Morning Briefing: Investors becoming less traditional in purchases

Investors becoming less traditional in purchases… No bubble in Denver says housing economist… Motorcycle stunt lands realtor in trouble…

Investors becoming less traditional in purchases
A snapshot of investors’ behavior reveals that they are turning away from single-family and multi-family properties and seeking more niche investments.

A survey of realtors’ interactions with investment buyers conducted by the California Association of Realtors shows that even though there have been more distressed homes on the market, the share of investors buying single-family homes fell from 78 per cent in 2013 to 70 per cent in 2016. Those buying multi-family investments was down from 21 per cent to 19 per cent in the past year.

A growing proportion of investors bought land, commercial, mobile homes or other property types; up from 7 per cent in 2015 to 10 per cent this year. The percentage that are flipping their properties was unchanged from 2015 at 26 per cent, but down from 2014’s 28 per cent.

Investors are optimistic about price increases with 76 per cent of Californian realtors saying that their investment clients are expecting an increase in value within 1 year.
 
No bubble in Denver says housing economist
Prices are rising and inventory is low but there is no housing bubble in Denver. That’s the view of Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, who visited the city last week and said that it was a strong market.

Over the past two years, median prices in metro Denver have surged 26 per cent to $353,600. The gain is almost twice the average gain across the 176 metros monitored by the NAR.

However, Yun told the Denver Post that some key factors of a housing bubble are missing. Mortgage credit availability is tight, compared to the housing crash at the end of the last decade; construction is low and has plenty of room to grow without being excessive by historic averages.
 
Motorcycle stunt lands realtor in trouble
A real estate agent in Los Angeles has attracted the attention of the California Highway Patrol following a promotional stunt for his agency. The LA Times reports that former professional racer Topher Ingalls posted a video to his YouTube account which shows him jumping a freeway ramp and other stunts.

Ingalls told the Times that he wanted to share his transition from racing to his new job as a realtor at Buschur Realty in San Luis Obispo. However, the incident is now being investigated by the CHP to see if any traffic violations have been committed.

The video has since been removed but is still available at Cycle World.