A perfect storm of demand, supply and economic factors are making Florida one of the better performing housing markets with no signs of a crash.
The housing markets from Miami to Jacksonville to Panama City to Tampa and Orlando are promising. Florida Realtors reports rising prices and more listings. It’s not a buyer’s market but it’s better.
Forida Housing Stats for 1st Quarter 2018
Screen Capture Courtesy of FloridaRealtors.org
Average Prices in Florida continue their relentless rise even as sales have dropped. It’ seems unlikely that buyers can hold out for lower prices particularly in south Florida.
Median time to contract is down 10% which reflect fewers all cash buyers and longer closing times due to mortgage financing. New pending sales are 1% less than 1st quarter 2017.
The situation for condos is better. Closes sales of condos and townhomes rose 2.8% and average selling prices rose 10.4% which approaches levels seen in the 2017 boom.
Should You Buy in the Next 5 Years?
The doomsday people are always calling for housing crashes and stock market crashes. We will see higher oil and gasoline prices and housing should continue upward for 5 years.
The housing market in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Panama City, Sarasota, Naples, Fort Launderdale, and even Boca Raton are compelling real estate investment value propositions for snowbirds and other buyers in North America. As you’ll see, sunny and warm Florida home prices are quite reasonable.
Interest in buying Florida properties is persistent and given the strength of the Florida economy, and tax situaton in the sunshine state, and an aging population, we should see strong prices for many years. The recent tax changes may discourage speculative investment but speculators may consider Florida cities some of the best in the nation.
Florida Housing Market History
The Florida housing market in 2017 was characterized by a lack of new construction, big price reductions on new condos, a disappearance of South American property buyers, softened house and condo prices, and of course, low taxation rates. If the glut of condo building in Miami is now complete, then we may see upward pressure on condo prices.
Choosing Your Florida Home Style
The variety of homes in Florida is astonishing. From modern 3 bedroom bungalows to condos in towering buildings to quaint beach houses to spacious multi-million dollar mansions, you can have your dream life, walk the beaches, shop for hours, and never have to shovel snow. For a lot of buyers, that’s a compelling value proposition.
With more babyboomers hoping to retire somewhere nice, and who have been holding onto their old home because they have nowhere to go, they will find Florida a solid asset as a home or real estate investment.
PWC in its new major US housing report names Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach as the 3rd highest target destination from migrating people from other cities in the US.
The luxury real estate market was hit hard in Florida, and there is an oversupply of luxury homes. However, interest and sales are expected to rebound (From US and soon Canadian buyers as the CAD falls), and homes for sale in Fort Lauderdale, Naples, and Miami are expected to rise.
Should You Buy a House/Condo in Florida? 8 Things to Consider
Whether you’re buying a second home/vacation home or you’re considering moving to warm, sunny Florida, look at a few matters beforehand:
can you afford to live in the region or neighborhoods you have targeted?
which cities and neighborhoods are safe and pleasant to live in?
summers are hot and humid. Can you take the heat and the indoor life?
do you like golf, fishing, walking the beach, boating, and water sports?
how well can you run your business from Florida and how much back and forth travel will you need to do?
is there a true demand for your area of work/profession?
A lot of people love Florida and some don’t like it at all. If you could live here during the winter only, as many snowbirds from New York, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington do, buying a home/condo might be a no brainer. All you’d have to focus on is finding a home at a bearable price.
Florida’s $1 Trillion Dollar Economy
Florida’s economic performance was outstanding again in 2017 which is why it was attracting so many new residents and home buyers. Orlando’s population growth was 18% over the last and disposable income growth over the last 5 years was an amazing 12.8%.
South Florida’s population hit 6 million for the first time, and Miami Dade hit 2.7 million residents. Tampa Sarasota region was in the top 10 nationally for population growth and Orlando saw 48,000 new residents arrive.
That’s generated strong demand for housing and rental units in South Florida.
As reported in Tampabay.com, the Florida economy will reach $1 Trillion this year and $1.074 trillion in 2019. Florida is an important state having 5% of the US economy but 10% of new jobs. Tourism and housing were the key industries.
Hurricane Irma and the destruction of the citrus crop have suppressed the Florida economy and the state has difficulty attracting skilled workers. Wages do lag, yet real estate in Florida overall is very reasonably priced. Only Texas is a better bargain.
With the Florida economy rolling along nicely, there’s no reason to believe there is a downside to buying property in the Sunshine State. And sunshine is a key benefit for most buyers here.
Interest in Orlando and Tampa real estate has been particularly strong and that’s likely due to the lower prices. Even homes in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale are half the price as those in Miami.
However the economies in Tampa and Orlando are holding their own and drawing in new residents due to lower than expected prices on condos and homes.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Effects
The experts are still struggling with the affects of the Feds tax bill, amidst a housing slowdown and slightly rising interest rates.
What the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does mean:
sales of homes between $750,000 to $1 million will slow because loan interest isn’t tax deductible any longer
purchases from New York buyers seems to be growing
income tax cuts for almost everyone means people will have more money to buy real estate and pay mortgages
the reform retains sellers’ capital gains exemption, which excludes the first $500,000 in profits for couples and the first $250,000 for single filers
Let’s not forget Florida’s benefit of no state tax. Combine that with the reduced federal tax cuts, and companies that are bringing their manufacturing and head offices back to the US should find Florida an ideal place to come home to.
Florida Home Prices
According to Zillow, home prices in Florida average $216,000 which is up 7.3% from last year. They’re expected to rise more slowly in 2018 at 2.5%. By the end of 2018, the average home price will be $221,000. That has to look good to home sellers in Boston and New York, as well as Canadian buyers in Toronto, who have home values that rival the highest in Miami.
Chart courtesy of Zillow.com. Comparison of home prices with California, Texas, New York and Nevada 2018
How Much Could You Save By Shaving 5 to 22 points off Your Mortgage?
Shopping for a Lower Mortgage Rate might be a fun way to save money. Shaving 5 to 22 points off combined with better terms leaves you more to spend in your happy place.
Homes are expensive and you need to save money anyway you can. This is where you start, by searching and shopping for the lowest mortgages rates available.
Whether it’s our job, auto insurance, current home, and our lot in life, there are those who believe staying put is okay. However, staying with your current provider could be costing your tens of thousands.
In fact, corporate profits rely on you staying put and not comparing mortgage rates or auto insurance rates.
The mortgage rate quote, auto insurance quote, refinancing rate etc. you currently receive is likely not all that competitive. It’s a good time to refinance or shop around for an entirely new mortgage solution. Get the system working for you.
Mortgage Rates USA
Major USA Bank Mortgage Rates
Long Term
Fixed Rate
Best Rate
1 Year
4.0%
2 Years
4.0%
✔
5 Years
3.375
7 Years
4.0%
✔
15 Years
3.625
30 Years
4
Lower Mortgage Rates across USA You can Find Below
1 Year
3.83%
✔
2 Years
3.92%
5 Years
4.18%
✔
7 Years
4.06%
15 Years
3.28%
✔
30 Years
4
✔
——-
Mortgage Rates Canada
Major Canadian Bank Mortgage Rates
Term Length
Fixed Rate
Best Rate
1 Year
3.49%
2 Years
3.29%
3 Years
3.74%
4 Years
4.09%
5 Years
4.99%
7 Years
5.49%
10 Years
6.19%
Lowest Mortgage Rates in Canada You can Find Below
1 Year
2.69%
✔
2 Years
2.84%
✔
3 Years
2.69%
✔
4 Years
2.89%
✔
5 Years
2.69%
✔
7 Years
3.44%
✔
10 Years
3.74%
✔
Do it for Your Spouse and Family: Savings Are Smart
And sure, you’re not always looking for rock bottom rates, but you likely are paying premium rates for low quality mortgage loans.
Make Finding lower mortgage rates a priority right now, and you’ll save a lot of money. Consider how much savings translates to a 5, 10, or 20 year mortgage and it’s tens of thousands of dollars.
Saving Money on Your Mortgage – Is Money in Your Bank Account
That money is yours. You worked hard for it. Count how many hours and days you had to toil in your job to earn that money. See what I mean? People are penny smart and dollar stupid. It’s part of our culture.
Financially wise people on the other don’t get duped when they shop for a mortgage or their auto insurance. It’s your money, get full value for it. You can’t earn as much as you can save, unless you’re Donald Trump. Oh wait a minute, the President has filed for bankruptcy many times.
You’d better shop around. According to a report from Consumer Finance.gov, 77% of consumers apply to only one lender when seeking a mortgage.
