Chinese nationals are the biggest foreign buyers of American homes, purchasing homes valued at $93 billion in the past five years, including $28.6 billion in 2015 alone according a new report released today by Asia Society and the Rosen Consulting Group. Chinese buyers spent at least $93 billion on residential real estate between 2010 and 2015. Spending rose at an … Read More »

Last year investor purchases rose for the first time in four years despite soaring prices paid by investors to acquire properties for flipping or converting into single family rentals. Investment-home sales in 2015 jumped 7.0 percent to an estimated 1.09 million from 1.02 million in 2014. The median investment-home sales price was $143,500, up 15.3 percent from $124,500 a year … Read More »

  The number of homes nationwide losing value on a monthly basis has more than tripled over the past year while the number of appreciating homes has fallen more than 12 percent, Allan Weiss, CEO of Weiss Residential Research reported today. Depreciating homes increased from 7.60 percent to 23.40 percent while the number of appreciating homes has fallen from 65.20 … Read More »

Without a return to a robust private label securitization market for pristine borrowers, securitization of riskier loans won’t occur and without a vehicle to finance them, origination of these loans to be fairly limited. That’s the conclusion of “The Rebirth of Securitization,” a white paper by the Urban Institute’s Laurie Goodman published September 10.  Just seven days later CoreLogic’s Faith … Read More »

  What would an influx of 3.8 million entry-level homes do for housing affordability? Limited inventory and strong demand continue to push home prices higher in America’s hottest housing markets, leading to declining affordability.  Forecasters are raising their predictions as tight inventories of homes, particularly lower priced properties, keep first-time buyers on the sidelines. Those 3.8 million homes, nearly twice … Read More »

For the business of residential real estate investing, these are not the best of times.  Bargains on attractive properties to flip or to hold and convert to rentals are tough to find.  Foreclosures and short sales have fallen to ten percent of home sales, the lowest level in four years, according to RealtyTrac.  Moreover, NAR reports the foreclosure discount has shrunk … Read More »

Sales to foreign investors interested in single family rentals are down, largely to a strengthening dollar, but foreign nationals living in the US are participating in the spring boomlet. The National Association of Realtors reports that the number of U.S. homebuyers who identified as international dropped to 2.0 percent during the first four months of 2015 from 2.5 percent a … Read More »

Investors have to hunt harder for well-priced acquisitions these days but the best rents can be found in the nation’s top  for-sale markets, according to new quarterly data from HomeVestors and Local Market Monitor.  “For the last few years, investors have been able to find real estate bargains they could turn into rental properties. That period is pretty much over … Read More »

  Only one out of four single family home and condo sales in May-24.6 percent-were all-cash purchases, down from 30.4 percent a year ago to the lowest level since November 2009. Distress sales also fell to a new low of 10.5 percent of all sales in May, down from 18.3 percent a year ago to the lowest level since January … Read More »

he average gross profit — the difference between the purchase price and the flipped price — for completed flips in the first quarter was $72,450, up from $65,290 in the previous quarter and up from $61,684 in the first quarter of 2014 to the highest level going back to the first quarter of 2011, the earliest where data is available, … Read More »