It’s been a tumultuous hurricane reason in the U.S. We want to say this right off the bat – when these tragedies strike, the last thing we should be worried about is real estate. The first response should prioritize people, not possessions – as painful as those losses can be, the loss of human life is far more devastating. We don’t want anyone to get the impression that we’re more concerned with passive income than the very real people affected by these storms.

Because the real estate market moves in a cycle, you’d think timing it would be easy. After all, if investors could predict what the market will do, we’d be able to time our moves accordingly! While that’s a wonderful thought, it’s the daydream of an inexperienced investor.

Homeownership hit at all-time low at 62.9% in 2016. While owning a home was once an integral part of the American Dream, we’re seeing it matter less and less to up-and-coming generations of homebuying age. Millennials and Gen Z, saddled with student debt and low wages, are often unable to afford a home – if they even want to buy in the first place.

If you’ve been keeping your finger on the pulse of the real estate market, you’ve noticed just how slow things are right now. The National Association of Realtors predicts that the housing market is on track for its slowest year since 2008. Reports say the average homebuyer must make $115,000 annually to afford the typical U.S. home. On average, American households are short of that benchmark by $40,000.

ATTOM Data is one of the forerunners in real estate data and analysis. Recently, they released a report detailing the counties in the United States with the largest increases in annual rent returns for single-family rentals.

The starter home is dead.

Differentiating between the overhyped fads and the trends with promise and staying power isn’t always easy. Because technology progresses alongside human ingenuity, new investing methods crop up all the time.

The pandemic era brought with it a surprising flurry of real estate market activity. Even people who aren’t into real estate – investing or otherwise – are aware of just how wild things have been over the past twenty-something months.

If you’re like most people in the world right now, you’re likely fatigued by an overwhelming amount of negative news, doomsaying, constant stress, and fear. As we move through the pandemic — for many of us, the third month of stay-at-home orders and social distancing — it’s important to analyze the market as it is versus worrying about what it will become.

Over the past few months, we’ve been talking about how things are looking up in Houston, Dallas and Memphis real estate: but what about the rest of the country? Markets like Houston and Dallas, of course, had the distinct advantage of not being as affected by the market crash (or recession) compared to other national real estate markets.

We of course recognize that these markets on the forefront of recovery are great and, we hope, a sign of good to come in the future. But really, how is the rest of the United State faring when it comes to real estate?