You can Save a lot of Money just by Shopping for a Better Mortgage Rate
There are some particularly important tactics you can use to lower your mortgage payments. Here’s 10 good ones:
search on Google – the top ranking websites are there because people like them
get quotes directly from bank websites – compare them
clean up your credit score – make extra big payments for many months to show your intent to pay down your debt. Bank credit score rating expectations are ludicrous, created only to justify charging high mortgage rates
don’t leave your current job until you’ve landed that long term mortgage successfully
check out the mortgage rate quote tools below
use a mortgage rate calculator and crunch some numbers yourself – at least it’ll be harder for lenders to pull the wool over your eyes
talk to your current provider and ask for a much lower rate – tell them you’re unhappy and intend to get a cheaper mortgage
take a shorter term home loan, let’s say 3 to 5 years – it’s risky however it can you a cheaper rate
take the bank’s teaser rate on a short term then shop for a better one when that expires
check out a mortgage broker, many of whom advertise online. They’re eager to compete and they’ll do more to offer that lower rate and better terms
All you need to do is search for a lower mortgage rate. The offers are plastered all over Facebook, Google, Bing, news websites and even a blog like this one. How easy can it get!
Is the Forecast for Higher Mortgage Rates?
Some are warning about inflation and fast rising interest rates are about to go out of control starting in 2018. Rather than jump at the first fixed rate mortgage offer, shop around.
This forecast shows mortgage rates might go down so you an bargain effectively with this outlook.
Mortgage Rate History and Forecast 2018
Mortgage rates are expected to rise, and mortgage shoppers are looking for the lowest rate 30 year mortgages. That’s smart considering how low rates are currently. The sooner you find a good 30 year fixed rate mortgage the better.
This chart from FreddieMac shows 30 year fixed rate mortgage rates since 2013.
1 Year Adjustable Mortgage Rate is Climbing
Mortgage Loan Options – Which the Best Mortgages?
While the lowest mortgage interest rate is one of the primary criteria home buyers take into account, there are other financial and real life issues you need to prepare for. Ensure you check out these popular and vital mortgage loan benefits.
fixed or variable rates
open mortgages
long term loans
amortization periods
payment schedules
skip a payment
Free Mortgage Calculator
Mortgage rates from Lending Tree. Lending Tree’s mortage rate inquiry process is a bit nasty. I include it just to let you know that not all online mortgage lenders are high quality and they may not see inquirers as human beings.. They will ask endless irrelevant (to you) questions that don’t relate to a simple mortgage rate request (just give us the rate) and some of them you may not like at all.
It might be tough to sell your home in its current condition so you’ll need to research with the help of your real estate agent, which types of home improvements make the best sense. If you’re considering selling your house, congratulations, it is a good time to sell. The market is high and it’s still rising which means home buyers see value in purchasing your home. It should sell quick whether you’re in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Boston, Miami, Vancouver, Toronto or New York.
May 18, 2018. Your Epic report and forecast of the 2018/2019 US housing market offers facts, data, perspective, predictions, price factors, expert opinion and forecasted trends from sources such as NAR, Trulia, Freddie Mac, Zillow, Case Shiller, Trading Economics, and more.
NAR reports that existing home sales grew in April, 1.1% which is well up from the 1.2% loss 12 months ago. See the NAR charts below for others stats and which are the hottest markets for April.
Spring Market is Starting Strong
It’s an unusual spring market given the growing purchasing power of home buyers in low to mid market prices. That makes it a great market for those looking to sell their current home to trade up to a better one.
Resale home transactions rose 1.1% in March showing clealy that buyers are hungry to buy. However, listings have declined 7.2% and prices have risen 5.8% versus last March.
It’s a sellers market and it will be for some time. If you’re hunting for houses for sale, you’d better have an advanced search strategy.
The dwindling numbers of homes for sale should push prices upward in Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Denver, Las Vegas, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, New York, and Houston . It’s all driven by a wildly successful economy and a resistance by local and state governments to support home development in their jurisdictions.
Please feel free to use this material on Linkedin and Facebook. It’s an important topic for buyers and sellers who face a big decision about buying a home or condo in 2018 as home prices and mortgage rates rise.
NAR’s March Update
Homes sales have risen for 2 months straight, however they’re down 1.1% from same time last year. Although prices haven’t hit the 2007 records, they are too high for most to afford even though wages have grown. Home prices are now running at double the average wage increase.
The median existing-home price for all housing types in March was $250,400, up 5.8 percent from March 2017 ($236,600). March’s price increase marks the 73rd straight month of year-over-year gains — from NAR
Boston, New York, New Jersey
March existing-home sales in the Northeast jumped 6.3 percent to an annual rate of 680,000, but are still 9.3 percent below a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $270,600, which is 3.3 percent above March 2017 – from NAR update.
Housing inventory is the most influential and persistent factor affecting home prices. Despite this, the media and some politicians blame speculation, building costs, interest and mortgage rates, cost of living, and mortgage rules. When the economy is good people want homes. Construction is strong but can’t keep up. Simple rule of supply vs demand is driving home prices.
Millennials still hopeful to buy a home in 2018
Looking for housing market predictions? Take a good look at prices, GDP, wages, jobs, and other key data below on the US Economy for the next 6 years and you may see a surprisingly positive picture, far from the dread of the recent stock market corrections.
Please do share this post on Facebook!
Should you Buy or Rent?
We all want to own a home, but does it make more sense to rent? If you can’t afford a home in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Dallas, renting may be the only option. Here’s a few blog posts I’ve written on the US rental housing market, apartment prices, and on buying vs renting.
What’s Driving the California Housing Market?
Strong demand from an eager demographic and economy is clashing with local resident NIMBYism to create a volatile market. See the California housing report.
This completely updated EPIC United States Housing Report has market updates and predictions for 2018 to 2020, and other data to 2026.
NAR’s VP of research Paul Bishop, predicts sales will be flat for 2018.
One of the biggest challenges is going to be in certain high-cost parts of the country where they have high home prices, relatively high property taxes or high state income taxes, then that’s ultimately going to make the cost of owning a home more expensive.
In addition, renters may lose the incentive to buy a home in high-cost areas if they can’t use the mortgage interest deduction or the ability to deduct some of those other housing-related costs from their taxes. It’s focused mostly on the higher cost areas. It’s certainly something that everyone will be monitoring and how the housing market reacts in 2018 and 2019 — from a news release on DSnews.com.
In this post, you’ll discover the hottest city markets, zip codes, get economic, employment, finance, and housing projections to understand the key fundamentals driving home buying, rental investment, home construction, and the real estate markets in 2018/2019 to 2026. Read thoroughly if you’re considering buying a house this year.
What’s the story for summer of 2018? It has to be Texas and Michigan, however the overall picture is of a very good spring and summer for the housing market nationwide and going forward to 2026. Population growth in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, Houston, Sacramento, Las Vegas and Phoenix continues strong.
The Complete Picture for 2018
Ready to choose your realtor and buy a house or condo this year? The outlook is really rosy! And how about investing in a rental income property for sustained passive income? This current lull might make the next 3 months the best time to buy. The outlook is as positive as could be for buyers. Lock in your mortgage rate.
Overall, predictions and outlook for the US housing marketare positive. That’s because the US economy is on its strongest roll ever, bolstered by lower taxes, improved trading agreements, growing American confidence, happiness, comfort, freedom and the American dream has been kindled again.
Are you considering buying homes for sale as an income investment? With Apartment rent prices holding strong in 2018, it’s a solid investment strategy.
This graphic below courtesy of Trading Economics shows how the real estate market will be healthy for some time, and that buying a home is a wise investment (Tradingeconomics is a very informative site, have a visit afterward).
Increased government spending, low but slowly rising interest rates, and the repatriation of business and corporate funds back to the US means it’s a healthy, safe market for everyone.
Foreign investment has been strong because the world knows, the US is the place to be. American’s have always had a great attitude toward risk and business growth. Now the economy and business markets are allowing that spirit an opportunity to pay off.
NAR/Realtor Outlook on the Housing Market
Housing Indicator
Realtor.com® 2018 Forecast
Home price appreciation
3.2% increase
Mortgage rate
Average 4.6% mortage rates in 2018 to 5.0% (30 year fixed) by year end
Existing home sales
2.5% growth, low inventory problem easing
Housing starts
3% growth in home building 7% growth in houses
New home sales
Growth of 7%
Home ownership rate
Stabilizing at 63.9% nationally
Despite the market correction, experts feel this bull market could continue as long as business keeps coming back to the US. That’s a long process of repatriation. In the meantime, the jobs picture, wage growth, investment, and profit growth are giving real estate participants a lot of optimism.
The resistance to housing development is slowing. Conservatives are giving up amidst intense pressure by those facing outrageous housing shortages and skyrocketing rental prices.
