Real Estate Market

Real Estate Is Local (Except When It Isn’t)

by Joe Manausa, MBA | March 8, 2011

I just finished reading Ryan Hinricher’s article on The Week In Housing, as I typically do every Monday. By show of hands, who else likes to see this report? Ryan provides a nice synopsis of some key housing trends that only takes a few minutes to digest. One of the first thoughts that echoes in [...]

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Real Estate Market

Maybe It’s Time to Invest in Canadian Real Estate

by Julie Broad | July 7, 2010

The world has been watching Canada this year. Not because the winter Olympics were here, but because Canada escaped the global economic crisis with minor cuts and bruises while many other countries are still being hit hard. We’ve become the example for other countries to learn from. And some of the world’s most influential economic [...]

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Real Estate Market

Home Buyer Credit Extension Does Its Job, but what’s next?

by Ryan Hinricher | June 7, 2010

Crunching the recent Pending Homes Sales Index (PHSI) numbers revealed the home buyer credit extension worked. The extension proved not to have diminishing returns as the index nearly matched the recent high set in October, 2009 (110.9 vs. 112.4). This is short term good news for the economy as the extensions have helped the real [...]

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Flipping Houses

Is It Time For You to Get Outa Dodge? From Flip to Keep to See Ya!

by Jeff Brown | April 27, 2010

My all time favorite axiom was taught to me by Grandma one day at their Art Shack in Temecula. It was during summer vacation, I was about 10 or so, and it was HOT. Grandpa was in the middle of one of his signature paintings of the Grand Canyon, when without warning he stopped, put [...]

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Real Estate Market

Multigenerational Home Buying Gaining Momemtum

by Chris Birk | April 5, 2010

Make room for Mom. A growing number of home buyers are looking for extra space to accommodate multiple generations of family, according to a recent Coldwell Banker survey of real estate agents. Almost 40 percent of the agents who responded noted an increase in home buyers looking to purchase homes to accommodate more than one [...]

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Economy

Investigation into Pending Home Sales Reinforces Recovery

by Ryan Hinricher | January 11, 2010

On the 5th of January, the National Association of Realtors released its latest Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), showing a 16% decline over October. Almost immediately the media seized these numbers and outlets like MSNBC reported “Housing Industry May Be Headed for Double Dip”. Of course any decline anywhere in the economy right now is [...]

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Real Estate

National Headlines & Local Realities: Finding Great Real Estate Deals

by Tom Koziol | December 25, 2009

If you read the headline that shouted, November new home sales sink 11 percent, without knowing your local market, you could easily believe it was aimed at you. On one hand, it certainly could apply to your area but, on the other hand, it certainly may not. By now, you probably understand the simple real [...]

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Real Estate Market

Is The Housing Market Overheating . . . Again?

by Peter Giardini | October 27, 2009

It seems that in these past two weeks, we have experienced a tremendous increase in relatively negative news regarding the real estate market. Usually I just chalk up all this negativity to the media working hard to score a few extra bucks. However, this time I am choosing to not be so hard on the [...]

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Real Estate Market

Kennewick, The Stolen Salmon & Why Real Estate Is Booming There

by Charles Feldman | October 21, 2009

First of all, I should tell you that I do not have the faintest notion why those dudes stole the freaking salmon from a fish hatchery in Kennewick, Washington! I can only tell you that, according to the Kennewick website, the dude allegedly stole the entire salmon. Doesn’t say if he was hungry or trying to sell the fish on the black market (is there a black market for salmon???) or whether he was, perhaps, romantically involved in some way with the big fish. Look, we are talking about Kennewick, Washington, so anything pretty much goes.

Now what brought me to the official Kennewick website in the first place, you may ask? (That’s okay. If you didn’t ask it, I just did.)

I’ll get to that in a minute. But first…for those not familiar with Kennewick, Washington (and I’m guessing that’s like 99% of you, right?) it is a city of almost 66 thousand people (and an unknown number of salmon I’m guessing) that is about a three and a half hour drive from Seattle.

In the winter, the temperature rarely drops below 44 degrees and in the summer seldom climbs much above 88. Except when it does.

The city is in Benton County which fits very nicely into the southeastern portion of this northwestern state.

And, did I tell you that Forbes ranks it number two in job growth for the entire United States? (Suppose that could mean it has just added two new jobs!)

Now I am getting to the interesting part.

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Housing

Why Exercising Could Make You a Wealthier Investor

by Jason Hanson | October 7, 2009

I hate running. I pretty much hate any form of exercise. I have no problem doing my real estate work, but when it comes to working out, I’ll admit I’m very lazy and lack discipline.

I remember many of my mentors telling me how important it was to exercise on a daily basis and how exercising was often the first thing they did in the morning. I’ve also read the same thing in many books written by successful people. I recall one successful entrepreneur/writer saying that no matter what, he does three things every single day: 1) He writes 2) He promotes his business 3) He exercises.

