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Keith discusses the new power shift in the housing market, where buyers now have more power in the Northeast and Midwest. Ken McElroy joins us to discuss the current state of the real estate market, highlighting a significant decline in apartment building values and a predicted further drop in home ownership rates, potentially below 60%. They note that while some states, like Arizona, have surpassed pre-pandemic housing supply levels, others, like the Northeast and Midwest, still face shortages. Ken emphasizes the importance of affordability and the shift towards renting, predicting a significant increase in renters. He also shares insights on strategic property investments and the benefits of buying at current market lows. Resources: Use the discount code "KEN10" to get a discount on the Limitless Expo event. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/559 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review” For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai Keith Weinhold 0:01 Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, apartment building values have crashed about 30% in the past few years. Well, it's the opinion of today's qualified guest that it's going to get even worse from here. We'll also discuss why rents in the Phoenix area are declining, and a bold prediction on a collapse in the home ownership rate and the hordes of renters that that will create all today on get rich education. Mid south home buyers, I mean, they're total pros, with over two decades as the nation's highest rated turnkey provider, their empathetic property managers use your ROI as their North Star. So it's no wonder that smart investors just keep lining up to get their completely renovated income properties like it's the newest iPhone. They're headquartered in Memphis and have globally attractive cash flows and A plus rating with a better business bureau and now over 5000 houses renovated. There's zero mark up on maintenance. Let that sink in, and they average a 98.9% occupancy rate, while their average renter stays more than three and a half years. Every home they offer has brand new components, a bumper to bumper, one year warranty, new 30 year roofs, and wait for it, a high quality renter. Remember that part and in an astounding price range, 100 to 180k I've personally toured their office and their properties in person in Memphis, get to know Mid South. Enjoy cash flow from day one. Start yourself right now at mid southhomebuyers.com that's mid south homebuyers.com Speaker 1 1:59 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. Keith Weinhold 2:15 Welcome to GRE from the Tigris to the Euphrates to the Mississippi and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold GRE founder Forbes real estate council member, Best Selling Author, look for my work in the USA today as well, and you are back inside for another wealth building week of get rich education. What's all that really mean? Ah, I'm just another slack jawed mouth breather with a mic here. Before we get to today's guest, Ken McElroy, let me tell you about housing's new power shift and where we're at today. Three to five years ago, sellers held all the power in virtually every market because the housing supply was so miserably low everywhere. So you had more one tours of real estate and few that were willing to sell. That is still mostly true on a national level, but the new power shift is about the fact that the Northeast and Midwest are replete with home buyers. Queues of buyers are lining up for the few available properties like I've touched on before, and look low available housing supply in these areas, the Midwest and Northeast, that's not a symptom of mass in migration. Hordes of people are not stampeding into Buffalo for the nightlife. It's all due to chronic under building, partly from strict regulation, especially in the Northeast. A big part of the power shift, though, is that we now have fully 10 states that are above pre pandemic supply levels, and you'll notice that none of these are in the Midwest and Northeast. The 10 states are Arizona, which we'll talk about more today, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington. Here in these places, is where the tables have turned, because supply is catching up with demand in those 10 states. So that's where we're seeing softer home price growth and where buyers have the power, these are some of the states where you can find better deals. Motivated sellers and builders in these places will often buy down your mortgage rate, give you closing cost credits or reward you with incentives, like a free year of property management. In fact, our GRE investment coaches guide you for free to exact property addresses where builders will buy down your mortgage rate to 5% today, one of them will even give you a $9,800 post close credit instead, if you so choose. Often do. Those like that are in those 10 states. They're elsewhere too. You can get started at GRE investment coach.com, conversely, 40 states have less for sale housing inventory than they did as compared to pre pandemic times. This is where sellers still have the power some of the most competitive markets in the nation are buffalo, Hartford, Providence and Boston, where more than 10 active home buyers vie for every single listing. That's per Zillow. That's sort of the real estate equivalent of a Taylor Swift or Beyonce ticket queue. At the other end of the spectrum, shoppers have an easier time in Miami with only 2.6 shoppers per listing, followed by Houston at 3.4 New Orleans at 3.5 and San Antonio at 4.3 nationally active listings are up 31% over last year. That's quite a bit, but we're still 12% below pre pandemic, 2019 inventory levels. And is all this good news or bad news? It totally depends on who you are. If you're holding property in the Northeast and Midwest, you're pretty happy about this strong appreciation in the single family space, but in the southeast, appreciation is non existent. There's even mild depreciation, especially in parts of Florida. If you're looking to own more property in the nation's southeast quadrant, you're now enjoying less buyer competition. In fact, sellers are competing for you, and let's avoid being too assuming. Here I've been talking about things on the state level. States are not monoliths. Philadelphia is not Pittsburgh, Seattle is not Yakima. Cities have different supply situations. Even within one city, the scenario varies, of course, really the bottom line here is that today's recovery from 2022 national supply abyss has been an uneven recovery, where builders are frozen, appreciation soars, where builders hustle, buyers win. So if you're looking for deals, find that short queue. Today's guest is a familiar one to GRE listeners. He's based in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is the Phoenix Metro. Arizona, though it's fast growing, is still just the 14th most populous state, but Arizona is an interesting market, because we're going to get to see what happens when you have an overbuilt condition, like we do there. We'll discuss that market and the national market as well. Get a key gage on the direction of rents, occupancy and prices, first in the single family space, and then we'll talk about apartments. Anyone that's paid attention to real estate that past few years. Knows that when mortgage rates spiked in 2022 single family values have held up, apartment values plummeted due to their interest rate resets. We'll get insight on if the beleaguered apartment space has bottomed out price wise, or if apartment values still have further to fall. I'd like to welcome in frequent GRE guest, and he was also one of our earliest back in 2015 Ken McElroy. Ken authored a bunch of successful books, both within and outside of the rich dad series. He's also a well known, successful apartment syndicator with over 10,000 units across several states, and he's also in other parts of the commercial real estate sector, including billboards and self storage. So it's really great to have back on the show. Ken McElroy Ken McElroy 8:57 good to be here, Keith, thank you. It's been 10 years, man, since we've been doing Keith Weinhold 9:01 this? Yes, 10 years back in episode 25 since you were first here, more than a decade of this. So we know each other's work really well, and it's such an interesting time in the apartment space. I want to get to that later in our conversation today and really find out if you think that the apartment space has bottomed out. But before we do that, let's talk about the single family space. The audience should know that you can meet both Ken and I in person, as we're both faculty members on the spectacular real estate guys Investor Summit C, which is actually underway now. We're recording this just before the summit. So let's discuss the direction of rents and occupancy. We'll get to price later and Ken although most states still have a housing shortage statewide, Arizona's active housing inventory for sale is 24% above pre pandemic levels. That's what realtor.com tells us, and this. Deeply due to a lot of building, a lot of building usually does not bode well for price growth or rent growth. So tell us about rent, direction and occupancy in the single family space in the Phoenix Metro. Ken McElroy 10:15 There's a bunch of things happening in the Arizona market. First of all, one is we've had a lot of people move here right in the last 4,5,6, years. Yeah, post pre pandemic, post pandemic, all of that. We are a pretty small state. You got Phoenix, got Tucson, you got Flagstaff, a bunch of other small cities that kind of surround some of those. But it's not like a Texas or a Washington or a lot of these California, like a lot of states, and have a lot of cities to draw from. If people move to Phoenix, that's pretty much where they're they start a lot of times, not every time, but and so it's really interesting. When we have net in migration into Arizona, it really moves the needle for most of these cities. Is kind of the point. And so we're always going to be affordable, we're always going to have great weather, it's safe. We got pretty normal politics, I should say, as compared to some of the others, we really do have a growing population. And so what happened? We had a nice run on the real estate. As you do, you know, we had a nice run on the apartments. We had a nice run on the single family that tapered off when the interest rates went up, essentially, right? You know, we actually built too much. We built too many apartments. We built too many houses. When interest rates went up, people kind of pulled back. That's what you're seeing now. So right now, it's a great time to be a home buyer. It's a great time to be a renter in most of those cities in Arizona specifically. And why would that be? It's because they have a lot of choices. So on the single family side, the listings have gone up, and therefore some of the prices have you know, people are starting to negotiate a little bit more. Now here's the interesting thing, Keith, if you measure it on last year or the year before, it has huge numbers, like you just quoted, you know, 24% but what's happening is things are on the market like 40 days, you know, you know what I mean, like from a week or two, it's doubled or tripled, as you know, that's still not a very realistic market. The market is still, in my opinion, pretty