Real Estate

Investors Buying Houston Homes for 40 Cents on the Dollar

"Those kinds of bets have often paid off. Buyers who snapped up co-ops and office towers when New York was near bankruptcy in the 1970s made a killing. More recently, companies including Blackstone Group LP and other marquee names bought foreclosed homes after the 2008 financial crisis and are sitting on billions in potential gains. The cycle begins with small-time investors such as Schild, who’s bought more than 30 waterlogged houses for an average $175,000 apiece. Then Wall Street swoops in."

Continue ReadingInvestors Buying Houston Homes for 40 Cents on the Dollar

A Cannabis Company Just Bought a Whole Town To Create A ‘Weed Village’

"American Green is a cannabis company based in Arizona, but they just bought the small California town of Nipton, located in San Bernardino County, and plan to convert into a municipality with a cannabis theme. The company has a 'state of the art' cultivation facility in Arizona and also sells hemp-based CBD (cannabidiol) products online and works to develop cannabis apps. They just spent five million dollars to obtain Nipton and plan to spend another $2.5 million creating their cannabis tourist attraction over the next 18 months." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Cannabis Company Just Bought a Whole Town To Create A ‘Weed Village’

The American Dream appears to be more attainable in Mexico and China

"70% of millennials in China and 46% of Mexican millennials own a home versus 35% of young adults in the U.S. Young people in China are benefiting from wage growth that is projected to outpace the rate of home price appreciation set last year. And the U.S. doesn’t just fall behind China — France (41%) also came out ahead. In the United Arab Emirates, only 26% of millennials own a home, and Australia does only slightly better at 28%. (The average millennial U.S. homeownership rate in a separate WalletHub study rested around 40%.)" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe American Dream appears to be more attainable in Mexico and China

Want to see how America is changing? Property taxes hold the answer

"In 2016, United Van Lines reported, New Jersey was the state with the most 'outbound' movers, followed by Illinois, New York and Connecticut. The top ten 'inbound states' included some with a higher tax burden, like #5 Vermont, but also Nevada and South Carolina, which rank #43 and #44, respectively." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWant to see how America is changing? Property taxes hold the answer

Chinese Hotel: 6 Days to Build

"Pay attention to how few workers are visible in any stage of production. There is no way that these techniques will not be adopted all over the world. Nobody is going to give China this kind of competitive edge. These techniques are going to be imitated. It means the end of today’s technology. Today’s technology is labor-intensive. This will not be true by 2030. The next step will be the adoption of these techniques for housing developments. The construction industry will work out the bugs in high-level projects. Then these techniques will be adopted by housing developers as the price of the tools continues to drop." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese Hotel: 6 Days to Build

In Copenhagen, Apartment Prices Jump 60% After Rates Go Negative

"Denmark’s biggest mortgage bank says there’s a 'real risk' Copenhagen is heading into a property bubble. Property prices in Copenhagen have risen 40-60 percent since the middle of 2012, when the central bank first resorted to negative interest rates to defend the krone’s peg to the euro. The benchmark deposit rate has been minus 0.75 percent since February as Denmark’s currency war intensified, and most analysts surveyed by Bloomberg see negative rates lasting at least through 2017. The Danish regulator this month warned Danske Bank against pursuing a growth strategy in Sweden as the housing market there shows signs of imbalances." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn Copenhagen, Apartment Prices Jump 60% After Rates Go Negative

HK property developers push HK$1.3 billion in home loans to buyers

"Facing fierce competition amid a tightening of mortgage policies, a growing number of developers have been skirting bank regulations by providing home loans of up to 95 per cent of the purchase price through wholly owned financial institutions to lure buyers. They began offering mortgage loans after the maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for bank mortgages for self-use residential properties with a value below HK$7 million was lowered from 70 per cent to 60 per cent in February last year. That meant home buyers needed to make a 40 per cent initial down payment, up from 30 per cent, when purchasing an apartment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHK property developers push HK$1.3 billion in home loans to buyers

J.P. Morgan makes it easier for rich to take out mortgages

"J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is loosening its underwriting criteria for big mortgages, as lenders ramp up competition to grab a bigger share of the high-end housing market. The nation’s largest bank plans to announce as soon as Tuesday that it is lowering the minimum credit score and down payment it requires for mortgages as big as $3 million. At the same time, some big banks are backing away from smaller loans where they see higher regulatory costs and litigation risks. By dollar volume, jumbo mortgages given out by lenders last year accounted for about 20% of all first-lien mortgages. That is up from 5.5% in 2009. The last time jumbo mortgages accounted for a larger share was in 2005." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJ.P. Morgan makes it easier for rich to take out mortgages

U.S. Homeownership Rate Falls to 20-Year Low

"The U.S. homeownership fell to its lowest level in 20 years at the end of 2014—levels last seen when national leaders embarked on a broad push to expand homeownership in the mid-1990s. Over the past year, President Barack Obama and other administration officials have voiced alarm that lending has gone from one extreme during the bubble—too loose —to the other—too tight—in the aftermath of the bust. Officials have walked a fine line in attempting to bar a return of the reckless products and practices that allowed the bubble to inflate 10 years ago while loosening some standards elsewhere to provide broader access to homeowners without perfect credit or big down payments." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Homeownership Rate Falls to 20-Year Low