Housing Shortages Won’t Ease
Although January’s sales were disappointing, it’s due to the severe shortage of housing. Demand is there and you’ll be competing against a hoard of buyers in 2018. Corelogic expects 2018’s home prices will grow 4.3% by next December. NAR and Realtors® expect only a 3% growth in prices this year. Nevada, Texas, Washington, and Florida are the states with the best outlook, and perhaps the best places to buy homes or rental properties.
The Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle areas saw the highest growth in prices last year while LA’s tumbled. Listings fell dramatically in cental California, Oregon, Washington, and New York.
Consumer mood was not so good in July of last year, mostly due to government problems. Yet the market came flying back. These challenges overcome mean more Americans will have more confidence in their personal situation.
The US Economy 2018/2019
These stats from Trading Economics show positive fundamentals that will drive growth in the housing market, and in turn will bolster the economy, since new household consumer spending and housing investment is a key driver of the economy.
The tax cuts should help although the Fed is counteracting that growth with a questionable raising of interest rates which seems to have sparked the sudden stock market volatility. Although some disincentives are present for home buying in certain price ranges, that will help keep the market balanced for 2018.
Buyers and sellers will enjoy the market trends, stats, threats, and the key factors including housing construction starts described below. Enjoy the big picture!
Sharing is Good! Share the Insight with others on FB and Linkedin
A brief overview of January 2018 from NAR.
Housing Demand 2018: More Buyers Joining the Party
Housing market demand predictions: Demand 2018 will see stronger demand as young buyers have more savings to invest in a home and are getting closeer to being able to purchase a home.
Housing demand is also being supplemented by bankruptcy survivors who waited out their 7 year exile joining first time buyer millennials, babyboomers, immigrants, foreign investors (Canadian and Chinese), and even gen Xers, all of whom are looking for houses for sale.
New Home Construction Starts: Still Strong in 2018
New home building shows continued strengths, and should pick up by late spring when builders see a return of demand. Last February’s demand was also subdued.
The cost of living is rising and it means workers and businesses in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose, Miami, San Diego, and Boston may migrate to cheaper cities such as Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. This is where job growth is best and housing is cheapest.
The price of apartment rental in cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose Rents are extreme examples of the migration out of high priced areas. With limited housing and a strong economy, prices in San Francisco and the Bay Area cannot fall.
Inflation, Labor Shortages, and Building Supplies
Labor shortages, rising mortgage rates, and higher lumber costs are looming which could mean house prices will rise. With nowhere to go, homeowners are resisting selling. The hope that the resale market will come to the rescue might be unrealistic and and perhaps even fewer resale houses will be for sale. This fall, new home sales have been brisk as reported by the Commerce Department.
Mortgage Rates on the Rise
15 year fixed rate mortgages are still a bargain compared to historical averages. A home at these interest rates has to be considered a big savings, compared to the added price.
Let’s start off with the newly released 2018 Forecast from Freddie Mac. The predict a good year ahead with a solid 5% growth in price. They note that the aging population could keep demand subdued although limited housing for sale should create upward price pressure.
The need to refinance is low, homeowners aren’t too stressed out, and they’re using home equity to buy things which is good for the economy. Overall, Freddie Mac’s report is positive for 2018.
Home Sales Expect to Rise Nationally
Freddie Mac Predicts strong sales driven by moderating prices nationally.
And as this graphic from Freddie Mac’s report shows, price appreciation is much less than before the last recession.
Hottest Real Estate Markets This Past Summer
According to NAR’s latest report, San Francisco is again the hottest city, taking back the number one spot from San Jose. The hottest small city is Vallejo California, enjoying a spillover from the Bay Area market. Investors and buyers will be hard pressed to find buying opportunities are.
Silicon Valley prices will pressure businesses to look to cheaper cities such as San Antonio, Las Vegas, Houston, Austin, etc in 2018/2019.
Hottest Real Estate Markets in April 2018
Where are the hottest cities in the US? They’re all over this month and only 3 from California made the new top 20 list.
Screen Capture courtesy of Realtor.com
Hottest Cities for Investment Value
This chart from NAR shows where employment growth is strongest and the ratio of recent employment growth to homes being built. That’s a great stat for rental property investors looking for investment income in the best cities.
Compare that to wage growth and actual price appreciation. Again the Bay Area shows the best outlook for employment which has to be your top signal. However, rising oil prices and predictions for more, Texas may be your hottest state going through the summer.
Salt Lake City, Denver, Tampa, Dallas, Cape Coral/Naples, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Houston, San Diego, and Grand Rapids have great employment outlooks.
20 Hottest Housing Markets, January 2018 (Realtor.com)
Rank (December)
Rank Change
Current Home Prices
San Francisco, CA
2
1
$1,249,000
San Jose, CA
1
-1
$875,000
Vallejo, CA
3
0
$390,000
Colorado Springs, CO
4
0
$270,000
Midland, TX
18
13
$265,000
San Diego, CA
6
0
$590,000
Santa Rosa, CA
7
1
$310,000
Sacramento, CA
8
2
$310,000
Denver, CO
11
2
$400,000
Stockton, CA
5
-5
$289,000
Modesto, CA
10
-1
$295,000
Dallas, TX
14
2
$360,000
Fresno, CA
12
-1
$205,000
Los Angeles, CA
16
2
$759,000
Columbus, OH
9
-6
$140,000
Chico, CA
29
13
$349,000
Oxnard, CA
21
4
$505,000
Santa Cruz, CA
27
9
$909,000
Detroit, MI
19
0
$349,000
Boise City, ID
26
6
Best cities for finding houses for sale and get a great return. For property investors or buyers with minimal cash, the cities of Kennewick, Detroit, Fort Wayne, Modesto, Fresno, and Waco look to offer the lowest prices on houses for sale. As usual, California and Texas lead the way, however Michigan is looking good with the President’s intention to bring the auto industry and related jobs back to the US.
In some markets such as California, home prices have leveled off a little from their relentless climb. There is a slight risk of a burst housing bubble. Outside of major city markets, the price growth potential in the next 5 years is highest. Some cities are hurting so invest carefully. Take a look at the best cities to invest in real estate and share your stories of which cities we should know about.
Here Panelists from the Urban Land Institution discusses 2017 and the next two year outlook:
Here’s 8 Reasons Why People Are Still Eager to Buy Real Estate:
home prices are appreciating and it’s a safe investment over the long term
millennials need a home to raise their families
rents are high giving property owners excellent ROI on rental properties
flips of older properties continue to create amazing returns
real property is less risky (unless you get over leveraged)
the economy is steady or improving (although Trump’s letting his enemies cause too much friction)
foreigners including Canadians are eager to own US property
bankrupt buyers are over their 7 year prohibition from the last recession and they can buy again.
Housing experts are predicting existing home sales of 6 to 6.5 million units in 2018 and then above 1.3 million new homes being built per month to 2024. The building is resuming now that the hurricanes and forest fires are over.
Will it be enough to support the economy? When American builders are feeling optimistic, it’s a good omen, however 1.5 million units per month is needed to fill forecasted demand for housing.
What’s also a good omen is what you’re going to read in this post. It may help you do many things in 2018, from finding employment (see the US Jobs forecast), to understanding politics, discovering high performing best investments 2017 to researching the best cities to live or buy houses or property in.
From Los Angeles to New York to Miami – Rental Property Equity/Income is King
Will Los Angeles Lead the Nation in 2017 in Real Estate?
These stats below are collected from top research and reporting companies including NAR, Forisk, Trading Economics, and other real estate market researchers.
Sharing is Good for your Social Health!
Pass this blog post onto your friends and neighbors because they should know as much about the forecast factors as possible before they buy or sell. It’s good to be helpful. Mistakes are painful!
Expert Predictions – US Housing
1. Expert Prediction from Eric Fox, vice president of statistical and economic modeling (VeroForecast) — The top forecast markets shows price appreciation in the 10% to 11% range. The top forecast market is Seattle, Washington at 11.2%, followed by Portland, Oregon at 11.1% and Denver, Colorado at 9.9%.
These economies have robust economies, growing populations and no more than two month’s supply of homes. In fact, the forecast of the Boston market increase sharply to 7.4% is due to reductions in inventory and unemployment. On the other hand, the worst performing market is Kington, New York with 2.5% depreciation, followed by Ocean City, New Jersey at -2.1%, Kingsport, Tennessee at -1.9% and Atlantic City, New Jersey and San Angelo, Texas tied at -1.4%. — BusinessWire
2. Pantheon Macro Chief Economist Ian Shepherdson explains that “Homebuilders behavior likely is a continuing echo of their experience during the crash. No one wants to be caught with excess inventory during a sudden downshift in demand. In this cycle, the pursuit of market share and volumes is less important than profitability and balance sheet resilience.” — Marketwatch.
It’s predicted that new home construction won’t keep up with demand, however it is recovering and we’ll see more renters becoming homeowners over the next decade.
