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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 7 A look at facts you didn't know you couldn't live without. Compiled by the DS News Staff A September CoreLogic report estimated that Hurricane Florence caused between $20 billion and $30 billion in flood and wind damage, with uninsured damage estimated to fall between $13 billion and $18.5 billion. According to a September report by Standard & Poors Global, non-qualified mortgage securitizations have gained significant popularity over the past four years. Transactions for 2018 already total more than $6 billion in issuance, almost double 2017's full-year volume. REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY ATTRACTING NEW RECRUITS INSIDE THE JOURNAL // ON THE WEB // THE APP SPECTRUM // MOVERS & SHAKERS TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THE NUMBERS D ATA B I T S * In the July 2018 report "Best Places to Flip Houses," WalletHub compared 172 cities using 27 relevant metrics, which it then used to create an overall rank as well as ranks, for Market Potential, Renovation and Remodeling Costs, and Quality of Life. TOP 10 BEST CITIES TO FLIP HOUSES* TOP 10 WORST CITIES TO FLIP HOUSES* 1 BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT 34.6 2 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 35.89 3 YONKERS, NEW YORK 37.18 4 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 38.09 5 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 38.74 6 NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 39.04 7 WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 40.03 8 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 40.5 9 OXNARD, CALIFORNIA 40.7 10 NEW YORK, NEW YORK 40.83 1 SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA 73.18 2 NAMPA, IDAHO 70.46 3 BOISE, IDAHO 68.89 4 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 68.07 5 MISSOULA, MONTANA 67.5 6 PEORIA, ARIZONA 66.83 7 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 66.52 8 FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS 66.11 9 DES MOINES, IOWA 65.81 10 TAMPA, FLORIDA 65.73 Housing inventory might be tight, but the number of people who are helping sell those properties is rising. According to e National Association of Realtors' (NAR) 2018 Member Profile survey, its membership numbers jumped from 1.22 million in March 2017 to 1.3 million this April. e organization attributes some of that uptick to younger members joining the industry. While the income and sales volumes recorded by NAR members dipped a bit over last year, the roster continues to expand as that younger demographic enters the fold, NAR explained. Twenty-nine percent of members have less than two years' experience, which is an increase from 28 percent last year, it noted. "While inventory shortages continue and home prices remain high, NAR has seen a whopping 6 percent increase in membership over the last year," said Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at NAR. "Younger Americans are seeking business opportunities that working in real estate provides, but the overall trend is a slightly older age profile." As for their demographics, the median age of a Realtor this year is 54, up marginally from the age (53) tallied for the last two years, NAR reported. Sixty-three percent are female, with the typical Realtor being a 54-year- old white female who attended college and is a homeowner. Just 5 percent of Realtors said real estate was their first career, while 72 percent stated it was their sole occupation. at amount springs to 82 percent among NAR members who have 16 or more years' experience, the survey found. When it comes to business activities, survey respondents said the main factors hampering clients' ability to complete transactions are difficulty finding the right property (35 percent), housing affordability (17 percent), and difficulty in obtaining mortgage financing (12 percent), NAR said. Plagued by scant inventory, the typical number of transactions tumbled a tad from 12 in 2016 to 11 in 2017. Despite skyrocketing home prices again last year, the median brokerage sales volume ebbed to $1.8 million in 2017 from $1.9 million in 2016. "A familiar story lingers from last year, as limited inventory continues to plague many housing markets across the country," Yun said. "For the fifth year in a row, the difficulty finding the right property has surpassed the difficulty in obtaining a mortgage as the most cited reason limiting potential homebuyers." "Younger Americans are seeking business opportunities that working in real estate provides, but the overall trend is a slightly older age profile." —Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR PAGE 30 General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development COUNSEL'S CORNER WITH J. Paul Compton RANKING CITY TOTAL SCORE RANKING CITY TOTAL SCORE

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