Having a team of motivated mortgage professionals has helped Agave Home Loans grow since it was founded at the beginning of 2020.
Co-owners Marshall Gottlieb and Douglas Wang conducted business that year from two bedrooms at Wang’s house during a time when the Covid pandemic disrupted the traditional work from an office model. They had a list for cold calls and if they connected with a potential client on the phone, they would have to sprint to a quiet place to talk to them.
Today, Agave has 70 team members and was listed as a 2023 top performing partner for wholesale and correspondent lending by Rocket Pro TPO.
Gottlieb recently sat down with Editor Kimberley Haas to talk about their…
By SCOTT KIMBLER
Metropolitan Atlanta is the largest housing market in the Southeast and the city is leading the country in the trend of neighborhoods being built solely for the purpose of renting out single-family homes.
This trend appears to be new as corporate investing in real estate has grown exponentially in recent years, but it has roots dating back to the 2008 housing crisis, according to Assistant Professor Rohan Ganduri of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
“There were a lot of properties that were foreclosed upon,” Ganduri said. “That is when a large number of institutional investors stepped in and started to buy up a large number of single-family properties at very cheap prices. What they ended up doing…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
Build-for-rent communities have been growing in popularity as the housing landscape changes in the United States.
According to leaders at the National Association of Home Builders, developers are exploring new ways to meet continued housing demand and single-family build-for-rent properties provide a stepping stone between renting and buying for young families, as well as a good downsizing option for aging adults. They say many of the people who choose to live in these neighborhoods are renters by choice.
The concept has been getting national attention as people want the flexibility of renting but the amenities that come with homeownership such as more privacy and backyards. It is estimated that hundreds of build-for-rent communities are coming to the…
Despite inflation, debt, and high housing costs, Americans are still hoping to move out of their states.
That’s the conclusion reached by Realtor.com analysts when they scoured their listing page views. In Q2, 60.3% of all page views from the top 100 metros went to homes outside of the metros where shoppers actually live. This is up both from Q1 and the same time last year.
Shoppers in the ultra-expensive West were the most likely to look for homes elsewhere, followed by the Northeast.
On a city-by-city basis, the usual suspects are topping the list of most popular destinations.
Phoenix took the number one spot despite having the highest average home price of the bunch and news-making 100+ degree temperatures.…
By ERIN FLYNN JAY
It is being speculated that once interest rates drop, a number of buyers will jump into the housing market, causing another surge in prices. We spoke to some industry leaders to get their take.
Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors, said this is true.
“Buyers who were priced out of the housing market with rates at nearly 7% will be able to purchase. Due to limited housing inventory, the housing market may see a rebound in multiple offers, which will put upward demand on housing prices,” said Lautz.
She said a significant portion of homes are already selling at above the asking price.
“Currently, there are…
Rents have been rising nationwide, squeezing Americans hoping to save for a down payment or to reduce debt. But a new analysis from the Bank of America Institute found that renters in the Sun Belt have felt the worst of it.
Median rent payment growth in Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Tampa outpaced Western and Northeastern cities by more than 20 percentage points in February, leaders at the Institute said.
Overall, Bank of America customers saw their rents increase by 8% YOY in February.
Growth changed dramatically by geography. Phoenix and Tampa both saw rent costs increase by 26% and 23% YoY respectively in February. These are both record highs.
Cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston saw smaller…
Multifamily saw a stunning reversal in the fourth quarter of 2022 as apartment supply finally surpassed demand, creating a “swift and unprecedented” downturn. A new report from Apartments.com found that multifamily fundamentals declined in Q4, driven largely by limited absorption and supply/demand imbalances. “We ended the year with absorption barely remaining positive and vacancy rates trending upwards. As 2022 progressed, economic uncertainty suppressed household formations which limited multifamily demand,” said Jay Lybik, National Director of Multifamily Analytics at CoStar Group, which owns Apartments.com. “With 2023’s national forecast predicting the highest new supply totals since the 1980s, expect vacancy to rise above 7% and rent growth to push much lower.” More than 95,000 new units were delivered last quarter but many…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS The housing market traditionally cools during the holiday season as people focus on family and friends but industry leaders say it is a good time for potential sellers and buyers to weigh their options. After mortgage rates recently surged above 7%, real estate activity and consumer sentiment took a nosedive. Home delistings hit a record high in November as sellers and buyers pulled out of the market, according to journalists Lily Katz and Ben Walzer at Redfin. Markets where home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic are now cooling the fastest. In Sacramento, Calif., an average of 3.6% of active listings were delisted per week during the 12 weeks ending on November 27, up 1.6 percentage points from one year earlier.…
By CHUCK GREEN During the pandemic homebuyers fled to southern states for warmer weather but now would-be purchasers are bailing out of deals at a faster clip than anywhere in the country. According to analysts at Redfin, 60,000 deals were called off nationally in September. That’s 17% of the homes that went under contract that month. In Florida, Jacksonville had 745 home-purchase agreements fall through, equal to 30.3% of homes that went under contract. That was the highest percentage among the metros Redfin analyzed. They were followed by San Antonio, TX (25.3%), Atlanta, GA (25%), Orlando, FL (24.6%), and Tampa, FL (24.5%). In August, about 800 home purchase agreements were tabled in Jacksonville. That’s 26.1% of homes that went under contract…
Home price appreciation slowed for the second month straight in June, but remains in the high double-digits. CoreLogic’s Home Price Index found that home prices increased by 18.3% YOY in June, the 125th month of consecutive annual price growth. This is down from May’s 20.2% YOY increase. CoreLogic attributes the cool-off to reduced buyer demand from rising interest rates and concerns about the economy. Month-over-month, prices are down 0.6%. “Signs of a broader slowdown in the housing market are evident, as home price growth decelerated for the second consecutive month. This is in line with our previous expectations and given the notable cooling of buyer demand due to higher mortgage rates and the resulting increased cost of homeownership,” said Selma…
