All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™
Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Highlights this week include:
- Best college towns for buying rentals and for flipping
- Home prices are up 6.4% year over year
- The states At highest risk of property damage from natural hazards
- How the major cities did in July 2014
We hope these real estate news items help you stay up-to-date with your real estate investing strategies and inspire some profitable real estate deals for you.
Best College Towns for Buying Rentals and for Flipping
RealtyTrac has ranked the top 10 college towns for buying rental properties, and the top 10 college towns for flipping in 2014.
Top 10 for Buying Rentals
The top 10 college towns for buying rental properties were ranked based on annual gross rental yield, which is the annualized rental income — using average fair market rents for the town from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development —divided by the average of the median sales prices in the city during the first eight months of 2014.
With an average rental yield of nearly 14 percent, the city of Akron Ohio, home of the University of Akron, tops the list of top college towns for buying rental properties. Following closely is Trenton, N.J., home of Thomas Edison State College, with an average gross rental yield of 13.20 percent, Gainesville, Fla., home to the University of Florida, with an average gross rental yield of 11.34 percent.
Top 10 for Flipping
The top 10 college towns for flipping were ranked based on the average gross return on investment (ROI) percentage for single family homes flipped in the town during the first eight months of 2014. Not all college towns had sufficient sales, rental or flipping data to rank.
Topping the list of the best college towns for flipping is Minneapolis, Minn., home of the University of Minnesota, with an ROI for flipping of 65.59 percent. Close behind is Seattle, Wash., home of the University of Washington, with an ROI on flipping of 61.88 percent and Lincoln, Neb., home of the University of Nebraska, with an ROI on flipping of 55.01 percent.
“Boulder shows strong rental rates with rents of $800 to $1,000 per bedroom close to campus and a vacancy rate of 1 percent,” said Greg Smith, broker/owner of RE/MAX Alliance in Boulder, Colo.”Boulder investment properties are selling at an all-time high with many properties selling for cap rates of less than five percent.”
Home Prices Rose by 6.4 Percent Year Over Year
On Tuesday, CoreLogic® released its August CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI®) report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 6.4 percent in August 2014 compared to August 2013.
This change represents 30 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationally increased 5.9 percent in August 2014 compared to August 2013.
Also excluding distressed sales, 49 states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in August, with Mississippi being the only state to experience a year-over-year decline (-1.7 percent). Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
States at Highest Risk of Property Damage from Natural Hazards
––New Tool Scores Aggregated Risk Across Nine Natural Hazards––
CoreLogic® recently released an analysis ranking Florida as the U.S. state with the highest level of comprehensive risk exposure to multiple natural hazards, with Michigan identified as the state with the lowest risk.
The analysis was derived from the new CoreLogic Hazard Risk Score (HRS), an analytics tool launched today that gathers data on multiple natural hazard risks and combines them into a single easy-to-use score ranging from 0 to 100.
The overall score indicates risk exposure at the individual property and location level.
For every geocoded location across the U.S, the CoreLogic HRS is compiled using data representing nine natural hazards: flood, wildfire, tornado, storm surge, earthquake, straight-line wind, hurricane wind, hail and sinkhole.
How the Cities Did in July 2014
From David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee, S&P Dow Jones Indices