If construction rates do moderate, prices in the hot markets of Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Boston, and Phoenix should rocket to all time highs but what is the risk of a housing market crash? House Renovation too is at an all time high in expenditure and this might have an impact on new housing starts.
FRED – Home Prices
US Mortgage Rate Trends
US Mortgage rates are forecast to stay low. Yet recently, mortgage rates have risen above the 4% mark and homeowners are locking in their home loans at the 30 year period. Some are calling this the Trump Effect. With Trump in power, lending requirements are expected to be eased, land opened up for development, and this should stimulate home purchases. With employment growing and wages moderating upward, the market is set for growth. Yet, some housing forecasters still cling to the idea that housing starts will moderate after strong growth to 2020.
US Employment Outlook 2018 to 2024
According to BLS the job outlook is positive. Construction added 36,000 jobs in January, with 226,000 more than last year, with most of the increase occurring among specialty trade contractors (+26,000). Residential building construction trended up by 5,000 jobs. Total employment should grow by another 4,000,000 to 2024.
National Employment Growth
Employment
Growth Predictions, 2014–24
Median annual wage, 2014
2014
2024
Number
Percent
Total, all occupations
150,539,000
160,328,000
9,788,900
6.5
$35,540
Job Growth by Occupation to 2026
2016 National Employment Matrix title and code (Chart data courtesy of BLS
Employment
Change, 2016–26
Median annual wage 2016
2016
2026
Number
Percent
Total, all occupations
156,063.80
167,582.30
11,518.60
7.4
$37,040
Personal care aides
2,016.10
2,793.80
777.6
38.6
$21,920
Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
3,452.20
4,032.10
579.9
16.8
$19,440
Registered nurses
2,955.20
3,393.20
438.1
14.8
$68,450
Home health aides
911.5
1,342.70
431.2
47.3
$22,600
Software developers, applications
831.3
1,086.60
255.4
30.7
$100,080
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners
2,384.60
2,621.20
236.5
9.9
$24,190
General and operations managers
2,263.10
2,468.30
205.2
9.1
$99,310
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
2,628.40
2,828.10
199.7
7.6
$25,980
Medical assistants
634.4
818.4
183.9
29
$31,540
Waiters and waitresses
2,600.50
2,783.00
182.5
7
$19,990
Nursing assistants
1,510.30
1,683.70
173.4
11.5
$26,590
Construction laborers
1,216.70
1,367.10
150.4
12.4
$33,430
Cooks, restaurant
1,231.90
1,377.20
145.3
11.8
$24,140
Accountants and auditors
1,397.70
1,537.60
139.9
10
$68,150
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
595.4
733.7
138.3
23.2
$62,560
Customer service representatives
2,784.50
2,920.80
136.3
4.9
$32,300
Landscaping and groundskeeping workers
1,197.90
1,333.10
135.2
11.3
$26,320
Medical secretaries
574.2
703.2
129
22.5
$33,730
Management analysts
806.4
921.6
115.2
14.3
$81,330
Maintenance and repair workers, general
1,432.60
1,545.10
112.5
7.9
$36,940
Teacher assistants
1,308.10
1,417.60
109.5
8.4
$25,410
Financial managers
580.4
689
108.6
18.7
$121,750
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers
1,871.70
1,980.10
108.4
5.8
$41,340
Elementary school teachers, except special education
1,410.90
1,514.90
104.1
7.4
$55,800
Stock clerks and order fillers
2,008.60
2,109.60
100.9
5
$23,840
Teachers and instructors, all other
993.9
1,091.80
98
9.9
$30,110
Receptionists and information clerks
1,053.70
1,149.20
95.5
9.1
$27,920
Sales representatives, services, all other
983
1,077.90
94.9
9.7
$52,490
Business operations specialists, all other
1,023.90
1,114.30
90.3
8.8
$69,040
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
724.5
813.4
88.9
12.3
$44,090
US Housing Starts to 2024
This enlightening stat in the graphic below shows the US economy hasn’t recovered from the great recession and housing crash of 2007. Single family spending is rising rapidly, yet no one believes conditions for high inflation exist. It points to years of solid, healthy growth ahead with an unfulfilled demand for single detached homes.
Graphic courtesy of paper-money.blogspot.ca
Graphic courtesy of paper-money.blogspot.ca
Housing and Interest Rate Forecast to 2019
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Housing Activity (000)
Total Housing Starts
928
1,001
1,107
1,177
1,204
1,246
1,299
Single Family
620
647
712
784
842
900
962
Multifamily
308
355
395
393
362
346
337
New Single Family Sales
430
440
503
561
610
647
693
Existing Single-Family Home Sales
4,475
4,338
4,627
4,828
4,978
5,029
5,119
Interest Rates
Federal Funds Rate
0.13%
0.13%
0.38%
0.63%
1.13%
1.88%
2.38%
90 day T Bill Rate
0.06%
0.03%
0.05%
0.32%
0.96%
1.71%
2.22%
Treasury Yields:
One Year Maturity
0.13%
0.12%
0.32%
0.61%
1.20%
2.41%
2.70%
Ten Year Maturity
2.35%
2.54%
2.14%
1.84%
2.38%
2.82%
3.22%
Freddie Mac Commitment Rates:
Fixed Rate Mortgages
3.98%
4.17%
3.85%
3.65%
4.10%
4.54%
4.96%
ARMs
2.88%
3.17%
2.94%
2.87%
3.18%
3.62%
4.04%
Prime Rate
3.25%
3.25%
3.26%
3.51%
4.15%
4.98%
5.48%
Data are averages of seasonally adjusted quarterly data and may not match annual
Employment Outlook: Let’s not forget jobs. Total employed persons in the US will grow 800,000 over the next 2 years.
Graphic courtesy of tradingeconomics.com/united-states/forecast
Existing homes or resale home sales, may slow slightly but US construction spending will increase. Prices will rise to 2020 and construction spending will grow through 2020.
Graphic courtesy of tradingeconomics.com/united-states/forecast
Apartment Rental Forecast
Demand for apartment rentals is on the rise and construction starts of multi-unit dwellings is rising to match demand. That creates more opportunity for rental property investors to grow their portfolios in 2018. Yardi says YOY rent growth was 3.0% and they expect rent growth to remain in the 2.5% range.
Yardi released its winter national outlook report and forecasts a 2.5% increase.
There you have a quick graphical synopsis of factors that will support a strong US housing market for 4 more years.
What’s Your Personal Real Estate Sales Forecast?
Are you a full time realtor looking to grow your prospects and leads? Full service digital marketing is a bargain when it’s done well. What’s the forecast and trends for the real estate sales in your region? If you’re in Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, and many other US centers, you’re probably grinning from ear to ear. But will you get your slice of that pie? Relying on real estate lead generation companies is another way you can go, however you have to pay forever and it’s questionable whether their leads are high quality.
Bookmark this page and return for further housing market forecasts, predictions, expert opinions and market data for most major US cities including New York, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Miami, For Lauderdale, Orlando, Boca Raton, Wellington, Delray Beach, Boyton Beach, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, St Louis, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Charlotte, Tampa, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Oshawa, Hamilton, Newmarket/Aurora, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Calgary, Kelowna, Mississauga, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, and other cities in the states of Florida, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, New Mexico, Lousiana, Alabama, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Spring will be here soon and you’re on the hunt for high quality buyer and seller leads looking for houses for sale. They’re online and if you don’t have a great web presence, you might still be able to leverage lead generation services or advertise on good real estate sites.
Companies which specialize in attracting real estate leads are known as lead generation companies. They advertise houses for sale and other remarketing advertising on Facebook and Google Adwords along with blogs and news sites to cull leads. They promise to rid you of the advertising and prospecting work and accelerate the lead generation process.
Unfortunately, when scraping for leads this way, a lot of poor quality leads are served up to participating Realtors. And the terms of the arrangement may not be attractive.
If it worked, who wouldn’t sign up? Well, nothing’s ever that easy. So let’s take a closer look.
Buyer sand Sellers. Find Good Real Estate Leads Fast!
There’s nothing wrong with fast, if it’s real. It can happen, and you shouldn’t be afraid to spend. Here’s 20 top lead generation services with a look at their strengths and limitations.
Leads Generated Still Need to Be Converted
This post is an exploration of 18 of the top online real estate lead generation companies in the US and Canada. And 2 more including Zillow Leads. There’s more new lead generation startups arriving every week.
Acquiring leads this way won’t hurt, however converting leads has a lot to do with brand image. Even if they agree to work with you right away on the phone call, they will Google you online and visit your website. Who wouldn’t? Trust, transparency, responsiveness, and proven competence are what motivate them.
