Daily Archives: March 19, 2024

How to Network on Instagram (It’s More Than Just the DMs!)

Posted on by
Reply

LinkedIn isn’t the only way to make professional connections. Have you ever written a “professional” DM? It’s basically a message you send to someone in hopes that they’ll be willing to connect and help you with some aspect of your career. That could be landing a job, collaborating on a project, or even just giving you sound advice.

Most people use LinkedIn to make these kinds of connections, but here’s a tip: try using Instagram instead. The platform is less crowded, which means your message may actually be read. At the same time, writing the message itself will still be a challenge. Do you sound too eager? Do you sound like a spam message? Are you being annoying? When should you follow up if you don’t hear back?

In the following video, from Harvard Business Review, multimedia Producer Elainy Mata spoke with Jesty Beatz — a musician and postproduction specialist who has built his career through DMs — to learn best practices for networking on Instagram. Watch his step-by-step guide on how to network on Instagram and improve your chances of getting read and replied too too.

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Continues To See An Annual Increase

Posted on by
Reply

Completed Foreclosures (REOs) Decrease Annually in 28 States; Foreclosure Starts Up Monthly and Annually Nationwide

Irvine, CA – March 12, 2024 (PRNewswire) ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its February 2024 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 32,938 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions – down 1 percent from last month but up 8 percent from a year ago.

“The annual uptick in U.S. foreclosure activity hints at shifting dynamics within the housing market,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “These trends could signify evolving financial landscapes for homeowners, prompting adjustments in market strategies and lending practices. We continue to closely monitor these trends to comprehend their complete effect on foreclosure activity.”

Foreclosure completion numbers decrease annually in 28 states
Lenders repossessed 3,397 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in February 2024, down 14 percent from last month and 11 percent from a year ago.

States that had at least 50 or more REOs and that saw the greatest annual decrease in February 2024 included: Georgia (down 52 percent); New York (down 41 percent); North Carolina (down 34 percent); New Jersey (down 28 percent); and Maryland (down 26 percent).

Counter to the national trend, those states with at least 50 or more REOs that saw the greatest annual increase in February 2024 included: South Carolina (up 51 percent); Missouri (up 50 percent); Pennsylvania (up 46 percent); Texas (up 7 percent); and Indiana (up 0.8 percent).

Among the 224 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, that saw the greatest number of REOs included: Chicago, IL (207 REOs); Philadelphia, PA (182 REOs); New York, NY (173 REOs); Pittsburgh, PA (105 REOs); and Detroit, MI (88 REOs).

Highest foreclosure rates in South Carolina, Delaware, and Florida
Nationwide, one in every 4,279 housing units had a foreclosure filing in February 2024. States with the highest foreclosure rates were South Carolina (one in every 2,248 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Delaware (one in every 2,428 housing units); Florida (one in every 2,632 housing units); Ohio (one in every 2,828 housing units); and Connecticut (one in every 2,884 housing units).

Those major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with a population greater than 200,000, with the highest foreclosure rates in February 2024 were Columbia, SC (one in every 1,478 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Lakeland, FL (one in every 1,600 housing units); Spartanburg, SC (one in every 1,742 housing units); Merced, CA (one in every 1,794 housing units); and Florence, SC (one in every 1,809 housing units).

Those metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million with the worst foreclosure rates in February 2024 included: Orlando, FL (one in every 1,938 housing units); Cleveland, OH (on in every 2,176 housing units); Riverside, CA (one in every 2,293 housing units); Philadelphia, PA (one in every 2,355 housing units); and Miami, FL (one in every 2,392 housing units).

Foreclosure starts increase monthly and annually
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 22,575 U.S. properties in February 2024, up 4 percent from last month and up 11 percent from a year ago.

Those states that saw the greatest number of foreclosures starts in February 2024 included: Florida (2,732 foreclosure starts); California (2,730 foreclosure starts); Texas (2,694 foreclosure starts); New York (1,289 foreclosure starts); and Ohio (1,097 foreclosure starts).

Among those major metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the greatest number of foreclosure starts in February 2024, included: New York, NY (1,367 foreclosure starts); Houston, TX (998 foreclosure starts); Los Angeles, CA (808 foreclosure starts); Chicago, IL (792 foreclosure starts); and Miami, FL (777 foreclosure starts).

