W. J. Mencarow

When the government-controlled mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae agreed this year to guarantee a $1 billion financing deal for one of the biggest private-equity-backed landlords in the United States, the move prompted an outcry. Housing advocates and legislators questioned why the landlord, Invitation Homes, which is controlled by the Blackstone Group, needed such low-cost financing, …

Freddie Mac To Loan Million$ To Midsize Landlords Read More »

Nationwide, about a third of home and condo sales went to investors or other non-occupant buyers last year. “The percent of homes being purchased by non-occupant owners has been rising across the U.S.,” said Daren Blomquist, economist with Attom Data. Almost 40 percent of the homes sold in the Dallas area last year didn’t go …

1/3rd of homes nationwide sold to non-owner occupants Read More »

The number of apartment dwellers nationwide is nearing a record, as 95 percent of units are now occupied, according to rental data from RealPage, a real estate analytics firm. “Solid job formation, continued limited loss of renters to home purchase, and widespread availability of appealing new apartments” are continuing to boost rental demand, says RealPage …

Apartment Occupancy Rate Nears Record High Read More »

by Michael Taylor I’m a big fan of niche financial markets as well as learning about how NOT to invest. This leads me this week to the “life settlements” industry, and a subset of that business known as “viaticals.” Living owners of life insurance policies sometimes seek to sell their policies on the secondary market …

How NOT To Invest: Viaticals Read More »

As home prices rise, fewer homeowners are underwater, or owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. In the first quarter of 2017, 350,000 borrowers regained equity, which dropped the total number of underwater owners to 1.8 million, according to the latest Mortgage Monitor Report from Black Knight Financial Services, a real …

Underwater Homeowners Are Drying Up Read More »

Sifting through the Internet to find the answer to a specific question can be a daunting task. This article compiles some of the most useful online tax resources.  READ MORE:  http://www.cpajournal.com/2017/07/12/tax-resources-internet/  

Living close to good transport links can be a major selling point for a house, but one property developer seems to have taken things a bit too far. Amused locals have been crying tears of laughter after spotting an embarrassing gaffe outside a local new-build. It looks nice enough from the outside – there’s just …

WHAT Were They Thinking??? Read More »

The real estate industry has been bombarded with cyber crime over the past few years. The risks are escalating as hackers penetrate property transactions, swiping people’s life savings from under the radar. These funds are often never recovered. Real estate cyber theft happens when home buyers receive what seems like a perfectly normal e-mail from …

Cybercrime Threatening Transactions Read More »

On July 1, about half of tax liens and almost all civil judgments — both big negatives — were expunged from consumer credit files. The big three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — no longer report a tax lien or civil judgment on a consumer’s credit report unless it includes the person’s name, …

As of July 1 credit scores became much less useful. Read More »

SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company, has analyzed its second annual round of undervalued cities in the U.S. Each city had a projected price per square foot based on livability metrics such as unemployment rate, crime, high school graduation rates, number of entertainment and dining establishments, and walkability. SmartAsset then compared that number to the actual …

Most Undervalued U.S. Cities in 2017 Read More »