This is What Happens When You Get Older

I’ve heard this advice for years and I just ignored it and didn’t think it had anything to do with success. Well, I must be getting older because a few weeks ago I started feeling run down and I didn’t have as much energy as I used to. Come 9:00 at night I’d be ready to pass out, even though I had just sat at my computer all day and hadn’t had a stressful or rigorous day.

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Real Estate Market

Maryland and Virginia Real Estate Markets Show Promise

by Brendan O'Brien | October 5, 2009

Welcome to Virginia. Stay a while. Stay FOREVER Last week, I started looking into the Washington, DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which consists of the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland. Given the growth in the federal budget over the last few years, I wasn’t surprised to see that the DC MSA was “the most educated and affluent metropolitan area in the United States,” according to Wikipedia.

The District of Columbia itself has made great strides in recent years, including greatly reducing the rate of violent crime. You may recall that it was known as America’s murder capital during the crack-filled 1990s. However, the city’s unemployment rate is actually fairly high, at 11.1%.

Maryland and Virginia, on the other hand, are very prosperous. Both are among the most economically successful states in the country.

Maryland’s Doing Pretty Well…

Maryland, DC’s (mostly) northeastern neighbor, has seen fairly consistent population increases and has a well-below-average unemployment rate of 7.2%. It actually has the highest median household income of any state, although this can be deceiving – the cost of living is also very high there. (The second highest median household income is in New Jersey, which is not currently an economic paradise.)

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Real Estate Market

How is the Washington, DC Real Estate Market?

by Brendan O'Brien | September 26, 2009

Washington DC real estate market Note to readers: I’ve been criticized for some blunt statements about real estate markets in the past. You can disagree with me, but I ask that you not doubt my integrity. I have no real estate interests outside New Hampshire and am not representing anyone.

When I started researching the Washington, DC real estate market, I was impressed by the stability of institutional markets in general and astonished by the growing disparity between federal government and private industry employment. Put bluntly, the federal government has become the best employer in America. It is the most stable, with a headcount that grows annually and essentially guaranteed salary increases. It also offers the best benefits and salaries, except for the very top (the government’s CEO, President Barack Obama, makes $400,000 per year – a nice paycheck, but lower than that for almost any CEO in the Fortune 500).

As you might imagine, having the biggest employer in the country in your back yard is a good thing. When that employer can always be counted on for a raise, that helps. Partly as a result of that, the DC real estate market is looking pretty darned good.

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Real Estate Market

Big Institutions Mean (Mostly) Stable Rental Markets

by Brendan O'Brien | September 8, 2009

02c General Hospital - Entrance (E) Many landlords are attracted to markets with a large institutional presence because they offer stability. Hospitals, universities and government agencies rarely make major cuts in employment, and they very rarely close. That means your prospective tenants are not likely to leave.

This also used to be the case for military bases. Years ago, career soldiers could build very comfortable nest eggs by buying a home in every base where they were stationed, and keeping it when they were transferred. They would always be able to find other soldiers to rent their homes. That’s changed to some extent because of the number of base closings over the last couple of decades. However, the largest bases will remain active for many years.

Are these markets really stable?

Big institutions almost never make up more than half of the employment in any market, meaning those markets are still subject to other private industry employment losses and gains.

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Real Estate Market

A Tale of Two Real Estate Cities

by Richard Warren | September 7, 2009

It was the worst of times and it was even worse than that. A recent Case-Shiller housing report finally showed some hopeful signs recently. The report showed that housing prices for the second quarter of this year were up for the first time in three years for 18 of the 20 markets that were tracked. The two that were down? Detroit and Las Vegas.

The two markets were very much the same, yet so different. The same in that they are still showing price declines but the future outlook for each is like night and day.

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Foreclosures

Network Your Way to Real Estate Success!

by Stephani Davis | August 20, 2009

One of the best ways to get your feet wet if you are a beginning investor or wholesaler is to get out and start networking with other like-minded individuals in your market.

When I was first getting started in my wholesaling career, I was a networking Ninja. My first year I made it my mission to get out and meet as many players in my market as I possibly could, and to introduce myself and let everyone know who I was and what I was trying to do. Some weeks I was going to real estate investor meetings five days out of seven. I was there like clockwork, handing out my business cards and getting to know who the movers and shakers were.

Even though I was scared to death at first, I forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and start plugging myself into the investor pipeline. I took somewhat of a “fake it ’til you make it” approach, and even though I didn’t really have a lot of experience under my belt, I decided that I was going to jump in and rub elbows with the big boys anyway. I read in a book somewhere that you become who you hang around, and so I made the decision that I was going to start hanging around like-minded, successful individuals.

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