There’s no doubt you can sign a client right away, however you probably need to take a hard look at your online presence and ask yourself whether you like what you see. Would you hire you?
Real Estate Leads Fact Number 1 — 90% of Home Buyers Go Online
90% of home buyers go online, and you need to be in front of them and number one in your Zip Code. Home sellers are there too checking out comps and searching using keyword phrases such as home selling tips, best return on home renovations to homes for sale + cityname, to bidding wars and best real estate agents. They’re doing hundreds of millions of searches using Google, Zillow, Realtor.org, Yahoo, and thousands of other websites.
Make sure you’re highly visible on Google for all of them. Set up an amazing new mobile friendly IDX website, with outstanding, professionally optimized content, use some real estate videos, and do a little pay per click advertising. Build a strategic plan, then work the plan.
These are firms who provide buyer (or sometimes seller) leads for realtors, using methods of aggregating online prospects (most often via Google Adwords or cheap ad networks) which they then sell to realtors. 3 drivers promote the growth: a lot of prospects are online, home buying is in a frenzied state right now, and the fact there is only one home sold for each realtor in North America — there are too many realtors and most have few quality leads.
Realty agents in the hot Toronto market face the same challenge as those in other US and Canadian cities
Questions: Let’s assume they can generate solid leads.
do you have the patience and skill to nurture and close these types of leads?
do you have a website that can help convert them?
what is the real cost of doing business with them?
would a luxury home owner from your target community use their websites?
can you respond to these cold leads fast?
Here’s Some Leads, but Let’s See You Try to Convert Them
The way these lead generators collect leads may be why they could be of poor quality. Ad campaigns, auto-dialers, and sketchy email lists of people make for testy, suspicious prospects. And these are someone else’s leads — they initiated them, which takes the warm and fuzzy out of it. Anything transferred from one person/company to another loses something in the process – the problem is lead quality and lead conversion.
Some realtors say these leads are hard to close while others treat them like flies at a picnic. They’re basically cold calls and the prospect knows nothing about realtor’s brand image or honesty. And how do real agents and brokers feel about lead generators?
I’ve never found an online lead generation system worth the investment. Better to cut out the middle man (Internet) and just get out there and meet… people! — John Souerbry, Agent, Fairfield, CA —
I have never bought a lead. I don’t think that is the way to be successful in this business. You need to spend your money developing a strong internet presence. — Carmen Brode, Agent, Scottsdale, AZ
It’s very expensive to purchase online leads. I’ve paid as much as $4,000 per month, but today I spend about $500 monthly. — Brian Talley, broker-owner, Austin, TX
Here’s 18 of the most visible lead generation companies onlinealthough new ones are coming. I’m leaving out realtor.com, and Zillow Leads because they’re more like Google or Facebook advertising programs. Some are well known while others are regional or startups. They all seem to be missing the vital component that creates genuinely good deals (in your target Zip Code) – the ideal customer experience from beginning to end.
The Good and the Bad about Paid Lead Generation
With some of them, the fees are low, sometimes only $20 a month and other times a little high, but almost never outrageous. For most, it’s like playing the penny slot machines at the casino. There’s a chance you could win, but is the payout worth it?
A few of the companies you’ll see below actually have you set up an account to be available for leads. Sort of like realtors sitting around a poker table. If you don’t respond fast, the lead is sent to someone else. In other cases, you will have to “buy your territory.” The lead gen firms will push you in that direction once they have you on the hook.
Before you hire a lead generation company, consider how home buyers and home sellers themselves buy and sell a condo, home or property. They likely already know a local realtor or they’ll go to Google to search. So online is a great place to be to lure the prospect away from his/her familiar agent.
Real Estate Search: Prospects begin with Google even though they could go directly to realtor.com or realtor.ca for MLS listings in their Zip code, or a major brokerage website such as remax.com, sothebys.com or kellerwilliams.com. Google has a better brand, a better search experience, and it leads to realtor’s websites or phone numbers where they can begin a trusting relationship with that agent.
Few condo or home sellers would type their personal details into the text box of an unknown website. And buyers are normally pretty cautious too. They want to get to know the realtor, so they’ll Google his or her name and if that discovery experience is unsatisfying, it dampens their spirit. That’s why it’s a good idea to be online in a good way – i.e., a great realtor brand image — an image built on prospects needs and preferences.
Google Adwords is the Lead Generator’s “Go to Source”
Google Adwords and remarketing programs could capture some good leads online. The highest quality leads will often originate from Google. However, most realtors could do this advertising themselves assuming they have a website with lead converting webpages. These programs are just a normal part of what a real estate digital marketer would offer along with lasting, sustainable, marketing assets.
Would I recommend using the lead generation companies? If they’re very cheap you probably don’t have much to lose other than your time, yet you could get distracted and fail to put 100% into your career. If you’re bright, you may learn a little about how they generate and convert leads.
Top Real Estate Lead Generation Websites
1. Bold Leads– Bold leads advertises on unspecified networks to capture leads and direct them to you. If the lead doesn’t give away info, boldleads will continue to nuture the lead for you. You are given your own landing page on the boldleads site.
Bold Leads
2. Agent Locator – tells you straight they’ll conduct your ppc advertising and generate 480 leads for $6000. I like how they’re open about it. It may be worth gambling $6000 to try it out.
3. Market Leader – Aggregates leads from their own site called homevalues.com, Trulia.com, and via ppc advertising. Market Leader guarantees they won’t sell the lead to another agent. You get to manage it all from your “Pro” account.
4. Point2Homes Leads– offers low priced straight forward advertising options on its website where prospects arrive to search for a home. They also provide you with a webpage on their site.
5. Real Estate Pipeline Leads – Real Estate Pipeline Leads says it has a network of real estate sites where it draws leads, and it gives realtors full ownership of their territory, although the size of that territory isn’t explained. Drip email campaigns are a big part of their service. Their basic package is $1164 for 12 leads.
6. Agent Pronto Leads – Agent Pronto is different. There’s no upfront charge for leads! You will only be matched to referrals who have specifically requested to speak with an agent. They match each referral with a single agent that they believe is the best fit for their needs. Once you accept the referral, they provide your with the prospect’s full information and the details from their conversation with them. Sounds good. Their site looks a little lacklustre, but give them a good look.
7. South Florida Real Estate Leads – This firms specializes in south Florida leads. They say they have a variety of sources of leads. It appears to be owned by Lex Levinrad who is a real estate coach and owner of the Distressed Real Estate Institute™
8. Offrs– Offrs uses vague sounding smart technology to find homeowners who are going to put their house on the market. It’s based on predictive algorithms or just social listening perhaps. If it works, it would be very exciting technology.
Combine that with communications that encourage homeowners to actually sell the property and that could be very powerful, particularly right now in places such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto and Vancouver where prices are very high. They list by territory, but sadly your territory or Zip Code may be taken.
9. Trulia – Offers a service for seller leads with Market Leader, a company that was in severe trouble before the purchase. Trulia is no Zillow, but it does have some traffic.
10. Prime Seller Leads– Prime Seller leads creates a bunch of pages on their site for you. The CMS offers the ability to send epostcards and eflyers and their system integrates with many broker CMS. 11. eRealting – eRealting doesn’t sell leads, they give you a website to send all your traffic to! It’s kind of a CMS for rent. They state that it costs about $300 to create a client in their solution.
12. Lead Galaxy – Lead Gives you a home for your leads and uses the usual combo of Adwords, Facebook ads and telephone prospecting to create leads.
13. Experian– Experian is a research and statistics business who have mailing lists of potential buyers and sellers. You can build your list online.
14. Exact Data – Exact Data gets its lead list from telemarketing, opt in emails, and lists of prospective buyers and sellers. They claim superior data hygiene, however most list companies promise that.
15. Commissions Inc. Lead Platform – Commissionsinc claims they are the #1 Real Estate Tech Solution. They offer a platform and an app to manage your leads. They will run your Adwords and Facebook advertising campaigns for you. Sounds like a lot of noise. The value proposition is a little flaky.
16. Firepoint Realty Leads– Firepoint says they deliver scalable lead generation with intelligent routing, to automated lead follow-up and task scheduling, to ROI and conversion reporting for all of your lead sources. The price is $350/month and you set you PPC budget which they manage. Is this better than a self-directed digital marketing program?
17. Home Value Leads – Home Value Leads offers a CMS system for $59/month.
18. Refindly Seller Leads – REfindly helps you generate, engage, and convert leads using one convenient system. They claim that historically, their agents receive between 5 and 8 leads per $100 spent in advertising. You can spend as much as you like on ppc advertising and they give you a lead management system to use.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to leads and sales, dollars and time. I must say, I like Agent Pronto, and Offrs best.
Even the best lead generation sources and sites can be a negative if you neglect to build your own Internet presence and realtor brand image. People want to do business with those they know and trust.
