10 Best College Towns for House Flippers

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014

College towns have long been known as havens for investors looking to cash in on rentals or turn a profit on a home flip. RealtyTrac recently ranked the best college towns for flippers in 2014.

Want to Flip? Know This

• Be Cautious With Flips
• If You Want to Flip, Do It Now
• House Flippers Get More Bang for Their Buck

RealtyTrac analyzed public four-year universities that had enrollment of 20,000 or more as of 2012 and also were located in counties that had unemployment rates below the national average of 6.2 percent. The top 10 college towns for flipping were ranked based on the average gross return on investment (ROI) percentage for single-family home flips there during the first eight months of 2014. (Note: Some college towns did not have sufficient sales or flipping data to be included in the rankings).

Here are the college towns that topped RealtyTrac's 2014 list:

1. University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
   Average gross flip profit: $105,292
   ROI: 65.59%
2. University of Washington (Seattle)
   Average gross flip profit: $168,247
   ROI: 61.88%
3. University of Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.)
   Average gross flip profit: $53,763
   ROI: 55.01%
4. San Francisco State (San Francisco)
   Average gross flip profit: $402,790
   ROI: 54.16%
5. Thomas Edison State College (Trenton, N.J.)
   Average gross flip profit: $40,497
   ROI: 48.06%
6. University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
   Average gross flip profit: $41,235
   ROI: 47.95%
7. University of Colorado (Denver)
   Average gross flip profit: $103,658
   ROI: 45.86%
8. University of Cincinnati
   Average gross flip profit: $45,929
   ROI: 44.88%
9. University of Akron (Akron, Ohio)
   Average gross flip profit: $35,909
   ROI: 42.95%
10. North Carolina State (Raleigh, N.C.)
    Average gross flip profit: $61,028
    ROI: 38.52%

Source: RealtyTrac

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/14/10-best-college-towns-for-house-flippers

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Landscaping Boosts Home Values Up to 12%

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014

You might want to take a closer look at your listing's curb appeal: Upgrading a home's landscape from average to excellent can raise its overall value by 10 percent to 12 percent, according toresearch from Virginia Tech.

Up Your Curb Appeal

• 6 Landscaping Tricks That Wow Buyers
• Landscaping That Sells
• Wintertime Tips to Keep Landscaping Safe

Researcher Alex X. Niemiera with the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech found that a $150,000 home with no landscaping could fetch an additional $8,300 to $19,000 by adding a landscape with color and large plants.

The value of landscaping differed greatly from state to state. For example, the change in value from a home with no landscape to well-landscaped ranged from 5.5 percent in Louisiana to 11.4 percent in South Carolina. Michigan homes saw the biggest difference in landscaping appeal, with a home's value being increased by 12.7 percent.

"The most preferred landscape included a sophisticated design with large deciduous, evergreen, and annual color plants and colored hardscape," according to Niemiera. Adding different plant sizes to a front yard, for example, can boost curb appeal, as well as mixing fruit trees and flowers for added color.

The following landscape elements were found to be most important to survey respondents:

• Design sophistication
• Plant size
• Diversity of plant material type

"Survey results showed that relatively large landscape expenditures significantly increase perceived home value and will result in a higher selling price than homes with a minimal landscape," Niemiera writes in the paper. "Design sophistication and plant size were the landscape factors that most affected value. The resulting increase in 'curb appeal' of the property may also help differentiate a home in a subdivision where house styles are similar and thereby attract potential buyers into a home. This advantage is especially important in a competitive housing market."

Source: “Does Landscaping Increase Your Homes Value?” Realty Times (Oct. 13, 2014)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/14/landscaping-boosts-home-values-up-12

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Wave of Singles to Make Big Impact on Housing

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014

Half of all American adults now live in one-person households, a rapidly growing number, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The singles demographic is likely to reshape multifamily communities and single-family home designs going forward, according to Builder Online.

In 1976, only 37 percent of adults were single. As of August, that percentage has bloomed to 50.2 percent, or about 124.6 million singles. It marks the first time that single Americans make up the majority of the adult population since the government began tracking such data.

Get tips on how real estate pros can best serve this growing group.

“Thanks to the growth of single-adult households, floor plans will go from static to flexible as living arrangements change more frequently,” Susan Yashinsky, vice president of innovation trends for Waterford, Mich.-based Sphere Trending, LLC, predicts on Builder Online. “Analysts project that this group of adults will job hop more often, bring new types of living arrangements into the housing market (think friends buying homes together), and expect their environments to adapt to their frequently changing lifestyles as easily as picking a favorite Keurig coffee flavor.”

Affordability will be key, since single home buyers will have less income per household than dual-earner couples.

Also, “housing developments will need to embed elements of community that address the social aspects singles need, similar to what we have seen in multifamily new builds,” according to Builder. “Builders, developers, and designers who create housing for single consumers need to consider fresh concepts, such as communal sheds for lawnmowers and snow blowers, and even cars that can be rented as needed versus owned. Work/live spaces will evolve to reflect the growing number of entrepreneurs working from home. And, backyard cottages will bring solutions for related and/or unrelated adults sharing a single lot.”

Source: “More Americans Are Going Solo,” Builder Online (Oct. 6, 2014)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/13/wave-singles-make-big-impact-housing

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Why Low Rates Aren't Enough for Buyers

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and housing forecaster Robert Shiller said earlier this year that they expected low rates to serve as a stimulus to home buying this year.

Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.12 percent for the week ending Oct. 9, near the lowest average rate of the year. The rate is far less than a 20-year mean of more than 6 percent for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Yet mortgage rates hovering near annual lows for the past few weeks have not spurred the market. What's going on?

From low down payment options for first-time buyers to jumbo loan options for move-up purchases, find out what lenders are offering buyers today.

However, home sales are facing major challenges that even low borrowing costs can’t help. The Wall Street Journal explains that 2014 home sales “have been hit by poor weather, a low number of homes available for sale, and tight credit.” Also, the most popular home sales season—typically the spring and summer—has already come to an end.

“Families buying houses need to be done with that by the time that school starts,” says Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “Rates have been hovering around 4 percent for the better part of the peak home-buying season. I don’t think anybody has been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for rates to drop.”

Second, high credit standards in the wake of the financial crisis are still preventing many would-be buyers from getting a loan and taking advantage of the low rates.

“Right now the real issue isn’t the price of credit, it’s more the availability,” says Robert Denk, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders. Eighty three percent of homebuilders recently surveyed by NAHB say they have lost sales over the last six months due to buyers not qualifying for a mortgage. Tight credit has resulted in about 18,700 new-home sales lost, NAHB estimates. 

Source: “Housing Needs More Than Mortgage Rates of 4%-ish to Boom,” The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 9, 2014)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/13/why-low-rates-arent-enough-for-buyers

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Community Revitalization From the Ground Up

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014

Does your community have a lifeless block of vacant storefronts holding it back? Better Block might be able to help. The program helps a community come together and figure out the kind of change that will revitalize a neighborhood quickly.

Holly Moskerintz, community affairs representative for the National Association of REALTORS®, explains how Better Block helps precipitate change in a way that circumvents the common barriers to neighborhood development.

"Better Block is a demonstration tool that rebuilds and revitalizes an area using grassroots efforts to show the potential to create a great walkable, vibrant neighborhood – and even a destination... It’s a way to give residents a taste of what’s possible," Moskerintz writes on NAR's Spaces to Places blog. The "focus is to bring back a neighborhood rapidly rather than developing a larger scale, more financially complex project that could take years. It can help people come together to create a community destination quickly."

And the process doesn't have to cost much, either. Better Block Co-founder Jason Roberts tells Moskerintz the projects “never cost more than $3,000... and we can pull them off for as low as $500 if we have to.” At least one Better Block program has received an NAR Smart Growth grant to help cover costs.

Moskerintz shows Better Block in action in Memphis, Dallas, and Norfolk, Va. But you can also see a project first-hand in New Orleans during the REALTORS® Conference & Expo this November.

Source: "One Block at a Time," Spaces to Places (Oct. 8, 2014)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/13/community-revitalization-from-ground-up

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Home Owners are Tapping Into Equity, Again

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2014

Home equity lines of credit surged nearly 20 percent compared to a year ago and are now at the highest level since the 12 months ending in June 2009, according to RealtyTrac’s Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Trends Report. HELOC originations comprised 15.4 percent of all loan originations nationwide during the first eight months of the year, the highest percentage since 2008.

Here's why HELOCs are back on the rise: Nearly 1 Million Homes Regain Equity

“This recent rise in HELOC originations indicates that an increasing number of home owners are gaining confidence in the strength of the housing recovery and, more importantly, have regained much of their home equity lost during the housing crisis,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

Nearly 10 million home owners nationwide, representing 19 percent of all home owners with a mortgage, have regained at least 50 percent equity in their homes, RealtyTrac data shows. Meanwhile the percentage of home owners with severe negative equity has fallen from 29 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to 17 percent in the second quarter of this year, Blomquist notes.

Despite home equity lines of credit rising significantly in the past year, they still remain 76 percent below the 2006 peak reached during the housing boom, RealtyTrac notes.

Among the nation’s largest metro areas tracked, 49 out of 50 posted year-over-year increases in HELOC originations for the year ending June 2014 (the lone exception was Rochester, N.Y.).

The following metro areas had the largest year-over-year increases in HELOC originations:

• Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.: +87.7%
• Las Vegas: 85.1%
• Cincinnati: 81%
• Sacramento, Calif.: 65.1%
• Phoenix: 60.1%

Source: RealtyTrac

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/09/home-owners-are-tapping-equity-again

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com

Latest Rate Drops Lift Loan Demand

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2014

Mortgage applications picked up last week, as a drop in interest rates gave a boost to both refinances and home purchases, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports in its weekly mortgage market survey, reflecting the week ending Oct. 3. Total mortgage application volume rose 3.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous week.

Broken out, applications for refinancings rose 5 percent compared to the previous week, while purchase applications, viewed as a gauge for future home sales, ticked up 2 percent.

"The purchase index reached its highest level since July," says Michael Fratantoni, the MBA’s chief economist. "The increase was led by a 3.7 percent increase in government purchase volume for the week."

Nevertheless, purchase applications remain down nearly 8 percent on an annual basis.

The MBA reported that the nationwide average on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell from 4.33 percent the prior week to 4.30 percent. What’s more, as the stock market weakened on Tuesday, rates continued to post more drops, even in some cases nearing their lowest level of the year of 4 percent averages, CNBC reports.

Source: “Falling Rates Offer Home Buyers a Push,” CNBC (Oct. 8, 2014)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2014/10/08/latest-rate-drops-lift-loan-demand

www.RebeccaSellsAZ.com