You know Your Survival Guy wants you to own your home, not Zillow. I also don’t like the idea of flipping houses, because at some point the music might stop. The virtue of owning your home is you have created shelter for your family and you own it. That’s enough for me. No need to be the next Zillow. Zillow has loaded up on homes, buying 7,000. Now they want to dump them all. Bloomberg reports: Zillow Group Inc. is looking to sell about 7,000 homes as it seeks to recover from a fumble in its high-tech home-flipping business. The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which … [Read more...]
3D Printed Homes Filling Housing Gap in Austin, TX
Austin, TX could soon be home to a development of up to 100 3-D printed homes. Nicole Friedman reports in The Wall Street Journal: A major home builder is teaming with a Texas startup to create a community of 100 3-D printed homes near Austin, gearing up for what would be by far the biggest development of this type of housing in the U.S. Lennar Corp. and construction-technology firm Icon are poised to start building next year at a site in the Austin metro area, the companies said. While Icon and others have built 3-D printed housing before, this effort will test the technology’s ability to … [Read more...]
Quarters in My Loafers Trying to Beat Inflation
You can’t put a price tag on freedom, or maybe you can. Because, if you know what you’re paying your bank every month to live in the house they own, you know exactly the price. Yesterday, I received an email from a married couple. They’re clients. And it just so happens they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary the day before and have decided to pay off their mortgage. Do you remember when you paid off yours? I do. It felt great. And the only reason it happened was because Becky and I were motivated to get it done. Why? Because we never forgot the arrogance of the mortgage lender … [Read more...]
HOUSE PRICE SOAR: “This Has to Stabilize at Some Point”
The Case-Shiller home price index shows prices for housing have risen 19.7% since last year. According to Oxford Economics economist Nancy Vanden Houten, “This has to stabilize at some point.” But when will that be? The Wall Street Journal reports: Home-price growth climbed to a new record in July as buyers continued to compete fiercely amid a shortage of homes for sale, but there are signs the market frenzy might be starting to ease. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the nation, rose 19.7% in … [Read more...]
Corporate Landlords Get a Boost from Rent Inflation and Return to Cities
Big corporate landlords are reaping the benefits of soaring rental price inflation and a migration back to cities by young workers. Will Parker explains in The Wall Street Journal: Despite a yearlong national eviction ban and continuing pandemic, it has rarely been a better time to be a big apartment-building landlord. National asking rents rose 10.3% in August, measured on an annual basis, according to Real Page, a rental-management software company, which analyzed more than 13 million professionally managed apartments. That marked the first double-digit increase in the more than 20 years … [Read more...]
BOOMTOWNS: Americans Flee Mandates for Freedom
As you and I discussed recently, big blue cities are exporting jobs to places like Florida, where their money is treated with respect. Today, let’s talk about Main Street America that’s been forgotten by big businesses that have moved America’s manufacturing base to China. How can this be a good long-term trend? I remember like it was yesterday, studying globalization—“the next big thing.” Now, look at where we are. But attitudes are changing. One thing I noticed from a trip to our log cabin in New Hampshire this summer was, the area in and around the beautiful White Mountains were packed … [Read more...]
FLIP THEN FLOP? Banks Fund Eerily Familiar House Flipping Boom
Big banks and investors are putting a lot of money into a house flipping boom that is eerily familiar to anyone who survived the carnage of the financial crisis. Ryan Dezember reports in The Wall Street Journal: Wall Street has made a mountain of money available to house flippers, and selling move-in-ready rehabs has rarely been easier. The challenge is finding beat-up and out-of-date properties that can be renovated and resold for a profit. “Investors like me, we’re like ants on a sugar hill all fighting for the same projects,” said Ed Stock, who started fixing and flipping houses on New … [Read more...]
When Will Landlords Be Allowed to Evict Unpaid Renters?
Landlords hoping for relief after months of having to pay mortgages and maintenance out of pocket will likely have to wait a bit longer. The Biden administration plans to extend its eviction moratorium. The Wall Street Journal reports: A federal appeals court allowed the Biden administration’s latest eviction moratorium to remain in place, a move that could return the issue to the Supreme Court in a matter of days. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday declined an emergency request by a group of property managers and realtors to … [Read more...]
BIDDING WAR: Austin Homes Selling WAY Above Asking
Austin, Texas is currently home to America's fiercest bidding wars. Many homes are selling for more than $100,000 over asking. Sami Sparber reports in The Wall Street Journal: A homebuying frenzy is gripping much of the U.S., but Austin takes the prize for the biggest increase in homes selling well above the asking price. Nearly 2,700 homes in the Texas capital have sold this year for $100,000 or more above their initial listing price, according to an analysis by Redfin Corp. that examined sales through Aug. 11. While a few other U.S. cities have had more properties sell at that premium to … [Read more...]
A WIN FOR BLACKROCK: Biden Throws Small Landlords Under the Bus
In 2018, the IRS recorded over ten million returns that included income from rental properties. That's more than just the "top 1%." There are millions of middle-class Americans who have invested in rental properties to achieve goals like putting their kids through college or saving for retirement. The moratorium on evictions created to help families through COVID-19 has put a lot of pressure on these landlords who must maintain properties, even if their tenants aren't paying rent. Here's the story of one landlord, Buddy Shoup from Spectrum News 1: When Buddy Shoup was 6 years old, he … [Read more...]
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