healthy. It's not unbalanced, and before it was a seller's market, and so it's just normalizing. And normalizing, to me, if you go over year, over year, over year, is I think MLS says four to six months of inventory, right? I think things are just normalizing. But if you've been through the run, this is like the end of the world, right? But it's not. It's just things are settling down, and it's the greatest time because they're supposed to be a little bit of friction between the seller and the buyer. I believe there should be just about right. It's never just right, as you know, it's usually pulls on one harder on one side or the other. But we just went through an incredible time where the sellers pretty much got whatever they wanted and the landlords pretty much got whatever they wanted, and so this is just pulling back, you know, the tide's going back out. There's no cause for concern, at least in my world at all. It's supposed to be this way, and we need affordability. We need people to be able to buy homes. We need people to be able to rent. Yeah, I'm in the landlord business, but I don't want rents to run. There needs to be a balance there, even though it's good for me, if it does, but it's not good, because what happens is, then the government gets involved, and what they need to get involved in is adding supply, right? And not capping the rents. You know, what they need to do is just work with developers. And you know, because we're growing here in Arizona right now, we're seeing a pullback, but I think it's needed. There's nothing wrong with this. It weeds out a lot of, you know, realtors that weren't doing much, that just got their license, were hanging around, say, with mortgage folks and title people and lazy contractors and all that stuff. So whenever there's a pullback, the professionals win. Keith Weinhold 14:01 Well, this is some really good perspective here. We're all victims of the recency bias, and, yeah, you're talking largely about market normalization. What sure wasn't normal or healthy, in a lot of ways, was back in 2021 when you might have had 50 offers for one available property, and people had to bid 50k over the asking price, and they might have waived their inspection, which is typically not a good idea when we talk about rents in the direction of rents, especially there in the Phoenix metro with single family homes, which I know your wife, Daniil, is pretty intimately involved with. Typically, this new supply increases competition. It increases the competition for landlords competing for more of those tenants, which is something that typically is not good for rents. Have we seen declining rents in the local market there in Phoenix? Ken McElroy 14:54 Of course, yeah. And I'll tell you, there's a bunch of factors. So there's always cross currents. People want one. Answer, but there's not right, like, so let's just pick on a whole bunch of things that went wrong at the tail end of all of this. It was Airbnb. Like, Phoenix and Scottsdale are a huge Airbnb market. I've rented Airbnbs there. Sure. It's incredible, right? And so what happened was a lot of people said, oh, I can buy this house, throw some furniture in it. And, you know, I can get 10,15, 20 grand a month in rent out of these things. And they were right. And then what happened was, there just was too many, so became oversaturated. So you're definitely seeing those back on the market. And so interesting fact, Heath, all you got to do is look at the pictures. And if you see bunk beds. You know, it used to be an Airbnb like, you know what I mean? So that was the one, but two, let's don't forget this run that we just had put a lot of people into the rental market for the first time on the single family side too. So we never really had this many landlords on the single family side as well. And so there's all these mistakes that people made. They bought incorrectly. They had capex work. They bought with floating rate debt. And when rates went up, they weren't cash flowing. They wouldn't know how to manage them. So So there's all this stuff that was kind of going on behind the scenes, on the apartment side of the equation, which is where I hang out. Mostly, I watch all this. And because my class A buildings are competing for single family. They have single family typically wins because it has a yard, has a garage. Nonetheless, I gotta pay attention to it. So it's been interesting to watch. At one point you could not find a home in the Scottsdale area under 500 grand period like nothing. And now, of course, those are starting to come down a little bit more, and there's some softness in the rent, so the renters are have more choices. Now, why is that? There's a couple reasons. If you're a renter and you're looking for a place, you know, I'm sure you're considering a house, but not everybody wants a house, especially if you're single or maybe it's just you and somebody else, and maybe you don't have a pet. There's a lot of reasons that people just don't want to have to a home. So you've got condos and you've got apartments and you've got homes, and then you have school districts. So people definitely want to be in certain school districts based on their children. So you have all these cross currents going on, on where people want to be. And so what does all that mean? What that means is there are certain markets, from a rental standpoint, that are doing extremely well, still, both on apartments, on condos and houses. And then there are other markets that absolutely are not just depends on the concentration of all those things and all those factors that are going on. The one thing that's actually disrupting a market more than anything is apartments and condos. Because, for example, Danielle just had a condo that she owned, and the condo was worth, let's say, 300 grand, but it's probably 25 years old now, yeah, and there's apartments going up, you know, a block from there, right? So her renter is said, you know, I'd rather go over here. Brand new amenities, nine foot ceilings, brand new fitness center, all this stuff. So apartments really do reach into that rental market a little bit. And so there is some spillover between that. But primarily what's going on in Phoenix is there's a lot of new construction. And not just Phoenix. This is Tucson and Greater Phoenix. There's a lot of new construction that was started when rates were low. They were started in 2122 and you know, like, because I'm a builder, it could be a year to 18 months when we're opening a project from the time we put our the shovel in the dirt, we're not even open for a good 18 months. So there's a lag period. And those started opening in 23,24 and certainly 25 and these big projects, two, 300 unit projects, which I have several going right now, they're one to two year lease ups, so you could be looking at two or three year lag on some of the housing that's being provided. So that's all here now that is been good for renters. There's a couple horror stories going on, and I'll just explain. So downtown Phoenix, there was a whole bunch of apartment projects and condo projects that were built trying to attract people to live in downtown Phoenix? Well, there's challenges for downtown Phoenix too, and we won't have to get into that. I don't particularly think that there was ever the real demand for the amount of housing. So what you've done is people build a lot of housing in concentrated areas around the stadium in West Phoenix, near the Cardinal Stadium downtown Phoenix, you know, right in the heart of the business district. So if you were to rent something today, it would be four months free on a 12 month lease. Keith Weinhold 19:48 Wow, that's about the steepest concession I've ever heard of in my life. Ken McElroy 19:54 Yes, that's today. So all you gotta do is Google it and you'll see. And the only reason that happened, Keith, is. Is because there was too many units delivered at at a short period of time, and there was the demand, wasn't there? Gosh, now go 10 miles up to Tempe, go to Chandler, go to Scottsdale. No concessions, right? So again, you know, when you look at a market, you're going to see that it typically a lot of these concentrate in certain areas. And so there's a lot of areas in Phoenix where the consumer or the renter has an upper hand a lot. And so they're driving their choices based on their monthly rent. All of that plays into this thing, but the there's areas that are rock solid. And you know that would be Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and there's areas that are over built that would be the west side, downtown Phoenix, the south side, there's areas that there's pockets that you know are in disruption you can kind of pick your poison, right? Like, if you're a landlord, there are areas that you want to buy in areas that you don't want to buy in. And as a renter, you have the same kind of choices. So when you blend it all together, you guys get the national news. But really it's pretty pocketed, just like it can be in any market. Keith Weinhold 21:12 Well, you bring up so many good points there. Some of these markets that have done more building than usual are in this situation where there is landlord competition for tenants. Now, nationally, we're still under built, so it's interesting to talk about one of these overbuilt conditions in that competition for tenants, like we've been talking about, in general, a tenant prefers a single family home, and it's privacy for sure. They can't always afford that, but the apartment market and the single family rental market are somewhat interrelated, because if there's so much new apartment supply, it's got the appeal of being brand new, and there might even be concessions given, like you've mentioned there Ken and that can make it very attractive for a potentially wannabe single family home renter to go ahead and rent an apartment instead. So this glut of new apartment supply actually can affect the single family rental market somewhat, and competition is really interesting. I mean, certainly in my real estate investment career, I've experienced that. The first time I ever experienced that was that I owned several doors, and they were about 25 years old, and they had garages, each one of them a new apartment complex was built close to those so brand new, and you had to drive by this new apartment complex. Everything nice, shiny new, painted new parking lot, everything a prospective tenant had to drive by that in order to get over to look to my units. That softened my rent somewhat. The one thing that saved me a bit is that my running units were in Anchorage, Alaska, I had the garages with my units. The new apartment building didn't. They only had carports, so I did have a differentiator to help soften the blow in a rental market that became more competitive. Tell us more about the competition for tenants there in Phoenix, whether that's on the single family side or the apartment side can with concessions. And does that mean that you're altering the length of leases there in the local market? Or tell us more about how you're doing that competition? Ken McElroy 23:10 It's a great question, yeah. So I would say generally, a home is going to be about 1000 bucks more on the average, like if you were just to put a number on it, three bedroom, Rambler type home with a garage in a yard. It's going to be maybe three grand. That apartment, the equivalent was is going to be maybe