Report methodology
The ATTOM U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the ATTOM Data Warehouse during the month and quarter. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the quarter may have been recorded in the previous quarter. Data is collected from more than 3,000 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 99 percent of the U.S. population. ATTOM’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). For the annual, midyear and quarterly reports, if more than one type of foreclosure document is received for a property during the timeframe, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The annual, midyear, quarterly and monthly reports all check if the same type of document was filed against a property previously. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located, the report does not count the property in the current year, quarter or month.

About ATTOM
ATTOM provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency, and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 30TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include ATTOM Cloud, bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, property navigator and more. Also, introducing our newest innovative solution, making property data more readily accessible and optimized for AI applications– AI-Ready Solutions. 

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
megan.hunt@attomdata.com 

Data and Report Licensing:
datareports@attomdata.com

SOURCE ATTOM

Prices Rose 0.6% in February, Marking Return to Pre-Pandemic Norm

Posted on by
Reply

While mortgage rates remain elevated, they’re not as volatile as they were at the height of the pandemic, which has helped stabilize home price growth

SEATTLE, WA – March 19, 2024 (BUSINESS WIRE) (NASDAQ: RDFN) Home price growth is finally back to where it was before the pandemic, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. This follows a three-year rollercoaster ride in which prices soared when ultra-low mortgage rates fueled a homebuying frenzy and cooled when rates jumped due to the Federal Reserve’s effort to quell inflation.

U.S. home prices climbed 0.6% from a month earlier in February, on par with the 0.6% average monthly gain in the roughly eight years leading up to the pandemic. Prices seesawed during the pandemic, rising by as much as 2% month over month in January 2022 and falling by as much as 0.2% in August 2022.

The story is similar when looking at year-over-year changes. U.S. home prices climbed 6.7% from a year earlier in February, similar to the 6.9% average annual gain in the years leading up to the pandemic. By comparison, prices rose by as much as 22.9% year over year in March 2022 and by as little as 3.4% in June 2023.

This is according to the February Redfin Home Price Index (RHPI), covering the three months ending Feb. 29, 2024. Read the full RHPI methodology here.

“Home prices have plateaued here in Portland. They shot up at one point, then came back down to earth, and now they’re somewhere in the middle,” said Meme Loggins, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Portland, OR. “There’s a mismatch between the attitudes of buyers and sellers. I have a lot of buyers coming in expecting a huge discount. Meanwhile, I have sellers who are standing firm on how much their house is worth after seeing their friends’ homes sell for way over the asking price during the pandemic. In reality, it’s neither a buyer’s or seller’s market.”

Mortgage rates remain elevated, but they’re not nearly as volatile as they were before, which has helped stabilize home price growth. And while elevated mortgage rates have taken a bite out of homebuyer demand, that’s not translating into lower home prices today because there still aren’t enough homes for sale—even as new listings rebound. New listings rose to the highest level in nearly a year and a half last month as the mortgage rate lock-in effect eased, but housing supply was still far below pre-pandemic levels.

“Inventory has picked up dramatically in the past two weeks, but it’s getting snatched up quickly,” Loggins said. “Today, I took my clients to see a house that had only been on the market for seven hours—we toured it, they liked it, and I’m about to write an offer.”

Still, competition is nowhere near as fierce as it was during the pandemic, and Redfin agents say that the most important thing sellers can do is avoid overpricing their homes.

Prices Fell in Six Metros, Compared with 13 Metros in January

Home prices fell from a month earlier in six of the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas, many of which were pandemic boomtowns that have since seen their housing markets cool: Tampa, FL (-0.5%), San Antonio (-0.4%), Charlotte, NC (-0.1%), Portland, OR (-0.1%), Fort Worth, TX (-0.1%) and Houston (-0.1%). By comparison, prices fell in 13 metros in January. Prices are likely soft in Texas and Florida in part because those two states have been building a lot of homes, which means supply has increased (rising supply often puts downward pressure on prices). In Florida, condo listings in particular are contributing to the jump in supply amid a surge in HOA and insurance fees.

In Nassau County, NY, home prices rose 2% from a month earlier in February—the biggest increase among the top 50 metros. Next came Montgomery County, PA (2%), Warren, MI (1.9%), Chicago (1.8%) and Indianapolis (1.6%).

To view the full report, including charts and metro-level data, please visit:
https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-home-price-index-february-2024

About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We run the country’s #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can have our renovations crew fix it up to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.

Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin’s press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin’s press center, click here.

Contacts

Redfin Journalist Services:
Angela Cherry, 913-638-8249
press@redfin.com