Ted’s Tweets March 6 2015 – March 12 2015

For those of you that do not Tweet – you should consider doing so. If you want to talk about effective bang for the buck, the 140 total characters, letters, numbers and spaces of a Tweet on Twitter certainly qualifies. Who knew you could say so much in so little?

It reminds me of Mark Twain who wrote, “I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.” You need to pack a lot in a little space.

Since so few of you Tweet or follow me (now 944 followers), periodically one of the Jones on Real Estate blog postings will cover the latest Tweets.

While you may recognize some of the data from my blog postings, there are always items that just get Tweeted. I am always looking for “I did not know that” information. In the future I will try to adhere to blogging these Tweets weekly rather than monthly.

DrTCJ Tweets March 6 2015 – March 12 2015

• 8 out of every 10 Americans currently reside in urban areas (80%) – CBRE Globa
• Every 1% decline in interest rates in the past 15 years has allowed home sellers to increase the price 12% – Jon Burns Real Estate Consulting
• The US warehouse vacancy rate has now declined 19 consecutive quarters to 6.7% – Cushman & Wakefield
• With a current 1.75 billion smartphones in circulation today, subscribers are forecast to reach 3.5 billion by 2019 – ADWEEK
• There were 783 major data breaches in the US in 2014 – an all-time record – ADWEEK
• Total new and existing home sales are forecast in 2015 to be the best in 8 years reaching 5.8 million transactions – Freddie Mac
• Newly implemented minimum standards on residential air conditioners will save an estimated $63 billion in energy from 2015 to 2044 shipments
• New Mexico had the lowest average monthly residential electric bill in 2013 at $76.56 vs a US average $110.21 – EIA & NAHB
• The average residential monthly electric bill was $110.21 in 2013 representing approximately 9% of total housing expenditure – EIA & NAHB
• The median 2014 Gen X homebuyer was 41 years old, earning $104,600 per year, bought a $250,000 home with 1,890 square feet – NAR
• Gen X was the second largest homebuyer aged group in 2014 after the Millennials, buying 27% of all homes vs the Millennials 32% – NAR
• The median aged Millennial homebuyer in 2014 was 29 years old, had a $76,900 income and bought a $189,900 home with 1,720 Square Feet – NAR
• Millennials aged 18 to 34 years old bought the most homes in 2014 of any aged group at 32% of all sales – National Association of Realtors
• China housing sales in the first two months of 2015 are down 16.7% from a year ago with new construction starts off 17.7% – MarketWatch
• 56% of 3.3 million homes with Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) resetting from 2015 to 2018 are likely underwater – RealtyTrac
• The U.S. Homeownership rate at 63.9% is likely overstated and is probably 62.1% according to a study by Bank of America and ZeroHedge
• 40% of Millennials believe owning a home is extremely important and 30% say it is important but not a big priority – Goldman Sachs 2013
• In 1968 56% of those aged 18 to 31 years old were married and living in their own household vs 23% in 2012 – Pew Research Center
• The median age for marriage in the 1970s was 23 years old, but for Millennials in the 2010s the median age is 30 – Goldman Sachs
• Awesome graphic analysis of Millennials and their spending and housing issues – see the Goldman Sachs presentation http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/outlook/millennials/index.html?cid=tw-or-mil-3
• North Dakota has the lowest percentage of homes with loans seriously delinquent at 1.0% (90 days or more past due) – CoreLogic
• New Jersey at 8.9% has the greatest percentage of homes with seriously delinquent loans (90 days or more past due) – CoreLogic
• Florida, with 111,000 foreclosures in past 12 months, had more than two times the second place Michigan with 51,000 – CoreLogic
• Alaska has the lowest percent of homes with loans in the foreclosure inventory at 0.3%, Nebraska & North Dakota at 0.4% – CoreLogic
• New Jersey has the highest foreclosure inventory as a percent of homes with mortgages at 5.2% with New York 2nd at 4.0% – CoreLogic
• 4% of all residential loans (1.538 million) were seriously delinquent (90 days or more past due) vs 2.018 million a year ago – CoreLogic
• Current percent of homes with loans foreclosed in January at 1.4% was the lowest level seen since March 2008 vs 2.0% a year ago – CoreLogic
• January 2015 foreclosure inventory was 2.7% less than December 2014, making 39 consecutive months of year-over-year declines – CoreLogic
• Approximately 549,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure in January 2015 vs 822,000 a year ago (down 33.2%) – CoreLogic
• Since Q2 2004 when the homeownership rate peaked, 7 million homes have been lost to foreclosure – CoreLogic
• 43,000 residential foreclosures were completed in January 2015. National foreclosure inventory is down 33.2% from a year ago – CoreLogic
• Completed residential foreclosures were down 22.5% in January 2015 vs a year ago – CoreLogic
• Repeat foreclosures (previously in the foreclosure process, saved by a loan mod or payment plan) made up 1/2 of Jan 2015 foreclosure starts
• The average home price increase expected in 2015 by respondents to Fannie Mae’s February 2015 National Housing Survey is 2.5%
• 67% of respondents to Fannie Mae’s February 2015 National Housing Survey said it’s a good time to buy a house. 40% said a good time to sell