two grand. So roughly, those are kind of the numbers. But what happens if you're going to rent a house, you're definitely going to pay more money, that's for sure. And of course, depending on the area, depends on the on the rent. Now what's happening in a lot of these markets, like West Phoenix, for example, where you have 1000s of units being added at once, and you get this one month, two month, three month, and the extreme, of course, being four months free, if you're a renter and your rent is two grand, but you get three months free, let's say or four, you're going to take that deal, right? Because your your your average rent is, what 12,13, $1,400 a month, not 2000 so all of a sudden, it's going to impact those single families. So what's happening right now is the apartments that got delivered in in a lot of these geographic areas, these sub markets are definitely impacting the single family rental market. Now, if you're a family and you've got kids and you got pets and you want to be in a school district, you're not even looking you're basically just trying to find the best deal on a home. I get that. But if you have a choice, the rents are about the same, you're going to take the house, sure period I would, you would. So now what's happening is there's, there's such a difference between the rental price of a home versus the rental price of a brand new apartment that people are going to gravitate to the apartments, because those landlords trying to fill those things up are scrambling and marketing to anybody. And everybody and cutting whatever deals they can, because they're just trying to get out of those construction loans. It's a weird market right now. And of course, there are areas Keith that this does not exist at all, right, like you go into like Tempe, and you're not going to have because it doesn't have the available land, you know, which is around Arizona state for example, the Arizona State University. You go into North Scottsdale, you're not going to find this because North Scottsdale doesn't like apartments. And, you know, the homes are a million bucks and up, but there are definitely pockets where this is happening. So if you're a renter and you have choices, this is a great time for you and and to be honest, it's about time, because it was a seller's market and a landlord's market for a long time, and so it's just reverting back to the mean. Keith Weinhold 25:46 Let's wrap up the discussion about rents and occupancy with what's happening nationally. Ken, since in apartment buildings, you invest in multiple states there, we know, for example, that the home ownership rate recently fell from 65.7% down to 65.1% fewer homeowners means more renters. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're all going to be absorbed immediately, either. So talk to us about that. Ken McElroy 26:13 There's an affordability problem, right? We haven't seen a massive adjustment with house prices now you have in areas, of course, I saw your recent podcast on Florida. You know how right the price of a house is, is less than a car today? Yeah, you're right, like so, but what's happening is there are markets that are pulling back, right. There are markets that had a bigger bubble than others, and they're pulling back. And so there's great deals in those markets. A lot of areas in Florida being one of those markets, there are other markets where you don't have that. So we are definitely seeing the same thing. And so we're having, in my opinion, it's the greatest time, because you have people that are, I think, should be able to buy a home. But interest rates seem to be holding at Six 7% and the pricing, albeit, hasn't run like it has, but it's certainly not pulling back like crazy either. It's still over 400 on the average, you know. So if you look at the delta between what it costs to buy a home just mortgage only, and you look at what it costs to rent, it's never been bigger. So the difference between your rent, the rent and a mortgage, has never been bigger. And the other thing Keith, that doesn't get talked a lot about are everything non interest rate and everything non mortgage. So let's start talking about insurance. Let's talk about property tax. Let's talk about, you know, capex. So there's a really good survey that bankrate.com did that said that right now, the average cost to own a home, not mortgage, is 1500 a month. So now that's average. I'm sure there's some that's less. I'm sure it's some that higher. So when you take 1500 a month to own it, plus the mortgage you're talking about quite a bit. It's a heck of a financial commitment when you can just rent for 12, 1314, 1500 and call it a day, you're going to move the needle twice as fast, and you're going to be able to get out of whatever financial situation you're in twice as fast when you don't have all those other costs. So what's really going on now? And the reason why you're starting to see this home ownership rate go down, and I actually make a prediction, gonna do it right now on your show, I think it's gonna go down below 60. I think for the first time in our history, we're gonna see home ownership in the 5050 nines, which is a massive statement. But if you take a look at under Obama got up to 69 and then it was, first of all, it was Clinton, and before that, and then kind of ran, but then it kind of got pulled back under the Bush, and then Obama kind of took the brunt of it. You know, when all that stuff was falling out, but it's been falling, and it's falling. Why it's falling? Because people can't afford a home, and they need to be able to afford a home. So we can't build affordably. The single family market is not affordable, and inflation surpassing wage growth, so you have this massive shift of people, in my opinion, moving from home ownership to the rental side. And there was a time where 1% shift Keith was 1 million people, Keith Weinhold 29:27 1 million new renters, with every 1% drop in the home ownership rate Ken McElroy 29:32 was 1 million people. So imagine that it doesn't sound like much when you go 65.7 to 65.1 right? That's a lot of people. When you got about 142 million people in the US, or a billion, right? 340 Keith Weinhold 29:46 350 million in 300 Yeah, about 145 million houses, Ken McElroy 29:51 45 million, yeah, something like that. So you start to take a look at these numbers. They're massive. So these little 1% movement. It is a lot of people. I think we're going to continue to see it. People need to put their stake in the ground here and get on the landlord side of this, because we're going to see a massive shift of people because they can't afford they're going to be permanent renters, renters for life. And it's not good. I'm not advocating, but it just is what it is, with wage destruction, with inflation, with the affordability, the way it is, people are going to be forced into the rental side of the equation, whereas before, we were always kind of working on the fluctuations of the interest rates and the policies of the President, let's say, or whatever it was, to try to get people to be homeowners, or whatever it might be. Now, we might be in some kind of a permanent state unless something really changes, because we're four or 5 million houses short in the US as a result of the last 20 years. As you know, Keith Weinhold 30:54 I recently saw a media article that was titled The hidden cost of home ownership, and they were talking about hidden costs as things like maintenance, property taxes, property insurance, utilities. I don't know how in the heck those costs are hidden. Any prospective homeowner needs to be aware of those costs, and inflation impacts those costs, where inflation cannot impact your fixed rate, principal and interest payment. There we have it a brazen prediction from Ken that the home ownership rate will drop below 60% in this cycle and the hordes of renters that that's going to release, we're talking about the direction of rents and occupancy in both Phoenix and the nation at large. We're going to come back after the break and talk about the direction of real estate prices. You're listening to get rich education. Our guest is Ken McElroy. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold. the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. 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So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing, check it out. Text family to 66866. To learn about freedom. Family investments, liquidity fund again. Text family to 66866 Naresh Vissa 33:25 this is GRE real estate investment coach. Naresh Vissa listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream. Keith Weinhold 33:32 Welcome back to get worse education. We're talking with seasoned investor Ken McElroy, and he's also been one of the most recurrent guests here on the show. He's just consistently got some of the very best perspectives in the entire nation on the real estate market. And Ken the Fred data, which pulls their numbers from Kay Shiller, it shows that the value of a mid tier single family home in Phoenix, Metro wide, has basically been flat for the last year and a half. I know your wife, Daniil, deals with single family rentals there in Phoenix. Can you corroborate Is that what you're seeing as far as values go there on the ground, or is it different in the sub markets Ken McElroy 34:20 it's definitely different in the sub markets, but I would definitely concur that it is flat, Keith, it's a very interesting time. People are used to selling things fast. Oh, I'm going to sell this and it trades, and then they're moving it right to something else. They're not used to the markets that you and I grew up in, right which is, you remember the old days where we would list something and it might be on the market for three or four or five months. These people, these kids, these let's last 10 years, they have never seen anything like that. So for me, I think we're just moving back to what I would consider to be normal. I don't see a problem with flat at all. In fact, I think homes are unaffordable and. And flat isn't necessarily bad. That means that both sides are kind of doing deals. That means the seller doesn't hold the cards, and it means the buyer doesn't hold the cards, and so right now is a great time to buy because if a seller is sitting on something for even a couple months, they're not used to it. There's deals to be had right now. And it's, I think, if you have the dry powder and you have the ability to move, is a great time to buy. Keith Weinhold 35:26 You had mentioned, when we were talking outside this show, that your wife, Danielle has made some interesting moves in her single Yeah, yeah, tell us about that. Ken McElroy 35:36 It's a fantastic move. I mean, one of the greatest, obviously, I'm doing these big apartment deals, she can't relate, and she's doing these small houses, which she loves. She doesn't like debt. She likes to pay them off, and she manages them all herself. And so she bought this condo years ago, and it's worth about 300 grand, and she paid like 164 years ago, and the rents have dropped. You know, per our last conversation, they were used to be around 1900 now they're around 1700 but the same time, rents have dropped. And why would rents drop? Because there's more competition. There's new apartment buildings being built around the area. The tenants have more choices. Again. There's, you know, rents came down a little