Should getting known and trusted be your Job #1 in 2018?
Real Estate Lead Generation Company in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, St Louis, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Charlotte, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Oshawa, Hamilton, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Calgary, Kelowna, Mississauga, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Mountainview, Palo Alto, Portland, Washington, Atlanta, Irvine, Nashville, Sunnyvale, Salt Lake City, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Costa Mesa, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Raleigh, Albuquerque, Glendale, Oceanside, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Carlsbad, Santa Clarita, Henderson, Mesa, Temecula, Kirkland, Redmond, Kansas City, St Louis, Stockton, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, Indianapolis, Columbus, Colorado Springs, Fort Worth, Chula Vista, Escondido, Santa Monica, Miami Beach, and Honolulu. Find a Los Angeles Real Estate Agent who has the very best real estate marketing wizard to help you sell your home for more.
Housing Bubble 2018? Will the Real Estate Market Crash This Year?
Home buyers, mortgage holders, and investors are asking more lately, “Will the housing market crash in 2018/2019?” The US Housing Market is strong, so if this is a housing bubble, it’s a big one.
Remember the worst financial mismanagement and calamity of our era? Subprime mortgages. 7.8 million foreclosures occurred during the 2008 housing crash and the country sunk into a severe recession.
Are we in a residential housing bubble? While the Trump administration has brought unprecedented growth in the US job market, a preoccupation with ideological issues such as immigration and nuclear war along with cancelled trade deals point to a recession.
Take another look at the US housing market factors and fundamentals.
With job and wage growth now rising, the situation might be more one of inflation, rising interest rates, and strong housing starts. That suggests a recesson won’t be for a few years. If the jobs and industry repatriation continues, then growth could continue for many years. Industry can’t be repatriated to the US in a short time. It took China decades to gain its monopoly on manufacturing.
What is a ‘Housing Bubble’
According to investopia, A housing bubble is a run-up in housing prices fueled by demand, speculation and exuberance. Housing bubbles grow with an increase in housing demand, pressured by limited supply. Then speculators enter the market to capitalize on capital gains and rental income property opportunities.
Supposedly, lessons were learned with controls on lending practices. Yet, could housing plunge for different reasons this time? Is a bubble a certain sign of a housing market crash? Experts think so.
12 Reasons for a Housing Crash
excessively high home prices from a price bubble
sudden underwater mortgages
rising interest mortgage rates
slowing economy and sudden rises in unemployment
wage growth not keeping up with home prices
geo-political shifts
trade deals
a stock market bubble and volatility
level of consumer debt
cost of living rises
risky low rate mortgages for new home buyers
high oil and energy prices
Homeowners are wise to be wary. The last crash cost many their homes and savings. Billions wiped out. There were plenty of expert predictions about a crash in 2016 and 2017, but that didn’t happen. That’s because the US economy is too strong and frankly, it doesn’t look to be letting up for many years.
Money manager James Stack, 66, ($1.3 billion fund) predicted the last housing crash in 2005, just before prices peaked says his “Housing Bubble Bellwether Barometer” of homebuilder and mortgage company stocks is warning of another crash.
Stack’s emphasis on financial companies is interesting. He must feel that it’s this over-leveraged group, the ones we forgot about, that could be the weak link. If the Fed goes crazy with rises, it makes sense that homeowners would begin defaulting on their mortgages leading to finance company failures again.
The recent tax changes are powering up the economy fast but they’re cooling demand which could keep it from peaking further. But prices have raged forming one half of the bubble.
The problem comes when the bubble bursts and losses of 30%, 40% or more pile up quickly. Investors tell themselves they’ll be smart enough to get out in time, but that’s not true.” from a post on Bubble Dynamics by Jim Rickards.
With all the political strife in the US, there’s those who might think a housing market collapse is inevitable and could launch a stock market crash. Maybe a few will take pleasure from it. Wars, government incompetence, political interference, weak banking system, and a weakening economy brought everything down in 2008.
Some experts warn the conditions also exist for a crash in 2018/2019. Is this just anti-Trump lobby fear mongering or is there a factual basis for a housing crash? They point to heated up markets like Washington DC, Dallas, New York, Seattle and Denver and talk about bubbles.
They point to Presidential impeachment, trashed trade deals, global economic slides, and high consumer debt as sure signs the housing market bubble will burst.
But hold on, the stock markets are still strong with plenty of demand for housing. Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, New York, and Boston are still showing strength during traditional weak seasons.
So is there really a US housing bubble and a tumble as early as 2018? Or will the year of the natural disaster be followed by a unusual good year for housing?
International economies play a big role now so perhaps domestic issues might not be enough to set off a housing landslide. But let’s take a closer look at all the fundamentals below.
The Last Housing Crash
Can history be a reliable guide to the 2018 to 2020 period? Looking back at the last housing crash 10 years ago, experts blamed it on everything from easy low mortgage rates to greed, house fippers, unregulated banks and lenders, mortgage underwriters and sub prime loans.
And when mortgage holders believe they will owe endlessly on a worthless high priced property, they’ll begin defaulting on their mortgages. If mortgage rates jump and they aren’t locked in at a low rate, that’s a factor.
If trade wars do begin, it could kill jobs, wage levels, and investment, resulting in a slide. The economy is the number one factor. And if foreign buyers want to sell because of currency worries, prices would fall.
It’s these worries that keep property investors up at night and a lot of people from buying.
Those housing experts point to a number of things that exist now and could transpire in 2018 or 2019. So if the housing market was to burst, would that affect how much you should pay for a house? If you’re a seller, should you sell your house now?
The US housing market has ridden the longest economic rally in US history. Is this an economic bubble too?
There is an economic bubble. We’re in it. It’s a period of intense optimism with lots of disposable income to throw at home purchases. And places like California is where the tech industry has done so well, bidding has been most intense. Yet, it’s not completely out of control (although anyone in the Bay Area would argue) as the points below suggest.
Graphic courtesy of Zillow.com
What happens if China calls in that debt? Interest rates would rise, layoffs would grow, mortgages would begin to default, and prices would plummet faster than they went up.
Is there Excessive Risk Taking in the Housing and Investment Market?
Experts say excessive risk isn’t present in the markets. They suggest few are overleveraged, financially stressed, and not threatened by increased interest rates.
Is Demand for Housing in the US exhausted?
It appears demand for housing is still strong and considerable building is taking place. However not enough housing is being built to satisfy current demand.
Is Debt a Problem?
US credit card debt is the highest in history and the US national debt is $20 Trillion. The US annual trade deficit is also in the trillions. The average US home buyers puts 5% down on a home whereas in the past it was 20%. There’s not a lot of new mortgage debt:
In 2016, new first lien mortgages topped $2 trillion for the first time since the end of the housing crisis, but mortgage originations were still 25 percent lower than their pre-recession average — from Magnify Money.
Average debt to income ratio is rising yet is way below what it was before the last housing bubble.
However, Equity is High
Homeownership is at its lowest level ever in the last 30 years. Most Americans make low wages and can’t afford to buy. And those who do own, have a lot of home equity.
Unofficial Conclusion: No Housing Bubble for the Foreseeable Future
It doesn’t look like the statistics support a housing bubble or a burst. The markets appear to be stable and those who are at risk of an economic downturn are renting and don’t hold mortgages.
We can say for sure that it is a good time for wealthy Americans and large multinational corporations. Record profits that they don’t appear to be willing to share with American workers. Without excessive demand from the working class, a housing bubble would have to happen from investors taking flight.
Perhaps the best way to prevent a housing bubble from happening and an economic catastrophy is to not allow half of Americans to participate in the housing markets. This is why the property rental market is piping hot. There may not be an end to demand for rentals.
Houses for Sale – Your Ultimate Source for Finding Homes for Sale
If you’ve read the housing forecast report, you know the availability of homes for sale is squeezed. A lot of properties aren’t even listed which will make it significantly difficult for you to find the property you’re dreaming of.
Real estate investors know fast about great homes for sale that offer the best investment value and there’s several ways they get first dibs on properties for sale.
Realtor Pocket Listings is one way they get connected to exclusive, quality houses. This is where the Realtor works both sides of a transaction and they keep the home listing to themselves hoping to broker it to their own pool of buyers. This works well in a market like we have now where houses for sale are rare.
Realtors will keep these listings quiet, so you need to be in contact with as many Realtors as possible, such as one from each major brokerage. The bottom line in finding your dream home or good investment property and houses for sale in your city is with a well rounded home search strategy.
Houses for Sale on the MLS
Remember that you may not see the best houses for sale on the MLS. You need to expand your search online using a variety of housing sources. Some services also do complex predictive analytics where they monitor social activity and other sources to find homebuyers and sellers who are exhibiting pre-sale behavior. This can be very good.