• Just 6% of respondents thought housing prices would go down in the coming 12 months & 46% prices would rise – Fannie Feb Natl Housing Survey
• 54% of consumers responding to Fannie Mae’s Feb 2015 National Housing Survey indicated “It is easy to get a mortgage today.” All-time high
• Buyers putting down 20% to buy the median-priced home in the US require an average $47,604 salary, very variable across markets – Wash Post
• US Credit card debt is projected to increase $60 billion in 2015, up from a $57.1 billion rise in 2014 – CardHub
• The average credit card balance at the end 2014 was $7,200 – getting close to an sustainable tipping point estimated to be $8,300 by CardHub
• 2014 ended with US credit card users increasing their credit card debt by a record $57.1 billion, a 47% increase from 2013 – CardHub
• Having to get mortgage insurance from the FHA vs private vendors can cost consumers up to $12,000 more – WalletHub 2014 MI Report
• Weakening € and a strong £ has reduced the purchase price of a European home by British to £149,000 from £164,000 a year ago – PropertyWire
• Using the ratio of listing views to the number of for-sale listings, Waco Texas shows the biggest potential upswing – http://Realtor.com
• At the end of 2014, Williston, North Dakota posted a 1% unemployment rate, the lowest in the country – http://Fortune.com
• Nationwide, apartment values are now on average 13% greater than the peak seen in 2007 – MultiFamily Executive (MFE)
• New deliveries of MultiFamily units in recent months and declining oil prices have seen Williston, North Dakota rents dip 15-20% – MFE
• The projected demand for new apartment units nationwide in 2015 is 186,000 (MFE), with 396,111 multifamily permits issued in past 12 months
• While the average of all apartment cap rates in 2014 was 6.1%, the top 10% of the top markets were 3.5% or less – Real Capital Analytics
• Garden level apartment cap rates hit 6.2% in January 2015, the lowest level seen since the recession – Multifamily Executive (MFE)
• The hot apartment market just got hotter with sales of $9.3 billion in January 2015, up 42% from a year ago – Multifamily Executive (MFE)
• Americans spent $58 billion in 2014 on their 397 million pets – American Pet Products Association
• Although all-electric car sales in January 2015 were up 18.3% from a year ago, January 2015 sales included just 2,617 total vehicles – KBB
• Incentive spending on new car and light weight truck sales in February 2015 were down 2.9% from a year ago to $2,623 – TrueCar & USA Today
• The average new vehicle transaction price in Feb 2015 was $33,299, up $1,145 or 3.6% from a month earlier – Kelley Blue Book – USA Today
• Average discount on a new electric car January 2015 was $10,700 vs $2,600 on hybrids and $1,100 on conventional compacts – KBB & USA Today
• February 2015 new car and light truck sales came in at a SAAR of 16.23 million, up from 15.41 million a year ago – AutoData
• The highest metro unemployment rate in the US as of November 2014 was Yuma, Arizona at 23.1% – Wall St 24/7 USA Today
• New York has the greatest effective single family property tax rate at 3.01%, with Texas 2nd at 2.18% and Illinois 3rd at 2.14% – RealtyTrac
• Effective national average property tax rate on all single family homes in 2014 was 1.29%, and 1.77% for $2 – $5 million homes – RealtyTrac
• The national average US effective property tax rate on single family homes was 1.29% in 2014 – RealtyTrac
• Although London is the most important global city for the ultra-high-net-worth individual, Miami now ranks 6th on the list – Knight Frank
• BBVA Compass is now offering zero percent down loans to qualified borrowers, and in some circumstances will pay up to $4,500 closing costs
• Although the unemployment rate declined in February, it was not the 295,000 new jobs created but 354,000 that dropped out of the workforce
• 2.7 million people were classified in February 2015 as long-term unemployed having been without a job for 27 or more weeks
• The food service and drinking sector added 59,000 net new jobs in February 2015, averaging 35,000 new jobs per month in the past 12 months
• The retail sector added 32,000 net new jobs in February 2015 bringing the 12 month total to 319,000
• Mining employment, which includes oil and gas, declined by 9,000 jobs in February, with 7,000 of those lost jobs in mining support
• Construction jobs have grown by 321,000 in the 12 months ending February 2015, with 29,000 new jobs in the latest month
• In the 12 months ending February 2015, the U.S. created 3.296 million net new jobs – the most in any 12 months since April 1998
• Fairbanks, Alaska is the coldest city (minimum 10,000 population) in the US with an average winter minimum temperature of -16.9f – USA Today
• 15% of unemployed managers and executives moved in the 2nd half last year for new positions, most since 2009 – Challenger, Gray & Christmas
• 158 MSAs had unemployment rates less than 5% in December 2014, double the number from a year ago – USA Today
• The US added 295,000 net new jobs in February continuing strong job growth. Unemployment fell to 5.5%

If you have the time to wait, these will be aggregated periodically here on the blog. If however, you wish to receive these real-time as they happen, then follow my account at DrTCJ.

Better yet, get your own Twitter account and Tweet away — and of course re-tweeting the ones of mine you found interesting.

Want to see all of my tweets or follow? Click https://twitter.com/drtcj

If a 60-year old can Tweet, so can you.

Ted