bit. So she lost couple 100 bucks a month there, and the HOA hit her with costs. Our insurance went up, our landscaping went up, so all of a sudden their HOA fees started going up. So the rents came down, and the HOA costs went up, squeezes on, yeah, so all sudden she's got this squeeze and so she's looking at it. And I said, you really ought to take a look at your what we call imputed equity. In other words, she has no debt on this thing, so she literally has another way to say it is she has 300,000 sitting in a condo, an asset. What does it matter? What it is and she gets maybe, what does she make it 500 a month, maybe $6,000 okay? Net Cash Flow a year, right? Nothing. So you take your 6000 you divide it by your 300 and it's not a very good return. Yeah, eight. Okay, so she's looking at what we call imputed equity. What's your return on the equity you have? Okay, so she said, I'm going to start looking at these homes that have, like you said, the garages and the yards, because again, we know that should be able to get closer to $3,000 a month on those so she started scouring, and she found one, and it was about 450 grand. So she had to come up with another 150 grand. And so what she did was she sold the unit, the condo she had that had rising HOA and lowering rents for 300 she did a 1031 exchange into the $450,000 house, and then she had to come up with another 150 but her rent now is three grand, and she was able to increase her cash flow By almost $1,000 for a month. So that extra 150 generated about $12,000 of net cash flow gain. And so again, she just purely looked at the math on one and did a 1031 moved it into another one. And now she's super happy it's in a home. And as you know, in a lot of these homes, not always, but you tend to have people that don't move as much. So this the guy that moved in has his son. He has him in a local school. He's young. He's probably going to be there for years, so she's probably not going to have the turnover that she would in a condo project. That's really more like an apartment building. That's what she just did. And so don't forget, when prices are high, you're exiting high and buying high. When prices are in flux, a little bit like they are flat, you're going to be able to find deals. So it's a really good time to take a look at imputed equity and what's your real, true return, and is there a better asset class for you to be able to move that money into? Because this is truly about managing money and maximizing your return on your own dollars. And that's a move that she just made, and she's going to be on the cruise. She'll see you, and I'm encouraging her to actually do a talk on it, because there's a lot more detail to how she pulled it off. But it only took her, like, four or five months to do it, and it worked perfectly. Keith Weinhold 39:22 Yeah. Well, congratulations there. I'm a fan of debt around here, as you know, on the summit, Daniel and I'll have to have a chat, and I'll talk about why financially free beats debt free and all of that. But I would love to hear her reply. She probably has some really good, sound reasoning for that can nationally apartment values have followed perhaps an astounding 30% because the way I see it is that three or four years ago, there were tons of new apartment starts with those freakishly low mortgage rates like you touched on. Start to completion of an apartment building can be as long as two years. So those starts have now become completion. Dollars, and they need to be leased up. So that's the glut, and that's why apartment vacancies are common in a lot of American markets today, with higher mortgage rates now, we have fewer starts and with less new future apartment supply coming onto the market, which would have been completed in 2025 to 2027 I mean, that's something that could portend well for the future, but the current apartment glut still needs to get absorbed by tenants. So talk to us about that. Ken McElroy 40:29 That's a great, great tee up for me. Okay, so I'm going to do seven transactions this year. Now, that's all 200 plus units. So I bought 360 unit building and brand new in Las Vegas. We just closed on a 282 unit in north Scottsdale. We bought 152 unit in Phoenix. And on and on and on and on and on. We're really, really, really busy right now, because, to your point, why would we be doing that now? Here's why apartments are valued based on how they're operating period. So high vacancy, high concession, flat rents, high expenses. That's all bad if you own it, it's really good if you buy it. So you want to buy at today's numbers, and that's what we're doing. We're buying at today's numbers, and we think that there's a little window that we've got through 26 to be able to acquire a bunch of apartments at these low values. To your point, they've definitely dropped. There's another case as to why, because the next piece is when the mortgage rate's high, cash flow is less. So when your mortgage payment is higher, all things being equal, your cash flow is less. So when rates went up, then people could pay less, and that drove values down. So if we could lock in today with all this disruption, so that's what we've been focused on. And it's been a very exciting year for our company. And in addition to that, to your point, but you and I have never spoken about, we just broke ground on another deal, and we're just leasing up on a deal down in Tucson that we're we're a 300 unit building that we're just finishing, and we just broke ground on a 312 unit, and we got a couple more slated because we're trying to break ground today. And why would we would break ground today because there's not a lot of subcontractors bidding on the stuff. So we're getting better pricing. The interest rates are high. This is true. That's not necessarily a positive, but we're breaking ground in anticipation of opening in two years, when all this stuff gets absorbed, we're going to be opening and so, you know, if we could time it today with 25 we break ground, we're going to open in 27 this stuff will be absorbed by then the blood will be in the streets in 25 and 26 and maybe early 27 and then it's going to shift again, Keith, and you know, people are slow to react. And so we think we're going to hit this little window at optimal time to be able to open up brand new product in two years. Keith Weinhold 43:05 That's great. Ken we've been having these conversations for over a decade now, I know, and the way that I see it is that MC companies, your company, was built exactly for times like this. Is that to say that you think apartment values have reached their bottom, Speaker 2 43:22 so I actually don't think they have yet. That's a funny comment, and here's why, because we also went through this extend and pretend time with lenders, right? So the lenders, whoever bought something, was trying to hold on to it forever. But now, with this new administration and the battle with the, you know, Powell still in office for another year. Who knows really, what's going to happen with rates? Maybe a quarter here, quarter there, whatever. But the reality is, there's no relief in sight. It doesn't appear. Because now we have this high vacancy, we have high expenses, and I don't think there's going to be a lot of interest rate relief. And so I think the lenders are going, you know what? We're gonna start listing these. So we're starting to see just in the last few months, brokers call. I got a call the other day from a broker out of San Antonio. He said a lender called me. They gave me nine deals. He said the keys, they gave me the keys on nine deals now and then I got another one in Dallas. It was 35% occupied, and the loan was 25 million, and the guy said they would take 14, so that's an $11 million haircut to the lender. So you're starting to see these. These are coming into my emails, right? Because they flooded. We are kind of deal. Yeah, it's so good. Now I've passed on everything so far because I think the knife is still falling a little bit, and so I think we're in the first few innings of seeing these kinds of deals, and there needs to be a lot of them, right? Like they need to be everywhere. And then when they're everywhere, everything's listed, and people are looking at them, and there's all this interest, then I think we're going to be at the bottom, but we're darn close. I mean, we're darn close, I would say. Right? We're probably by end of the year close. That's why, if a prudent investor, is getting their dry powder together, now they're meeting with their broker relationships, now they're meeting with their lender relationships, now they're putting together their LPs, and they're starting to go out and look at deals. Now, even if it's no no, no, no, no, no, no. This is the time for you to build relationships and be ready to strike when you start to see stuff this year, toward the end of the year, will will be the bottom and then I also think next year is going to be rocky for a lot of things. Then you're going to see a lot of lender write offs. Keith Weinhold 45:37 This is really good guidance for what you the listener, can accidentally do if you are a prospective apartment building buyer. Great insight there. Ken. Ken, yes, you and I are about to be together on the real estate guys Investor Summit to see but there's another great event that begins at the end of next month that you put together. Ken McElroy 45:59 Tell us about that. This is great. I have now we have about 4000 investors. So these are all high net worth people that invest with us. And you know, this is our 24th year in business. So when I meet with all of them, we used to do these investor summits, they would say, What about gold? What about silver? What about oil? What about water? What about timber? What about self storage? What about Office? What about retail? So I'm like, I'm going to create a conference where I can have everything in one spot, and we can invite high net worth, accredited people be able to come there and listen to the best of the best. So no professional speakers, just people that are really doing deals. You know, like we have guys that are building wellness spas and hospitality. Obviously, we have some single family. We got multi family. Got a retail guy, industrial guy, commercial guy, office guy. We got a gold panel. And then we got these economists, and you probably know some of the names. So we got George gammon coming. We got Jeff Snyder, who's unbelievable Euro dollar University. He's coming. We got Brent Johnson, who created what's called the milkshake theory. And just Google it, you'll see it's all about the central banks. We got Jim Rickards, who wrote currency wars and a new case for gold. And we got Lawrence Lepard, who just wrote this book called The Big print. All coming as speakers unpaid, and they're just going to try to deliver the best value they can to the people. Because I tell you what, Keith, I don't know about you, but it's confusing. I'm reading about tariffs, I'm reading about inflation. I'm reading about unemployment. I don't know where interest rates are going. I'm feeling it at the street level, at the main street level, with my apartment buildings, they're harder to manage. The expenses are going up. I try to create this environment to where people can show up and hear real real things, and they can make real decisions and course correct, right, and also take advantage of of some other things. We're also having