The logic sounds reasonable: mortgage rates are elevated, so waiting for them to fall before buying will save money. It is the kind of thinking that appeals to anyone who has spent time watching financial markets. The problem is that it does not account for what happens to the housing market while you wait, or ...
Northwest Arkansas gets the headlines. Central Arkansas has the infrastructure, the inventory, and the math. Northwest Arkansas reportedly adds more than 200 new residents per week. Anchored by Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt Transport, the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers corridor appears on nearly every “top markets to watch” list in the country. Growth-rate rankings love it. Investors ...
National affordability headlines often overlook how high-equity coastal markets operate under different rules, according to a Southern California realtor who tracks transaction patterns in San Clemente. In San Clemente, California, about 40 percent of home sales are completed entirely in cash. Even among financed buyers, typical down payments range from 30 to 40 percent, making ...
Most families begin researching assisted living facilities in the middle of a crisis. A parent falls. A surgery doesn’t go as planned. A doctor recommends a level of care that can no longer be provided at home. By that point, the decisions that matter most – financial planning, understanding care needs, evaluating facilities – are ...
Walk into a new construction sales office without your own representation, and the first thing you will notice is how welcoming everyone is. The sales representative will walk you through the model home, show you the upgrade packages, explain the financing incentives, and make the entire process feel smooth and stress-free. What they will not ...
Most condo owners in South Florida do not know their building is on a clock. A series of rule changes issued through Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03, in coordination with the FHFA – some already in effect, one arriving in August 2026, another in January 2027 – are quietly narrowing the pool of eligible buyers ...
An investor buys a 20-unit apartment building. The plan is straightforward: renovate units as leases turn over – new flooring, cabinetry, lighting, HVAC upgrades – spending roughly $500,000 over the next two years. The renovation strategy is sound. The tax planning behind it, in most cases, is not. The problem is not that these investors ...
Buying an existing property feels like the safe play. The building is already there. You can see it, inspect it, and model the cash flow based on what it is already doing. But according to Culby Culbertson, founder of Culbertson Holdings, that perceived safety comes at a cost, and in many cases it is a ...
The acronym ESG was everywhere in commercial real estate just a few years ago. Sustainability reports, carbon targets, and green building certifications dominated boardroom agendas and investor conversations alike. Today, that language has largely disappeared from the same rooms. Not because the underlying pressures have gone away, but because the framing was never quite right ...
For years, rising home prices have been seen as the primary obstacle facing first-time buyers. But today’s market presents a more complicated reality. Even buyers with steady incomes and strong credit are finding themselves unable to complete a purchase. The challenge is no longer defined by price alone. Higher upfront cash requirements, rising insurance costs, ...
The housing market is often described in terms of mortgage rates, home prices, and inventory. But behind those visible factors is a less obvious force that plays a major role in determining what buyers can actually purchase: where investment money is flowing. The capital that funds new construction and supports mortgage lending does not move ...
Rates are not the problem. The problem is that too many borrowers are still thinking about rates the way they did in 2021, and that mindset is creating friction in deals that should be getting done. Culby Culbertson, founder of Culbertson Holdings and a capital markets broker with close to $550 million in closed loans ...
The distressed real estate market in New York and New Jersey is producing some of the most complex financing situations in recent memory. Partner disputes, stalled construction projects, technical payment defaults, and foreclosure proceedings are landing on lenders’ desks at a rate that has left many institutional players stepping back entirely. For borrowers caught in ...
San Clemente, California, once a mostly local market, is now drawing a steady flow of investors and second-home buyers from Los Angeles, inland Orange County, and out of state. Recent deals include a Tustin doctor purchasing a four-unit property for part-time use while renting out the remaining units, and a Pasadena couple buying a small ...
For many buyers, the math on urban homeownership stopped working years ago. Prices climbed, inventory stayed tight, and the new construction that did appear skewed toward luxury — leaving anyone without a high income to choose between aging housing stock, long commutes, or renting indefinitely. The assumption that followed was reasonable: if you want to ...
