The folks over at Realtor.com recently came up with a list of five trends that they believe will shape the world of real estate in 2017.  As in years past, their economic team analyzed economic indicators and market data to come up with their predictions for the coming year.  Be sure to read the full article to get the gist of their predictions.  Remember….everyone has a crystal ball.

“With more than 95% of first-time home buyers dependent on financing their home purchase, and a majority of first-time buyers reporting one or more financial challenges, the uptick we’ve already seen may price some first-timers out of the market,” says Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke, who worked on the realtor.com 2017 housing forecast.

The five trends are:

1. Millennials and boomers will move markets

2. Millennials will look to the Midwest

3. Price appreciation will slow down

4. Fewer homes, fast-moving markets

5. The West will lead the way

Click here to read the full article on Realtor.com.

This week S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller released their National Home Price Index which showed that home prices rose 5.5% in September, year over year (up 0.4% from August).  Their 10-City Composite posted a 4.3% annual increase and their 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.1%.  Seattle, Portland, and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities over each of the last eight months. 12 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending September 2016 versus the year ending August 2016.

“The new peak set by the S&P Case-Shiller CoreLogic National Index will be seen as marking a shift from the housing recovery to the hoped-for start of a new advance” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Click here to read the full report.

The National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing recently reported that the 55+ housing market strengthened in 3Q 2016, according to their Housing Market Index.  The third quarter results show single-family 55+ housing at 59 points, up 2 points from the previous quarter.  This marks the 10th consecutive quarter that the number has remained above 50 on the single-family HMI.  The NAHB produces two separate 55+ HMI’s, one for the single-family market, and another tracking the condominium market. The condo HMI was up 1 point at 48.

Click here to read the full report at the NAHB’s Eye on Housing.

The latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index says that for August, 2016 home prices continued to rise across the country.  The report showed a 5.3% annual gain in August, up from 5.0% last month.  In addition, their 10-City Composite posted a 4.3% annual increase, up from 4.1% the previous month and their 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.1%, up from 5.0% in July.

“…While the stock market recovery has been greater than the rebound in home prices, the value of Americans’ homes at about $22.3 trillion is slightly larger than the value of stocks and mutual funds at $21.2 trillion.”  Said David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Click here to read the full report on S&P Indices.

Recently financial information site GOBankingRates.com surveyed 61 of America’s 100 most populous citiesto determine which cities they believe are the best and worst for owning rental property.  Using data from Zillow and the U.S. government, they looked at four major factors in their evaluation;  Employment Growth, Population Growth, Increase in home values, and Years to pay off property.  As with all data like this, take it with the appropriate amount of salt.

Click here to read the full story.

Crowdfunding is hot….and getting hotter.  We’re even starting to see more & more success stories and positive media about it.  Recently, an article on Bloomberg talked about how home flippers have turned to crowdfunding for their funding needs with great success.  Using platform sites such as RealtyShares, LendingHome, PeerStreet and Patch of Land home flippers and developers have learned that financing can be quicker and easier than going through traditional banks.

“[A house flipper] crowdfunded nine deals totaling more than $9 million through RealtyShares over the last two and a half years. A July deal for $1 million took him just 12 hours.  “Generally, raising money takes so much time….This offers so much flexibility and time savings.  It’s so much better than going to family offices, banks or Wall Street firms.’’ 

Click here to read the full story on Bloomberg.com

In late August, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced their new FY 2017 Fair Market Rates (FMR’s) which are used to determine payment standards for many housing assistance programs, including Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Project-Based Section 8 programs.  HUD’s legal notice indicates that the proposed FMRs will take effect on October 1, 2016 unless interested parties request reevaluation of their FMRs by September 26, 2016.

Coming on the heels of numerous reports about tenants home-sharing their apartments without landlord knowledge or approval, Forbes is reporting that Airbnb has been working on a new program that will bring owners and landlords of multifamily buildings into its home-sharing service.  Airbnb calls it the Friendly Building Program, a new initiative that will let building owners sign up to work with Airbnb and tenants to allow home-sharing on their properties according to mutually agreed upon rules.  Airbnb will collect and pay applicable taxes and as well as paying the hosts and the landlords – reportedly around 5% – 15% of their tenants earnings from the program.  Not too shabby.

“The program works like this: Building owners—provided they operate in a jurisdiction where short-term rental laws are clear, meaning that there’s no ambiguity nor potential for a regulatory mess—apply for the program. Once accepted, the owner then decides the terms (which units, for how long, revenue division, etc.) under which tenants can rent out their homes and submits them to Airbnb as well as amends its tenants’ leases. Eligible tenants in that can then sign up for their building’s program through Airbnb, and become part of the regular reports the company sends to the landlord.”

Click here to read the full story on Forbes.com

BY BRAD BECKETT ON JULY 19, 2016

According to new data from the U.S. government, privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,153,000.  This is 1.5% above the revised May rate of 1,136,000, but is 13.6% below the June 2015 estimate of 1,334,000.  Single-family authorizations in June were at a rate of 738,000; this is 1% above the revised May figure of 731k.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 384,000 in June.

Privately-owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,189,000. This is 4.8% above the revised May estimate of 1,135,000, but is 2.0% below the June 2015 rate of 1,213,000.  Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 778k; this is 4.4% above the revised May figure of 745k.  The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 392k.