a manufacturing panel, and I got a whole panel just on the Trump tax bill, because the opportunity zones, the bonus depreciation, all the stuff, these are things that you can do to be able to take action. So this is limitless expo.com. Since we're on your show, they can do KEN10. KEN10, which is a discount, the prices do go up. Obviously they're the highest. They are in July, because that's when the event is but in June, they're still lower. So I would suggest that people go this year, especially with this new administration, and everybody's like, what is going on? Hopefully we can it's starting to clear up some of the confusion that we all have right now and try to figure things out. Keith Weinhold 48:36 It seems like all we do know is that we don't know limitless ought to help clear some of that up. It is July 31 to August 2. Tell us where it's taking place. Ken McElroy 48:47 Yeah, it's at the gaylord in Texas, in Dallas, Texas. It's called the Gaylord Texan. It's limitless expo.com. Now we did it last year. There'll be 2000 people. We have 50 speakers. We have five stages, 50 speakers. It's a really high end event. What I mean by that is these are real people doing real deals with real businesses, real investors. It's been fantastic. I haven't had to pay speakers because of the quality of the attendee. That says a lot. It's really been interesting and great. And by the way, I don't really think having big speakers to sell tickets is the way to go. I'd rather have a real quality event, and it's really interesting once you set your mind on something. Because my investors and other investors show up because they do more than invest in just what we do. Like real estate. Everybody wants a little piece of real estate, but they also want to know about Bitcoin. They also want to know about gold, you know. And these are things that I'm not that proficient in, you know. I want to hear from experts in those fields. So it's really been a great, great event. Keith Weinhold 49:48 You kind of crowdsource the need. You listen to what your audience was asking about, and then you delivered it for them. Limitless expo.com, use the discount code KEN10 to get. Get a discount. Ken McElroy, it's been great chatting about the direction of rents and prices in the both single family space and apartment space. It's been great having you back on the show. Ken McElroy 50:09 Yeah, for sure. Keith, always great. Man. Good seeing you. Keith Weinhold 50:18 Yeah. Ken, decidedly bullish on buying real estate, even calling it a great time to buy. He basically believes that because buyers have more power than they did three and four years ago, and they have more options, an emphatic prediction that the home ownership rate will fall below 60% there is profundity here. I mean, the census figures on this go back to the 1960s and the lowest it's fallen in all that time was 63% by the way, homeownership peaked in 2004 at 69% apartment values have crashed about 30% and It's probably going to get worse. So the worst isn't over, but likely will be by about the end of this year. So in Ken's opinion, most of the worst is over. I'm reading in between the lines there on that one. Hey, I hope you've been enjoying this show lately. Next week, we're going to change things up somewhat here. Recently, we've had rather prominent guests on the show, like the father of Reaganomics, David Stockman, then Russell gray last week, this week, the owner of 10,000 running units, Ken McElroy. And you know their perspectives and experience and influence, they are terrific. And I trust that you've learned from them. Next week, we'll have two GRE listeners here on the show, regular listeners, perhaps people more like you, because you can probably relate well to their stories. Until then, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream. Speaker 3 51:59 Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively. Keith Weinhold 52:22 You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info, oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access, and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers. It's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters. And I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point, because even the word abbreviation is too long. My letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text gre 266, 866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text GRE TO 66866 The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, get richeducation.com
In this episode, A Beechcraft is flying from Anchorage to Kenai. The plane is on initial climb when the pilots declared mayday due to flight control issues. The issues made the aircraft only able to turn left, so they decide to return to Anchorage for an emergency landing Let's have a listen.
Moins connu que son cousin des Bermudes, le Triangle de l'Alaska est pourtant tout aussi mystérieux… voire plus inquiétant. Situé dans une zone délimitée entre Anchorage, Juneau et Barrow (au nord de l'État), ce triangle imaginaire fascine les chercheurs, les passionnés d'ésotérisme et les populations locales pour une raison troublante : plus de 16 000 personnes y ont disparu depuis les années 1980, sans laisser de traces.Ce chiffre impressionnant alimente la réputation d'une zone où avions, randonneurs, chasseurs et touristes disparaissent inexplicablement. Un des cas les plus célèbres remonte à 1972, lorsque le petit avion transportant le membre du Congrès américain Hale Boggs s'est volatilisé dans la région, sans jamais être retrouvé malgré d'intenses recherches mobilisant l'armée. Ni épave, ni corps, ni explication.Mais que se passe-t-il réellement dans ce triangle de glace ? Plusieurs hypothèses coexistent.D'abord, l'environnement naturel. L'Alaska est une terre extrême : conditions climatiques imprévisibles, blizzards soudains, forêts denses, montagnes escarpées, crevasses cachées sous la neige. À cela s'ajoutent les activités sismiques fréquentes (l'Alaska est l'un des États les plus géologiquement actifs des États-Unis) et la présence de failles tectoniques majeures qui pourraient entraîner des glissements de terrain ou engloutir des objets sans laisser de traces visibles.Ensuite, des phénomènes plus mystérieux sont évoqués. Des témoignages parlent de lumières étranges dans le ciel, de perturbations magnétiques, voire de portails vers d'autres dimensions. Des théories pseudo-scientifiques suggèrent l'existence de vortex énergétiques, comme ceux évoqués dans le mythe du Triangle des Bermudes. Pour les populations autochtones, la région est habitée par des esprits ou créatures surnaturelles, comme le Kushtaka, une entité mi-loutre mi-humaine qui attirerait les voyageurs perdus vers leur perte.Enfin, certains chercheurs évoquent des causes plus humaines : isolement extrême, trafics illicites, ou fugues délibérées. Dans une région aussi vaste, peu peuplée et difficile d'accès, il est relativement facile de disparaître… volontairement ou non.En résumé, le Triangle de l'Alaska est célèbre car il cumule des disparitions massives, un environnement hostile et des légendes captivantes. Dangereux à la fois par la nature et par les mystères qu'il inspire, il reste l'un des lieux les plus énigmatiques d'Amérique du Nord. Un triangle où la frontière entre réalité et mythe se brouille à chaque nouvelle disparition. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
Today on the Morning Edition, chaos and flames erupt as crew begin clearing Davis Park in Anchorage. This is sparking new concerns about the city’s homeless population.Plus, a family is working through pain and heartbreak as the legal proceedings get started for the man accused of causing the death of 16-year-old Alena Tennis.
Send us a textRose O'Hara-Jolley is the Alaska State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Planned Parenthood is a network of 600 health clinics across the country -- Alaska has two (one in Fairbanks and one in Anchorage) -- that provide reproductive and sexual health care including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, cancer screenings, well-woman exams and mental health care. Planned Parenthood is the only provider of abortions in Alaska. Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates is separate from the health care clinics; it is an advocacy organization tasked with keeping the Planned Parenthood clinics open and accessible. As head of that organization, Rose directs all of their advocacy including legislative lobbying, electoral engagement, endorsed candidate programming, local organizing, and youth leadership development.
435 - Discover the magic of Alaska like never before! In this episode of Disney Travel Secrets, Rob and Kerri Stuart reveal why Adventures by Disney Alaska should be at the top of your dream trip list. Learn insider Disney hacks and vacation tips that will transform how you plan your next adventure. What You'll Learn: Secret Disney Cast Member Name Tag meanings - What blue name tags really signify and why less than 1% of Disney Cast Members worldwide earn this honor Adventures by Disney Alaska complete breakdown - 7-day itinerary covering Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali National Park, and Girdwood Disney vacation planning tips for multi-generational families Alaska travel hacks - No passport required for this Disney adventure Exclusive Disney resort insights from the only 5-star hotel in Alaska Featured Disney Travel Tips: ✨ How to recognize Disney's most honored Cast Members ✨ Why land-based Alaska beats cruise tours every time ✨ Disney's meal inclusion strategy that reduces vacation stress ✨ Perfect ages for Adventures by Disney Alaska (10+) Special Segments: Did You Know: Disney Cast Member name badge secrets revealed Pro Tip: Splitsville Downtown Disney happy hour deals ($10 sushi rolls!) Resort Reviews: Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, Grande Denali Lodge, and Hotel Alyeska Whether you're planning your first Disney vacation or you're a Disney World veteran looking for your next adventure, this episode packed with Disney hacks will help you discover why Adventures by Disney Alaska offers the ultimate way to experience America's last frontier. Perfect for: Disney vacation planners, Alaska travel dreamers, multi-generational families, and anyone seeking Disney magic beyond the parks. Hosts: Rob & Kerri Stuart from Creating Magic Vacations, broadcasting from their Orlando studio. Subscribe to Disney Travel Secrets for weekly Disney vacation tips, Disney World hacks, Disneyland insider secrets, and the best Disney travel planning advice to make your next Disney trip truly magical! Connect with Creating Magic Vacations: Free Disney vacation planning consultation Exclusive Disney travel agent services Custom Disney itinerary planning _________________________ Let us help you plan your next Disney vacation. Our services are free and you get us and our insider tips customized to YOUR family to help you have the most magical vacation. CONNECT WITH US HERE Want to save on gas? Upside App Referral Code - XD3VD
Today on the morning edition, thousands of demonstrators took to downtown Anchorage as part of a nationwide protest, where critics of President Trump participated in what they called “No King Rallies.”And from protest to celebration, an observance and recognition of history and Black culture take place as Juneteenth festivities unfold ahead of this week’s holiday.
