Safest Places in America

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 04, 2016

Safewise.com analyzed FBI crime statistics from all 50 states and then combined that with their own research on each city's public safety, public health, and educational offerings. They came up with a list of 100 communities, to each of which they offer a downloadable badge that real estate pros and residents can use to show off their pride.

Here are the top ten; check out the link below to see the full list.

1. Lewisboro Town, NY: Population: 12,712; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0; Property Crimes per 1,000: 0.39
2. Wayland, Mass.: Population: 13,592; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.44; Property Crimes per 1,000: 0.96
3. Norfolk, Mass.: Population: 11,835; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.17; Property Crimes per 1,000: 1.86
4. Washington Township, NJ: Population: 18,787; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.37; Property Crimes per 1,000: 1.76
5. Broadview Heights, Ohio: Population: 19,318; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 1.19; Property Crimes per 1,000: 1.35
6. Ridgefield, Conn.: Population: 25,288; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.04; Property Crimes per 1,000: 2.57
7. Upper Providence Township, Penn.: Population: 10,354; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.19; Property Crimes per 1,000: 2.51
8. Hopkinton, Mass.: Population: 16,209; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.06  Property Crimes per 1,000: 2.65
9. Imperial, Calif.: Population: 16,535; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.30; Property Crimes per 1,000: 2.78
10. Campton Hills, Ill.: Population: 11,351; Violent Crimes per 1,000: 0.18; Property Crimes per 1,000: 3.00

Check out how this list compares with another recent study ranking safe cities from NeighborhoodScout.

Source: "The 100 Safest Cities in America 2016," SafeWise.com (April 25, 2016)

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The 10 Best Cities for Families

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

For families with children, there are many considerations when deciding where to move. Luckily, Livability.com made the decision a bit easier with their latest ranking of the 10 best cities to raise a family.

Read more: Make Your Listing Attractive to Young Families

When ranking these small-to-medium sized cities, they looked at the quality of healthcare, the condition of the local economy, crime rate data, and an analysis of the quality of schools.

Livability.com also took into account the overall quality of life, putting the most emphasis on the average length of resident commutes. Cities boasting large populations of children, plenty of outdoor space, and libraries with large children's sections were also factored into their ranking.

These are the 10 best cities to raise a family:

1. Rockville, Md.

2. Chandler, Ariz

3. Newton, Mass.

4. Holland, Mich.

5. Chula Vista, Calif.

6. Oak Park, Ill.

7. St. George, Utah

8. Homewood, Ala.

9. Bowling Green, Ohio

10. Palo Alto, Calif.

Source: "10 Best Places to Raise a Family," Livability (May 2, 2016)

Ellie Mae Debuts Millennial Tracker

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

Ellie Mae just launched its Millennial Tracker, an online tool that tracks loan trends among millennials across the country and provides insight into this mammoth generation of potential home buyers.

The Millennial Tracker provides access to the latest demographic data about this cohort. Visitors can conduct searches by borrowers’ geography, age, gender, marital status, FICO score, and amortization type. The tracker compiles data from about 66 percent of all closed mortgages dating back to 2014.

Read more: Millennial Buyers Reach Tipping Point in 2018?

“The mortgage industry is poised to experience a monumental shift as more millennial home buyers begin to enter the market,” says Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Ellie Mae. “There are roughly 87 million would-be homebuyers in the millennial generation and 91 percent of them say they intend to own a home one day. Lenders must prepare today to meet their needs.”

Some overall highlights from data uncovered with the Millennial Tracker so far:

• 37 percent of mortgages issued to millennial buyers since 2014 were FHA loans and took an average of 44 days to close.
• Conventional loans represent 60 percent of the loans issued to millennials since 2014 and took an average of 43 days to close.
• 31 percent of closed loan listed a female as the primary borrower. The average primary FICO score for female applicants was 724. The average age was 30.
• 66 percent of men were listed as the primary borrower on closed loans. The average age was 29. The average FICO score was 727.

Source: Ellie Mae

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10 Fastest-Growing Homebuilders

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

Smaller public homebuilders saw the most growth last year, according to BUILDER’s newly released Builder 100 findings. However, there were a couple notable exceptions, including giant building companies like D.R. Horton and Lennar Corp., which also posted high growth in 2015.

Read more: Cementing Partnerships in New Construction

AV Homes, however, led the list of 2015's fastest-growing public builders with 1,750 closings last year. That marks a nearly 84 percent growth from 2014. The New Home Co. came in second on the fastest-growing list with a nearly 78 percent growth rate from 2014.

The following were the fastest-growing public builders in 2015:

1. AV Homes: 83.63% change in closings year-to-year; 1,750 total closings
2. The New Home Company: 77.90% growth; 950 closings
3. UCP: 62.27% growth; 701 closings
4. WCI Communities: 45.65% growth; 938 closings
5. LGI Homes: 44.48% growth; 3,404 closings
6. TRI Pointe Group: 30.87% growth; 4,057 closings
7. William Lyon Homes: 28.69% growth; 2,422 closings
8. D.R. Horton: 20.62% growth; 36,736 closings
9. Century Communities: 16.61% growth; 2,401 closings
10. Lennar Corp.: 15.66% growth; 24,292 closings

Source: “Builder 100: 10 Builders That Increased Sales Most Year-over-Year,” BUILDER (May 2, 2016)

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A Racial Divide Persists in Housing

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

A housing disparity exists across pockets around the country, studies show.

