Over 50% of workers are 100% remote with another 20% sometimes working remotely due to the pandemic. Will this trend reverse this year with the rollout of the vaccine? How will this impact real estate in the short term and long term? What will be the primary driver...
Denmark, the country with the longest history of negative central bank rates is offering homeowners 20-year loans at a fixed interest rate of zero. This is very similar to the zero percent financing on cars in the US except you are buying a house. What does this...
The Coronavirus has impacted businesses throughout the economy and real estate is not immune from the radical changes caused by social distancing and lockdowns. How will the real estate industry adapt to the changes? What does this mean for the future of real...
Happy new year to everyone. It is crazy that we are still talking about the election … it seems like it is never ending. Fortunately the Georgia senate runoffs were the last of this cycle. As Georgia flipped Democratic, treasury rates jumped to their highest since...
I was amazed that there hasn’t been much fanfare about Costar’s recent purchase. Costar is the largest commercial property data company (Loopnet, Costar, Apartment.com, etc…) with a market cap of 35 billion dollars. The Homesnap purchase is an indicator of things...
What a year 2020 has been! The pandemic struck, unemployment has hit records, there was a nice rebound in the summer, and recently a downward trend due to the spike in Coronavirus cases. What does 2021 hold for the economy, interest rates, and residential and...
I wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy holiday season. With all the craziness going on, it is still nice to relish in the “creativity” of our fellow Man/Woman. As I am driving down the road, ironically not far from where the real Christmas Vacation was filmed...
Mortgage rates just blew through another record with the 30-year fixed rate dropping to 2.75%. If you have been watching the mortgage market, your head is likely spinning. How can mortgage rates go this low? Where do we go from here? How will the next president...
President-elect Joe Biden nominated former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, the prior head of the Federal Reserve, to become the next Treasury secretary. The “market” loved the pick, should you? What does a Yellen pick for treasury mean for interest rates? ...
Real estate in Colorado ski towns and resort communities throughout the country has been off the charts (do you know which CO resort I took this pic at?). The data is staggering in three months from June through August, the median home price in Aspen for a...
I hope you and your family had a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving despite the ongoing uncertainty. Each year, I commemorate the holiday with a long trail run. But this year’s run offered more than reflection—it delivered a wake-up call. As I looked back on the snowy...
What a wild year we have had. First, I wanted to wish each of you and your families a Safe, Healthy, and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday in light of everything going on. As you sit around the table, I wanted to provide a little conversation starter. A gentleman that...
Almost 10% of all government sponsored mortgages entered mortgage forbearance which accounts for almost 841 billion dollars in loans. 4 in 5 workers say they live paycheck to paycheck, with around 30 million people unemployed, the numbers could be daunting. Yet the...
Pfizer announced that their Covid vaccine in trials was 90% effective at preventing infection. The stock market took off and traders began reshuffling their pandemic bets with Zoom down 20% and Disney, hotels, and cruise operators up substantially. Will there be a...
The pic above has nothing to do with the election, but this bear was about 10 feet from me when I was doing a zoom call on the back deck. I didn't notice him until the meeting participants eyes got big as he walked up behind me. Talk about an interesting coworker...
It is ironic in 2007 and 2008, I was asked by our accountant to value properties and loans on our books due to the last cycle. I told her I had no clue, there were too many unknowns. Commercial real estate is starting the same cycle that residential real estate saw...
We are seeing interesting economic times; throughout the economy there is huge consolidation within industries as the big get even bigger. Real estate is following a similar trajectory to big technology companies. What is causing the huge changes in real estate? ...
New eviction laws that Democratic lawmakers recently passed would prevent landlords from filing evictions for nonpayment for a full year after the bill is passed. It would further prohibit foreclosures over nonpayment over the same period and enact automatic...
The Urban Institute think tank says nearly two out of three loans made in 2019 would fail to meet at least one of the stricter standards lenders have imposed since March. Banks are tripping over themselves to be the first to hedge against future downside risks and...
There is a new legislative proposal to radically alter the appraisal industry. Should the use of comparables be arbitrary when establishing appraised value? Do appraisers need to better “appreciate” a neighborhood (what does this even mean?) Should an appraiser use...
FHA has placed a moratorium on foreclosures from mortgage loan defaults and offered any borrower that requests it an extension to not make payments for a year (HUD). This effectively kicks the can down the road and pushed out any impending actions until March of...
If you have been tracking interest rates in the mortgage market, your head is likely spinning. Mortgage rates hit a record low of 3% less than a week later rates have risen again. What is causing the drastic swings? Is now the time to lock in or refinance? What did...
The Coronavirus has created a unique financial situation. Unemployment rates are at record highs, with companies announcing long term downsizing. At the same time residential real estate is hitting new records and continues to increase in the face of the economic...
I wanted to highlight Atlanta, Georgia as it is one of the top ten metro areas in the country, we have an office there, and we are intimately familiar with the real estate market. Furthermore, it is a typical large city and a good indicator for the country as...