In this newscast: Alaska's public schools likely won't get all the money lawmakers approved in a bipartisan vote last month after Gov. Mike Dunleavy unilaterally reduced education funding with a line-item veto; Juneau's fire department is piloting a paid internship program this year that equips locals with certifications and skills needed to work in the field; A shipping container full of empty industrial-sized fish food bags fell off a barge heading from Baranof Island to the landfill in Petersburg and dozens of the plastic bags have washed up near Juneau over the past week; Residents are advised against harvesting clams, mussels and other shellfish near beaches across Southeast Alaska due to concerns about paralytic shellfish poisoning; Curious Juneau: Why is the state capital Juneau and not Anchorage
As the impact of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget vetoes begins to sink in, education and political leaders met on a Zoom call Friday afternoon to assess the damage. Plus, an Anchorage community protest was assembled Friday afternoon in an effort to show solidarity with protests that continue to take place across the country over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Today, we're lucky to be joined by Mike Foster, who has lived in Anchorage, Alaska for nearly two decades. He talks about what it's like raising a family here, what he thinks about the winters, and we sprinkle in some real estate talk as well as a bonus. Enjoy! Contact Mike: michaelfoster.floify.comMichael Foster: #2671777First Rate Financial: #184451Jamin Goecker Website (For Relocation Guide): https://jgoecker.kw.com/contactPlan you move to Alaska: https://jgoecker.com/4-1-1-download/Meetup Info: / hwetmkgvcziq9j13 LinkedIn: / jamingoecker Instagram: / jamin_goecker Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jamin-goecker/episodeApp: https://jgoecker.kw.com/myappFacebook: / gojaminrealestate Keller Williams Realty Alaska Group
Gov. Mike Dunleavy revealed his signed budget bill Thursday, including $122 million in vetoed line items. Plus, a black bear that was spotted roaming downtown Anchorage late Thursday morning has been tranquilized and captured.
The city of Anchorage plans to clear a large encampment of homeless people at a park in mid-June following years of complaints and public safety problems. The park has seen two fatal shootings and a large fire in recent months. The city's move is one of dozens of encampment “abatements” around the country following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows such law enforcement actions. Some cities have multi-pronged strategies to help homeless residents further displaced when officials clear encampments. We'll explore where solutions may lie in the balance between compassion and public safety. GUESTS Jim LaBelle (Iñupiaq), member of the Anchorage Native Community Council James Lovell (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians), chief community development officer for the Chief Seattle Club Rene' Williams (Colville), director of strategic initiatives for the California Native Vote Project Reva Stewart (Diné), owner of Shush Diné Native Shop, founder of Stolen People, Stolen Benefits, and founder of Turtle Island Women Warriors
In Episode 26 of NW Fish Passage, Annika Fain interviews Josie Kamkoff. Josie is a tribal water utilities operator program development lead at Northwest Indian College (NWIC). She is of Lummi and Yupik descent. She mostly grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and spent summers in Lummi, Washington. She is passionate about the environment and received a Bachelor's of Science in Native Environmental Science from NWIC. She is developing a tribal water utilities operator certification program. She provides insight into the program and why it is so important. Also, she talks about her hopes and vision for the future. Enjoy! Websites · Northwest Indian College (NWIC): https://www.nwic.edu/ · Tribal Drinking Water Operator Certification Program: https://www.epa.gov/tribaldrinkingwater/tribal-drinking-water-operator-certification-program
If you got a tattoo in Anchorage a few decades ago, you likely visited a male owned shop. But that's changing. Now, female tattoo artists are easy to find in the state's largest city.
The city of Anchorage plans to clear a large encampment of homeless people at a park in mid-June following years of complaints and public safety problems. The park has seen two fatal shootings and a large fire in recent months. The city's move is one of dozens of encampment “abatements” around the country following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows such law enforcement actions. Some cities have multi-pronged strategies to help homeless residents further displaced when officials clear encampments. We'll explore where solutions may lie in the balance between compassion and public safety.
Anchorage, Alaska, isn’t quite the “land of the midnight Sun.” Tonight, there are about five hours between sunset and sunrise. But it is a land of midnight sunlight, because twilight never completely fades. Twilight is the transition between day and night. Earth’s atmosphere scatters sunlight from the dayside to the fringes of the nightside. But when, exactly, does twilight end? When is the sky really dark? As you might expect, astronomers have their own definition. Astronomical twilight begins or ends when the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon – about twice the width of your fist held at arm’s length. That’s when the sky’s as dark as it’s going to get. Because of the Sun’s motion, astronomical twilight lasts a minimum of about an hour and 10 minutes. But because the Sun usually rises and sets at an angle, twilight can last a good deal longer. During much of June and July, when the days are longest, twilight for much of the northern hemisphere lasts all night. The Sun never drops far below the horizon, so even though it’s out of sight, its light never disappears. So the people of Anchorage need some good blackout curtains to get a dark night’s sleep. If you want a few hours of darkness, head south – someplace like Miami Beach. It gets a full seven hours between evening and morning twilight – hours that might be illuminated by the neon lights of South Beach, but not by the Sun. Script by Damond Benningfield
An Anchorage federal judge said that it’s up to the government to bring back the owner of two Soldotna restaurants, currently being held at Washington state’s ICE detention facility on multiple immigration law violation charges by Monday, or the case could be dismissed. Plus, the Fairbanks City Council voted 4-2 on Monday to lower the mill rate slightly for 2025 while facing several high-profile expenditures, most pressingly a series of payments due to Marvin Roberts totaling $9.25 million over the next couple of years.
Today on the Morning Edition, anti-ICE protests have spread to Anchorage as Los Angeles braces for a sixth day of unrest. Governor Mike Dunleavy has weighed in on ICE detainees being held in Alaska.Plus, an investigation is underway after officials say an air crew ejected from an F-16 at Eielson Air Force Base Tuesday afternoon.
Cold hands, warm heart. Still waters run deep. Feed a cold, starve a fever. The list of pithy old sayings goes on and on. But here’s a new one for you: long Sun, short Moon. It means that the full Moon does the opposite of what the Sun does. So when the Sun is in the sky for a long time, the full Moon makes itself scarce. And that’s the case tonight. The full Moon of June has many names, including Flower, Strawberry, and Honey Moon. But it’s also known as the Short-Night Moon. That’s because it’s in view for less time than any other full Moon of the year. From the northern hemisphere, the Sun passes highest across the sky at this time of year, and remains in view longest. But because of the trail they follow, the Sun and the full Moon are like opposite ends of a seesaw. When one is up, the other is down. So right now, the full Moon passes low across the sky. And it rises around sunset and sets around sunrise. The difference is greater as you go farther north. From Miami, the Sun will be above the horizon for almost 14 hours today, with the Moon popping into view for less than 10 and a half hours. From Duluth, Minnesota, it’s almost 16 hours versus less than eight hours. And from Anchorage, the Sun graces the sky for 19 hours, with the Moon showing up for a stingy hour and a half – an especially short appearance for the Short-Night Moon. More about night and day tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield
In this in-depth episode, host Ben Carpenter tackles the long-anticipated and often controversial Alaska LNG pipeline project—offering listeners an insider's look at recent developments and reasons for renewed optimism. Drawing from his attendance at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, Carpenter presents a compelling overview of a conversation between Governor Mike Dunleavy and Brendan Duvall, CEO of Glenfarne, the private company now spearheading the project. The episode outlines Glenfarne's phased development plan for the pipeline, which includes: Phase 1: A domestic gas pipeline from the North Slope to Anchorage. Phase 2: Construction of a liquefaction plant in Nikiski. Phase 3: A gas conditioning and carbon capture facility at Prudhoe Bay. Duvall explains why the project is now seen as financially viable, citing advantages like lower shipping costs to Asia, abundant and cheap feed gas, engineering preparedness, and strong bipartisan political support. He also addresses concerns about cost overruns, emphasizing project finance discipline and extensive pre-construction planning to keep expenses under control. Listeners will hear insights into the project's ambitious timeline, with a final investment decision (FID) on the pipeline expected by the end of 2025 and on the liquefaction plant by the end of 2026. Full construction is projected to begin in 2027, with gas delivery targeted for 2029 and LNG exports by 2031. Governor Dunleavy and Duvall also highlight the economic benefits for Alaska, including thousands of construction jobs and long-term energy security. Duvall closes with a high level of confidence in the project's feasibility, backed by Glenfarne's private capital commitment and global LNG experience. The show offers a mix of technical detail, political context, and economic promise, painting a picture of a transformative infrastructure project finally nearing reality after decades of stalled dreams.