Realtor.com, Zillow, Remax, Trulia, Redfin, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sothebys, and Craigslist might be the way to go, to find houses for sale, but you’re kind of getting the leftovers. It’s like searching for a job using the classifieds. These are the awful jobs companies can’t fill so they advertise and go through the painful process of employee selection. That’s a grind.
Finding the Best Houses for Sale
With real estate, you’re looking for the best properties, the good stuff, that no one knows about. It’s better to find the best rather than toiling with a Realtor sorting through a limited supply. However, it’s wise to use a Realtor as part of your quest to find the best homes, houses, condos, townhouses, apartments or income investment properties from Los Angeles to San Diego to Florida. Use the Zillow Home Search Tool to get started!
Investors, while you’re at it, get educated about the national housing forecast, and find housing markets where there is a good upside potential for ROI. Don’t stick to your local market just because you live there. There’s more potential in the best cities.
Our quest in this page is detached houses for sale in your city. Let’s get started!
Are you thinking about how to triple or quadruple your sales in 2018? After just a little thought, you may discover what these 2 reports from Inc.om and Entrepreneur.com below reveal, that there are some great cities to build your business and achieve strong business results.
And before you’ll do it, you’ll want to take a little time to consider how the market could be peaking, technology changes, and competition in your own market. What really is the 5 year outlook in your city? What would expansion do for the mood and outlook of your staff?
It doesn’t always follow that warm climates translate to business friendly climates, yet the US south might be where the most potential is. Wherever you decide to grow, it’s an exciting challenge that you’ll want to put on the front burner right now. These cities may be the key source of your future business revenue.
Is Growth of 300 to 400% Attractive?
What Makes a Great City to Venture Into?
Inc’s team found that diversity of industry sectors and a pro-business/pro-development political environment makes for the best ROI. Cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Austin, and San Diego get high marks. The reports also reveal other cities which might be a better bet. One aspect they didn’t discuss is the attractiveness of the city as a place to live or visit. A good question for a private moment is, “do I really like this place.” That’s why many SMB owners prefer Florida and California.
The connection between optimism and opportunity shouldn’t be underplayed. Some cities have a great atmosphere and lifestyle and that translates to better quality clients. And who doesn’t want a dream client? Your dream client strategy is simplified when you’re approaching companies in these amazing markets.
In fact, the report suggests we all need to change our attitudes about the cities we thought were ideal for new business development. Cities like San Francisco and Boston may not have the outlook that Fresno, San Antonio, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Tampa, or Orlando now possess.
Successful businesses takes risks, with faith in themselves and their staff the driving force
The cities in Florida held the highest overall promise, and in the aftermath of the 2 recent hurricanes, you have to think Florida is the new holy land for new business growth. I mentioned in the best cities for real estate investment and best cities for jobs and best cities to live in posts, that certain states seem to have better momentum.
California might be expensive and overly regulated, but if you’re starting up a satellite office to create connections in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and San Jose, the diversified, high tech economy here might be the answer to your business dreams. There’s a market fluidity in California that makes it inviting and perfect for your initial experiments at growth.
Minneapolis downtown courtesy of Wikimedia. Midwestern cities are among the highest rated in recent years.
Entrepreneur Magazine’s List of Promising Cities
Entrepreneur Magazine also published a list of promising cities for new business development. A surprising number of cities in the mid west made it to the top. Lots of potential target cities for your business.
To really know whether a particular city is the right location for your business expansion or new sales growth, you’d need to do extensive research.
It does look as though Florida has the best momentum. However, a multi-city business development strategy for Florida doesn’t come without challenges. Florida is a big state with its own business culture, and the hispanic language element may pose challenges.
This is Where Innovation in New Biz Dev Comes In
California seems the one with the lowest risk, but if you’re stuck with the usual techniques, sales and media channels, and branding that everyone else uses, you might struggle. You need to be innovative.
Growth strategies have to be built on a more organic approach that presents relevant value to specific types of businesses. Getting granular isn’t difficult. I’ve built and laid out digital content paths that created exposure for targeted types of clients all over world. And the quality of client is as good as your online content.
In 2017/2018, your content alone determines who you will land as a future client.
Successfully capturing clients from the UK, China, Russia, I learned the challenges of keeping each type happy. There’s more involved than winning. It’s a great challenge.
If you want to explore new markets in Florida and California, or in Vancouver or Toronto Canada, contact me to discuss it. I score 10 out of 10 on innovation, and that’s the best stat I can present you with in a world where your CV means nothing, your experience is ancient history, and where only your ability to adapt and improve really matters.
They might be anywhere out there, and you’ll need a plan/strategy to reach them and work with them. Have you avoided doing this because you couldn’t visualize how to do it? Well, let’s fix that shall we.
Creating new clients in remote locations seems daunting and impossible for small business owners, yet many entrepreneurs and SMB owners have done very well at this. I’ve done it myself successfully in San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver and London UK, and I want to be even better this time.
In fact, for some manufacturers and service providers, perhaps you, it’s an imperative to be able to find our target customers dispersed over the vast North American landscape. Local just got a whole new meaning.
“they turned out to be great clients who generated the best times of my life”
I’ d like to help you accelerate your journey into new business development so you can acquire the best customers of your life. They’re out there, but it takes some smarts to find them. Forget the usual inhumane, high pressure sales tactics you’ve been bred on.
There’s a different approach here that’s better. And that approach is used by many of the people whom you see online and which you found to be fascinating people. You didn’t actually find them. They found you, and I’m about to explain how some of these super effective people manage to get crazy good clientele, one’s they could never get via advertising and cold calls.
You’re Their Dream Provider and They’re Waiting for You
For the sake of brevity, let’s cut to what really matters to clients from Boston or Charlotte to San Diego or Los Angeles. They all want to be served by providers who are relevant and who make them believe in their own mission and purpose. They’re looking for more than just technical competence – which is what everyone is trying to sell.
Through experience they may know that slick, scaled up providers can deliver a very disappointing business partnership.
If you focus on relevance, sincerity, credibility, and building engaging connections, clients will clamor to work with you. Even if you lack the expertise/capability they demand, they may still decide you’re worth working with, even if you’re thousands of miles away. And if you’re a master at what you do or have an outstanding product, then even better.
Don’t believe that they already have what they want or that it’s available. They probably don’t. They could be waiting for you to show up.
Reach, Relevance and Connection
But how do you get the message out about your company and its philosophy and then build relevance to target prospects in small communities such as Bradenton Florida, Oceanside California or Kelowna, Canada?
You do it through the 3 simple tasks of reach, relevance, and connection. And you do it according to an expert level strategy (we’ll get to that whole topic later).
1. Reaching Your Target Prospects in Cucamonga among other Places
Your target audience is besieged with phone calls, advertising, emails, and direct sales approaches. They tend to see all marketers as noise. Unfortunately, you’re included in that noisy ocean of blah. The medium is the message they say, so using aggressive ppc, email, and cold calling means you start right off the bat as someone they should avoid. First impressions are tough to overcome.
The best reach tool is a high subscription rate, web and content marketing campaign which may include your website, local media websites in your target cities, and local newspapers. The content is strategically written and designed to rank high Google searches, and to create engagement for specific industries in specific geolocations. That’s followed by a boots on the ground friendship and relevancy campaign by a business development/client success strategist who likes those kinds of clients.
2. Establish Relevance
With their noise filters on high, prospects have very defined ideas of what or who they should pay attention to. Your content, branding, and initial exposure needs to be well thought out — in other words very strategic. Your research will ferret out the attitudes, needs, gaps, failings, and decision processes of your target prospects. Then you can position your material and UVP to hit home emotionally.
And that content is so critical. Your choice of issues, news, technology, market events and perspectives tells them whether you’re tuned in to what they feel matters. Topics, keywords, people, perspectives, and timing collectively send a message that you’re sympatico with them.
Think about how a provider would reach you best. They’d likely discover your business online, usually in an unguarded moment where they they’re surfing or they stumble upon it. It could be a mention on someone’s blog, an article on the local tv station’s website, or when they found you in a Google search. Something in that content hit a nerve. You need to know what that nerve is.
“When you advertise, their guard is up and it’s impossible to make the necessary emotional connection regardless of the carefully crafted success story you’ve prepared”
In the moment they found you, read your story, and identified the issues you discussed, they quickly realize your business is relevant to them. This is when they visit your Website, check you out on Linkedin, and Google you and your product/service to dig deeper. A simple process everyone follows today.
And when they find your web content, it’s relevant to them and they begin to open up emotionally to the idea they’ve found the right provider. It’s that “ah ha” moment and you’ve put your relationship on rock solid ground.
