Jobs are everything. Period. Ongoing good news is that job growth continues to look up. The U.S. added 213,000 net new jobs (preliminary) in June 2018. The unemployment rate edged up from 3.8 percent in May to 4.0 percent as 204,000 added reentrants came back to the job market. Reentrants are people that previously worked …Read more
An estimated 40 million Americans move at least once each year, making up roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population. Trends in moving have been towards warmer climates, more affordable destinations and to where there are jobs. Many trends have been ongoing for 50 years or more. In the last quarter of 2017, San Francisco …Read more
Jobs are everything to an economy. Period. My favorite economic axiom! The ultimate demand for real estate is driven by people with money in their pockets – hence the focus on jobs. The demand for almost all real estate is local in nature (forgoing natural resources and geographic factors). Where robust job growth is found, …Read more
Back in the 1960s and 1970s there was magic in the word MILLION. Median home prices were less than $30,000. When I graduated with a Master’s degree in 1978 there were just 450,000 Millionaires in the country. There are almost 11 million today. Things change. So does the impact of some words. Many people now …Read more
There are only two things that are inevitable – death and taxes. Good news is this blog is about the latter of the two. Just as there are a number of things that can impact health, there are also multiple taxes that cannot be avoided. While property taxes are the primary revenue source for state …Read more
There was much debate and rhetoric regarding the potential impact on higher-valued homes arising from passage of the Tax Cut and Jobs Creation Act of 2017. The thought was that by cutting the allowable interest deduction from $1 million of total loans on the primary and secondary home(s) to $750,000, along with limiting a total …Read more
As we turn our air conditioners colder this pre-fourth of July weekend due to the heat wave covering most of the country, the cost of electricity comes front and center. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), air conditioning is the number one user of electricity in the average U.S. home, accounting for 15 …Read more
Fortunately, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the MBA update their quarterly and annual forecasts monthly for residential lending volumes – both refinance and purchase transactions. Driving these lending forecasts is the expectation of future interest rates. Since 2018 is almost one-half over there is not too much deviation in interest rate expectations for the year, …Read more
My number one Axiom is: Jobs are everything to the economy – period. This includes the demand for real estate. Axioms are statements that are so evident they are accepted as the truth. Where job growth is the greatest directly correlates to strong demand for real estate. The first table shows the Top-10 job gainers …Read more
New single family residential (SFR) home sales of 689,000 on seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) were up 14.1 percent versus a year ago and 6.7 percent sequentially from April. Other than the 712,000 SAAR rate posted in November 2017, this is the greatest level seen since October 2007. Year-to-date new home sales are up 8.8 …Read more