Send us a text JJ Harrier is the 2025 chair of the Anchorage Pride Parade. After a childhood in Girdwood, he traveled around the lower 48 and Europe trying to find himself ultimately ending up homeless on the streets of Portland in his early 30s. His mother got him into rehab in Alaska and from there his life took a different direction. JJ is the former Vice President of Marketing for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the former Director of Development for Alaska Addiction Rehabilitation Services at Nugent's Ranch, and is currently the Director of Development at Denali Family Services.
Summer time means a lot of different things in Alaska. Camping, fishing, hiking and for many it also means live music. On this episode I'm talking to two Anchorage musicians that you might see at a show this summer. Pepper Kit is a local singer-songwriter and one of the folks behind the popular Girl Crush events. Travis Carbaugh is a guitarist that has played in a number of top local bands. He is currently playing in the band Red Flags and working on a couple of metal projects. https://www.facebook.com/travis.carbaugh https://www.facebook.com/theredflagsak @ theredflags.ak https://www.pepperkitmusic.com https://www.facebook.com/pepperkitmusic @ pepperkitmusic #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC
Send us a textAlaska State House Representative for Downtown Anchorage Zack Fields explains the budget reconciliation bill recently passed in the US House by a single vote. That bill is now in the US Senate, where if it is not substantially amended, it would adversely affect Alaska in many ways. One is cutting funding for SNAP – which is the federal food stamp program. About 70,000 Alaskans receive SNAP benefits. The bill would also significantly affect Medicaid – which is government health insurance for low-income people and families. About 250,000 Alaskans are enrolled in Medicaid. The bill offers significant tax cuts that primarily benefit the ultra wealthy. Ultimately, if the 2025 budget reconciliation bill passes as is, it would massively increase the federal deficit which is already alarmingly high and has contributed to a reduction in America's credit rating. To listen to Rep. Zack Field's previous episode on the podcast (where we discuss him and his life), click here.
In a world of perpetual motion, there exists a realm of profound stillness—where light doesn't simply illuminate, it transforms. Far from home amid Earth's frozen tundras, time itself seems suspended in crystalline air. In today's podcast, we'll visit these places where time hangs in the balance, and we'll explore the intrepid mix of endurance, patience, and vision it takes to make pictures there. Joining us for this conversation are polar photography specialists Acacia Johnson and Jonas Paurell. From making distinctions between Arctic and Antarctic regions, to learning about the unique challenges involved with photographing there, our polar experts share many valuable insights. In addition to tips about packing and safeguarding camera gear in cold weather climates, we also discuss the importance of managing expectations during such trips, especially when faced with a long wait to see wildlife amid the barren stillness. As Alaskan photographer Acacia Johnson puts it, “… I think going into a trip with kind of a sense of exploration, like the joy of the trip is that you don't know, and it's completely unique to your experience. And whatever you do see is kind of a gift.” Guests: Acacia Johnson & Jonas Paurell Episode Timeline: 3:37: Acacia Johnson's upbringing in the wilds of Alaska and leaving the area for photo studies at the Rhode Island School of Design in the lower 48. 7:35: Jonas Paurell's youth in Sweden and the impact his first trek to Scandinavian Arctic regions had on his soul. 14:08: The differences between Arctic and Antarctic polar landscapes, plus Acacia's experiences during a winter in Arctic Bay, with no sun for four months. 29:13: Different approaches to storytelling about the Arctic based on subject matter, and capturing an emotion in images that does justice to the landscape. 37:31: The logistics of getting to Arctic and Antarctic locations, and expenses involved with working and living there. 43:19: The Jubilee Expedition Jonas organized to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a legendary Swedish polar expedition to Svalbard. 51:20: Episode Break 51:38: Preparations for a polar expedition and the camera gear Acacia and Jonas pack. 1:00:31: Using a large format camera on polar expeditions, plus managing gear in extreme cold conditions. 1:06:42: Managing expectations for travelers, misconceptions when planning trips, plus different types of vessels used during expeditions to polar regions. 1:16:42: Cultivating an authentic connection to place when photographing polar regions. 1:21:29: The changing ethics of photographing in polar regions, plus findings from Jonas's Jubilee Expedition Guest Bios: Acacia Johnson is a photographer, writer, and a 2023 National Geographic Explorer based in Anchorage, Alaska. Drawn to painterly light and otherworldly landscapes, her work focuses on the environment, conservation, and connections between people and place. Over the past 10 years, she has made more than fifty expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica as a photographer and a guide—always seeking to inspire wonder and compassion for these remote regions during a time of rapid change. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic and TIME magazines, among other publications. In 2021, Acacia was awarded the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, and in 2022 she received the ICP Infinity Award for Documentary Practices and Photojournalism. Jonas Paurell is an explorer, conservation photographer, photo educator, and speaker from Gothenburg, Sweden. One of his most ambitious projects is a 25-year documentation of the Arctic. Through ski expeditions and icebreaker voyages, he has captured both the resilience and vulnerability of Arctic landscapes, emphasizing the fragility of the region and the urgent need for preservation. In 2022, Jonas launched The Jubilee Expedition, recreating the historic Swedish Polar Expedition of 1872 to highlight this region's rapid melting and the far-reaching impacts of climate change. Jonas is also founder of Terra Photography Expeditions, which offers immersive workshops in both Arctic regions and South American rainforests, helping photographers deepen their connection with nature while refining their craft. Additionally, before dedicating his life to photography, Jonas served as a human rights lawyer for the United Nations. Stay Connected: Acacia Johnson Website Instagram Facebook X Jonas Paurell Website Terra Photography Expedition Instagram Facebook YouTube Host: Derek Fahsbender Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein Executive Producer: Richard Stevens
In this episode, Must Read Alaska Show host Ben Carpenter delivers a robust, real-time debrief from the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, hosted by Governor Mike Dunleavy in Anchorage. Carpenter walks the audience through the key takeaways, the tone of the event, and the overarching vision shared by political and industry leaders, particularly from the Trump administration, about Alaska's pivotal role in national energy policy, security, and economic revival. With hundreds of attendees from around the globe, the conference presented Alaska not as a remote outpost, but as a strategic energy powerhouse whose development is critical not only for the state but for national and global security. Carpenter closes the episode with a rallying cry for Alaskans to take ownership of their future: Energy is the starting point of economic renewal. Alaska has resources, public support, and geopolitical necessity on its side. It's time to structure policy and fiscal mechanisms to reward growth and self-reliance, not government expansion.
Muriel C. Pfeil is buried in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery next to her husband Emil, who preceded her in death by 47 years and her namesake daughter who died 25 years prior. That daughter had been the victim of domestic violence and a bitter divorce and custody battle ended with her blown to bits in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. It was a shocking murder and so it is no wonder that Muriel's spirit is at unrest. Intro and Outro music: Bad Players - Licensed under a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable, single-site, worldwide, royalty-free license agreement with Muse Music c/o Groove Studios. The following music was also used: Title: "Patience" and "Counting the Losses" Artist: Tim Kulig (timkulig.com) Licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0997280/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Jeff was joined by Anchorage resident Lois Epstein. They discuss how a tree falling in her house in the spring of 2024 during a windstorm led to a nightmare situation with her homeowners insurance, the damage the tree caused to the house, the issues she had with USAA covering the costs of the damage, how long it ended up taking to get it all fixed, and the challenges she had navigating the situation.
The City of Soldotna will spend more than $150,000 upgrading their police force's network of body-worn, vehicle and department cameras. Most Alaskans travel around the state by automobile or small plane. A few might travel by bicycle. But one Anchorage man prefers getting around another way – by lacing up his roller skates.