Home values in predominantly African American neighborhoods have been the slowest to recover from the recession. In a new analysis conducted by the Washington Post, researchers looked at 300 of the largest U.S. metro areas. Homes in four out of 10 ZIP codes where blacks represent the largest population group are worth less now than they were in 2004. That’s nearly double the rate when compared to predominantly white ZIP codes nationwide.

Read more: A Dream Too Far

In the Atlanta metro area, for example, nearly nine in 10 mostly populated black ZIP codes still have home values that are below values from 12 years ago. Home values in South DeKalb remain 25 percent below what they were in 2004.

“The region reflects the complex ways that housing and race have long been intertwined in America,” The Washington Post reports. “Across the country, blacks are less likely to own homes; those who did were more likely during the housing bust to slip underwater; and as a result, a larger share of black wealth has been destroyed in the years since then.”

But the disparities not only exist where blacks have higher poverty levels but were also found in areas where black families are earning six-figure incomes, the analysis showed. Even after controlling for poverty rates and the age and type of housing, the research shows areas with larger black populations were more likely to suffer a steep decline in home values and experience little recovery.

“The explanation isn’t simply about race itself — a house isn’t worth less because a black family owns it — but also about all the inequities that have been correlated with race over time,” The Washington Post story continues. “Black home owners and predominantly black communities who had been barred from earlier generations of lending — victims of discrimination and government policy — were particularly likely to be targeted for predatory loans during the bubble.”

African American families earning around $230,000 a year were more likely during the housing bubble to be given a subprime loan than white families earning about $32,000, according to research by sociologist Jacob Fa­ber. According to Faber, subprime lenders saw them as a profitable group to target.

Source: “‘This Can’t Happen by Accident,’” The Washington Post (May 2, 2016)

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Housing Market Made First Quarter Gains

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

Overall, the housing market made steady, modest gains during the first quarter, with home prices rising and home owners seeing greater equity, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, notes in his latest column at Forbes.com.

Read more: A Troubling Shortage of Homes

Existing-home sales during the first quarter were at a 5.3 million annualized pace, marking a 4.7 percent increase from a year ago.

“There could be more room to grow given that sales are certainly not the frenzy pace of over 7 million that occurred during the easy subprime lending days and because jobs are consistently being added to the economy provided the mortgage rates remain manageable and do not shoot up,” Yun notes.

Mortgage default rates are lessening. The number of borrowers late on their mortgage payments by a month dropped to 2.35 percent in the first quarter. That is the lowest in 40 years (since the data first was collected on delinquency rates). The share of homes with new foreclosure proceedings also dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Home owners are seeing their equity increase. Since 2010, home equity nationwide has basically doubled from $6 trillion to more than $12 trillion, Yun notes. The median home price in that time has risen from $166,100 to $222,400.

However, there is one area of alarm: Rents, Yun notes. Rents have been outpacing income growth for the past four years. During the first quarter, rents rose 3.7 percent – double the rate of wage growth. Renters also continue to be held back from home ownership due to persistently tight credit standards among lenders.

As such, the home ownership rate plummeted to near 50-year lows of 63.6 percent in the first quarter.

“Among those aged under-35 the ownership rate fell even more markedly and was 34.2 percent in the latest quarter,” Yun notes. “The renter households in the meantime have been ballooning upwards by an additional 9 million in the past decade while home owner households have been reduced by a million. This trend of more renters and fewer home owners is occurring at a time of rising home values and housing equity gains.”

Source: “First Quarter Housing Market Trends,” Forbes.com (April 29, 2016)

3 Renovation Mistakes to Avoid

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2016

Home renovations can be costly. Add a mistake to it, and the costs can skyrocket even more.

Emerick Architects has taken on dozens of commercial and residential renovation projects over the last 16 years, and their architects recently shared some of the most common renovation mistakes in an interview with Curbed.com.

Read more: When Renovating, Keep it Simple

1. Succumbing to “fashion architecture”: The architects point to home owners who try to be too trendy with their renovations. "People try to treat architecture like fashion," Melody Emerick told Curbed.com. "And architecture takes a long time to build, uses a lot of resources, and needs to last a while." Trends can quickly fade. Instead, she says it’s important to stay true to the character of the house and be careful when updating the home’s structure. "You can change out a countertop or tile, but it’s a lot harder to re-do windows and doors," she says. "Make these the highest quality that you can and it will be money well spent."

2. Ignoring proportions: Too often, home owners just focus on the results but fail to consider the process enough. "People will just want to add on and say, ‘I want a family room that’s 12 by 18 feet,’ rather than seeing if that fit is right for the character of the house and how it flows," says Emerick. She recommends keeping a close eye on proportions, such as the size of windows and doors as well as ceiling height, to make sure the renovation fits the home.

3. Rushing the renovation: Renovations take time and shouldn’t be rushed, she says. “It takes longer than you think," says Emerick. "And that’s because it usually takes home owners a while to process the changes." Talk to experts early on to understand the deadlines involved. Add 10 percent more time to a project than originally anticipated, she suggests.

Source: “8 Renovation Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them,” Curbed.com (May 2, 2016)