(NOTE: Want to learn how to flip houses to hedge funds? Click here for our “Partnering With Hedge Funds” special report.)
From Jason Payne, Market News Analyst:
Home prices improved dramatically once again during October, but indications suggest that 2013's robust price increases are almost tapped out.
As reported earlier this week, the widely-watched S&P/Case-Shiller index of U.S. home prices rose 13.6% from year-ago levels, thereby representing the largest annual gain since early 2006 (at the peak of the housing bubble).
The gain was widespread, with all 20 major markets tracked by the index posting solid improvements. New York (up 4.9%) posted the smallest gain, while Las Vegas (up 27.1%) posted the largest gain.
Home values have been rising at a faster annual rate every month for almost two years, driven primarily by:
- The depletion of available inventories by deal-hungry investors
- And improving employment trends across the U.S. economy (which empowers a larger population of retail buyers)
But due to the prospect of rising mortgage rates and several other factors, October…
Jason Payne
is a management consultant and founder of the Groundwar Group -- a private consulting firm providing premier corporate advisory and leadership training solutions for business leaders and investors worldwide. Mr. Payne is also the Senior Market News Analyst and a featured "Mindset" advisor for more than 15,000 entrepreneurs and investors at RealEstateMogul.com -- roles he has held since 2013 and 2014, respectively. In these capacities, Jason draws from more than a decade of successful business and investment research on Wall Street to provide insightful commentaries on a wide variety of investing- and leadership-related topics.
Mr. Payne began his career as a research analyst in the award-winning Equity Research department of Morgan Keegan & Company, where at 26 years of age, he became one of the youngest published analysts on Wall Street -- with a specialized focus on real estate investment trusts (REITs). Jason also holds a degree in Finance from New York University's prestigious Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and he is currently completing his professional residency within the Global Leadership Training program of Uruguay's multinational Geronimo Center for Innovation & Leadership.