3. Build a Strong Personal Connection
I walked into a retail store in San Diego, created and developed a connection with the co-owner. Within 4 days, I was his new digital marketer. He had a sales issue along with concerns about the long term future of his business, which I didn’t know about.
In our conversation, I created a real, human connection, which gave me time to present my services in a casual, unthreatening way. Meetings became more progressive and targeted and I established my relevance personally (I had other San Diego clients, liked the same sports, and was enthused about being in his store and his beautiful city).
I understood his personal mission, beliefs and values, from his nieces to his business ambitions to where he originated from — the New England area. And I was a source of strength for him to work with his business partner.
I rediscovered that making friends with your clients is the essence of good business. These friendships bring a lastingness and positive expectations about ongoing growth and success and become the fuel that drives growth and willingness to take risk. These are human, personal things, not something a big, slick digital agency can help with.
Boots on the ground, means you’re there, personally and emotionally wired in.
Dig Deep and Travel to these Locations
If you want to do really well in a particular remote location whether it’s London UK, San Diego, Costa Rica, or the Bay Area and San Fran, ensure you know something about these regions, and that you like them. If you have a passion for these locations, it comes through in your online content, your tone of voice, and your personal disposition.
Typically, I target California, Toronto, and Vancouver because these are my favorite places. Your favorites might be Boston, New York, Charlotte, Miami, Houston or Seattle or even Cucamonga! They’re all good.
High Value – High Commitment
For B2B companies, this is vital because you’re selling a high value, high-involvement solution that can affect their business greatly. You must display a willingness to be there whenever they need, maintain good communications, and make them believe the time you’re back home is when they can flex their independence and growth muscles on their own.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”
Making your absence an advantage is important. Quite a few companies don’t want someone local who is around to pester them. So your distance is a selling point.
With the right targeting, reach, impact, relevance, and establishing an emotional connection with the prospect, you’ve got a good chance of them becoming your next client.
Yes, they’re kind of your dream client, but in a sense, you’re their dream provider. It works both ways, and in generating a friendship with the owner or marketing manager, you’re creating a much higher level of trust and credibility that other local providers may not possess.
People like their friends and the commitment to success is higher among friends.
So with this in mind, you’re ready to begin doing more in-depth research on targeted prospects to create the kind of focused, high quality content that will act as your first introduction to your future high quality client.
I think after you’ve mulled this over a while, you’re going to recognize the vast potential of these other markets and that a new more organic approach is how you win today.
Whether it’s cheap flights or business class hotel bookings, you know how searchers look hard on Google for the right rates and locations.
And while expedia, hotels.com, trivago, and airbnb are also well aware of the power of Hotel SEO and have big outreach via social media, there’s plenty of opportunity to build traffic for your hotel or B&B Inn.
Today, it’s all about the customer journey, the experience they have while searching. That search may begin with “cheap hotel rooms” but with excellent search engine optimization and expert content strategy, the path that travel consumer takes can be managed. We an show them a better solution than cheapest hotel rooms, New York, or San Diego hotels.
SEO is just the beginning. Content strategy and content engagement pave the way to hotel bookings and revenue
How much Traffic can Hotel SEO deliver? A lot.
In fact, I doubled a major hotel’s traffic and made a big impact on their bottom line. This was traffic generated via Google, Yahoo, direct visits, and other website referrals. Adding a million new visits per year makes Hotel SEO a respected profession. I’d be delighted to perform SEO for your hotel brand.
I do love travel and hotels are recognized as convenient, safe, and comfortable accommodations. Your SEO specialist should have a passion for destinations. My personal favorites are Banff, San Diego, Costa Rica, Whistler BC, and Florida. Any many more locales await!
And while AirBnB has put a good deal of pressure on the hotel industry, hotels have innovated. Years ago, hotel marketing communications were formal and narrow thinking. Yet today they’ve opened up to more personal and creative interactions with travellers looking for fun, helpful and engaging content. There are alternate paths on the hotel customer journey.
Achieving rankings, wide and deep, actually requires a lot of content, ingenuity, and social connectedness. There is original content and then there’s more content that we might glean from your property databases. Whatever can help us generate rankings and build our relevance to RankBrain and searchers.
The strictness and avoidance of risk that major brands have as their achilles heal, is just one area where your small hotel can exploit. On a local level as well, many hotels won’t play the give and take that high performance SEO takes. So whether it’s local SEO or large scale Hotel SEO, there are niches and opportunities where you can beat the big brands and get solid exposure.
What do You Need to Win your Google Rankings?
bold, confident keyword selection (head and longtail both)
clever, engaging content constructed as a whole on your website
high performing EPIC level visual content
high quality, sharable blogs, pdfs, videos, photos
interesting, engaging blog posts using semantically relevant copy
high quality travel-related stories
Good Content for Engaging Behavior
Yes, as I demonstrate in my new SEO Book, there is no dichotomy between SEO and Content Strategy. You can align and combine to make Google and customers have the same pleasant and and convincing experience. Let’s get your Web presence optimized from top to bottom.
The name Boca Raton conjures up a lot of luxurious images for home buyers across the US and abroad. The town with the exotic name is famous for luxury and the ultimate in lifestyle. In fact, opulence might better describe the lifestyle here. But it’s also a life of meaning and purpose.
The whole God’s waiting room reputation has left this area, with many buyers now being younger and career minded. It’s attracted a youthful, vibrant and entrepreneurial new home buyer to Palm Beach County. With the market flattening, you’ve got a better price point for your Florida dream home.
Photo courtesy of downtownreporting.com
If you’re looking for a better life, you may find this community in South Florida gives you better access to every kind of advantage possible. And the weather and climate here are unbelievable. You’ll be enjoying the beach, your swimming pool, playing golf a fantastic local clubs where you’ll meet some accomplished and interesting residents.
The strange thing is this same image of immaculate luxury homes and modern beachfront condos, rolls royces, and private gated communities scares a lot of buyers and investors away.
They assume this land of millionaires and 8,000 square foot, 8 bedroom estates is priced out of reach and they wouldn’t be welcome. Yet Boca Raton Florida offers a lot for those with a more modest budget.
There’s a good reason why Boca Raton FL has this reputation for fine living, American culture, and topical living. It has these in spades. For buyers looking for economic and career possibilities, along with the best schools for their kids, and a home that does more to relax than a years worth of massages. Just being here takes the edge off of life. It puts you into a more productive and optimistic frame of mind.
And considering how the South Florida economy is booming, with population rising fast, a lot of people seem to be of similar opinion. Florida is the place to be right now.
This 4,000 square foot, 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom luxury home below located in Boca Raton looks like a millionaire’s abode. Picture yourself languishing by the pool, or pampering your guests at the bar, or just feeling free and unfettered in the 20 foot ceiling space living area. This astonishing golf course home is available at this time of writing at $699,000.
Luxury Home for Sale, Bocaire Golf Club, Boca Raton Area: $699,000
This spacious 4,000 square foot detached home for sale in Boca Raton on the Bocaire Golf Club. Only a golfer can truly appreciate this amazing view and opportunity. And everyone else will just love it.
This waterfront home sle in Boca Raton offers 3 bedrooms in 3000 square foot living space with a beautiful inground swimming pool. The master bedroom is spacious and amazing and there is no shortage of windows to let that warming Florida sunshine in!
Waterfront Luxury Homes – 21144 Ormond Court, Boca Raton
This spacious 4400 square foot waterfront home is designed for contemporary tastes. You’ll appreciate the views, open concept, beautiful master bath, and wonderful kitchen. Get the details and ask about more homes for sale in Boca Raton at Homes of South Florida.
These are just a sampling of the luxury homes for sale in Boca Raton. And there are homes that are much better than this. If Florida might be in your future, make sure you do some searches at Homes of South Florida, then inquire about how to buy a home in Florida. You’ll enjoy the fact there is no state tax here.
Contact Realtor Michael Goldberg of United Realty in Boca Raton: 561 231-0021.
With more babyboomers hoping to retire somewhere nice, and who have been holding onto their old home because they have nowhere to go, they will find Florida a solid asset as a home or real estate investment.
South Florida’s population hit 6 million for the first time, and Miami Dade hit 2.7 million residents. Tampa Sarasota region was in the top 10 nationally for population growth and Orlando saw 48,000 new residents arrive.
Graphic courtesy of paper-money.blogspot.ca
Graphic courtesy of paper-money.blogspot.ca
Graphic courtesy of tradingeconomics.com/united-states/forecast
Graphic courtesy of tradingeconomics.com/united-states/forecast
Graphic courtesy of Zillow.com
Minneapolis downtown courtesy of Wikimedia. Midwestern cities are among the highest rated in recent years.
Whether it’s cheap flights or business class hotel bookings, you know how searchers look hard on Google for the right rates and locations. 
There’s a good reason why 
