder of Sharper Business Solutions and founder and CEO of Monster House Deals LLC, just to name two of his affiliations, is someone who understands what ...
Home Values Record High in 2017
At the end of 2017, the total value of all the homes in the United States reached $31.8 trillion, which is more than one-and-a-half times the gross domestic product (GDP). This is almost $2 trillion more than the value of all U.S. homes at the end of 2016, and a ...
2018 Perfectly Positioned to Bring Buyers Off Fence
2018 will likely bring a number of homebuyers out of the woodwork, to the benefit of real estate investors prepared to work with them. Although many would-be buyers have remained on the sidelines since the housing crash, a number of factors are likely to force their hand in the New ...