This week on the Granger Smith Podcast, Granger sits down with Joshua Gunderson, a former Air Force fighter pilot with an incredible story—from flying F-22 Raptors to patrolling the skies over Alaska and the Middle East. They swap memories about meeting on a USO tour in Anchorage, the wild moments that followed (including a close call with a massive earthquake), and what it’s really like pulling nine G’s at twice the speed of sound. But it’s more than just “Top Gun” stories. Joshua opens up about the realities of military life: the pressure, the split-second decisions, and how faith, family, and near-miraculous moments shaped his journey both in and out of the cockpit. Granger and Joshua dive deep into life’s big questions, wrestling with the problem of evil, the meaning of legacy, and how faith can hold up—even when life throws the unthinkable your way. They get honest about loss, gratitude, and what it means to live with purpose—especially for the next generation. Whether you’re into aviation, military stories, or just a good, heartfelt conversation about life, you won’t want to miss this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today we got to watch the birth of a dream that's been 10+ years in the making. Refuge Coffee in Anchorage had our grand opening, and what a day it was! It was filled with emotion and joy and lot of thankfulness. In this episode we're talking all about it. New episodes are uploaded weekly on Saturday mornings at 7am Pacific / 10am EasternSupport us and the LeggLife Podcast by becoming a patron at / legglife Learn more about LeggLife by following us on:YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/legglifeak/?su...Instagram: / legglifeak Facebook: / legglife You can reach us via email at legglife@gmail.com
In this newscast: Juneau's Joann arts and crafts store is closed; An unvaccinated Anchorage youth tested positive for measles earlier this month; Immigration officials detailed an Anchorage man originally from Peru last week, according to his wife; Sitka voters have overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have capped the number of cruise visitors beginning next year; Schools in the U.S. are facing a debilitating teacher shortage, and many districts are looking abroad, namely in the Philippines
On today's Midday Report with host Terry Haines:U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is emphasizing her support for Alaska's Ukrainian refugees. In the Anchorage School District, a recently-introduced curriculum for young students learning to read is working, but funding is in question. And Immigration officials detained an Anchorage man originally from Peru last week, according to his wife.Photo: U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks with Tetyana Robbins in Delta Junction on May 29, 2025. (Shelby Herbert/KUAC)
Danny Seybert ,president of the Alaska Aviation Museum, joins Steve McCaughey on this episode of the Water Flying podcast to discuss growing up in a historic aviation family in Alaska in the 1970's. Danny's father Orin Seybert founded PenAir in 1955 which famously flew Grumman G-21 Gooses throughout the Aleutian Islands.The Alaska Aviation Museum has many great historic aircraft including a PBY, Grumman Goose, Grumman Widgeon, a Sikorsky S-43 cockpit section, Beech-19 on floats and a Waco YKC on floats among others.Visit the museums website at: https://alaskaairmuseum.org
Would you move to Alaska to own a snow removal business making $700K a year?Business Listing – https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/landscaping-and-snow-removal-company-for-sale-in-south-central-alaska/BW2313996/
It's Monday, May 26th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Armenian Christian details abuses in Iranian prison Hakop Gochumyan, an Armenian Christian arrested in Iran in 2023 for his Christian faith, recently sent a letter to Christian Solidarity Worldwide detailing abuses he's endured while imprisoned, reports International Christian Concern. In the letter, published on May 9, Gochumyan explained that Iranian authorities have “subjected [him] to psychological violence” and threatened to take his life and the lives of his family. Mervyn Thomas, president and founder of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, called for “Gochumiyan's immediate and unconditional release” and rallied the “international community … to hold Iranian authorities to account” for their human rights abuses. Gochumyan was detained just outside of Tehran, in Pardis, in August 2023 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in February 2024. His charges include “engaging in deviant proselytizing activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam” by allegedly associating with “a network of evangelical Christianity.” The couple, along with their two children, were in Iran to visit family and, while attending a dinner at a friend's house, police arrived, and arrested them. Allegedly, Gochumyan possessed copies of Farsi-language New Testaments, which are banned in Iran, and had attended several churches during his visit. Spreading the Gospel of Christ to non-Christians is illegal in Iran. Additionally, possessing Bibles written in Farsi, the nation's official language, isn't allowed as it could draw a non-Christian to Jesus. Christian conversion is something the Iranian regime strongly discourages and attempts to dissuade, often through psychological manipulation, overt intimidation, physical abuse, and imprisonment. However, the light of Christ continues to shine in the region and cannot be extinguished. In John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Trump vows a 25% tariff on iPhones if made in China or India President Donald Trump vowed to enact “at least” a 25% tariff on iPhones that are not manufactured and built in the United States — in a sharp warning to Apple CEO Tim Cook, reports One America News. Apple currently manufactures the majority of its iPhones in China, and does not have a domestic smartphone production supply chain. Apple announced a move to India in an effort to “diversify its supply chain and reduce reliance on China.” But Trump wants the iPhones built here in America. Judge overturns Biden rule forcing employers to allow time off for abortions A federal judge in Louisiana has struck down regulations that would have forced most U.S. employers to provide pregnant workers with time off to kill their babies by abortion, reports LifeNews.com. Issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge David Joseph, the ruling invalidated a provision of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which had been pushed during the Biden administration. Initially, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which passed with bipartisan support in December 2022, was designed to ensure that employers, with 15 or more employees, provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, such as time off for medical appointments or relief from heavy lifting. However, the Biden administration, to its shame, twisted the initial intent of the law to classify abortion as a “related medical condition” to pregnancy and childbirth. That forced pro-life employers to facilitate the termination of unborn lives against their moral and religious convictions. Alaskan volcano could blow Located 80 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, Mount Spurr is about to blow, reports the Alaska Volcano Observatory. The last time it blew was 1992. If you're picturing massive lava flows, think again, explains Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The biggest threat will actually be the ash which could reach as high as 50,000 feet into the sky, according to DailyGalaxy.com. Volcanic ash could blanket Anchorage. If the eruption happens during daylight, the ash cloud could block out the sun for hours, plunging the area into total darkness. Ash is dangerous to breathe. It damages cars and machinery and can disrupt daily life. And then there's air travel. Ash could rise high into the atmosphere, and the tiny glass-like particles, can reharden inside jet engines, posing a serious threat. Since Alaska's airspace is a major route for Trans Pacific flights, this eruption could affect a lot more people than just those in Anchorage, including flights from Toronto to Seoul or Hong Kong to Memphis. Psalm 95:4-5 reminds us that God, Who created Mount Spurr, is in control. “In His hand are the depths of the Earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” Tapper confessed: Conservative media was right about Biden's decline And finally, in an intriguing interview with Megyn Kelly, CNN's Jake Tapper confessed that “conservative media was right” about Biden's dramatic mental decline. Tapper's new book is entitled, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Listen. KELLY: “Leading up to the debate which you anchored, that June 27 debate, 2024 there was a ton of news leading into that debate in that month. We looked back at your coverage and found that you ignored the freeze up that he had at the Juneteenth Celebration. You ignored what happened at the G7 when he, [Biden], wandered off and Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, had to go find him." TAPPER: “Megyn,” KELLY: “You ignored the freeze up at the George Clooney L.A. fundraiser. You didn't cover it. You only covered it after the debate, after George Clooney wrote his op-ed. Your network at every turn was telling us those were, ‘cheap fakes.' And you're not combating that narrative. CNN was actively misleading us on what our very eyes were showing us. That's the truth. That's the record.” TAPPER: “I will acknowledge that after I was named co-moderator of the [presidential] debate, I tried to make sure that my coverage was fairly vanilla, both about Trump and about Biden, because I just wanted to get to the debate. I remember that moment, the glitch at the immigration event, and not getting much attention outside of conservative media at all. “Alex and I are here to say the conservative media was right and conservative media was correct. There should be a lot of soul searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media to begin with, all of us, for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently. 100%. I mean, I'm not here to defend coverage that I've already acknowledged I wish I could do differently.” Prior to the release of this book, CNN's Jake Tapper, in his refusal to tell the truth about Biden's mental decline, did not heed the commandment found in Exodus 20:16. It says, “You shall not bear false witness.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, May 26th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
In this episode, a Boeing 747 is unknowingly approaching a runway closed for snow removal in Anchorage due to a miscommunication with the tower. During the landing, the plane almost lands on top of a vehicle plowing the snow before he is instructed to go around by ATC.
In this newscast: An Anchorage lawyer has been implicated as a "cartel attorney" working for traffickers who allegedly sent hard drugs from Mexico to Alaska; It was Sen. Lisa Murkowski's 68th birthday yesterday; The Juneau Assembly considers a seasonal sales tax ballot proposition to capitalize on summer tourism; A teacher in Juneau's Mendenhall Valley is bringing current glacial outburst flood science to middle schoolers; The cruise line industry is suing Skagway over a new policy that makes a controversial change to how the borough taxes excursions sold by cruise companies
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John Daniel Davidson has a wonderfully grounded sense of what is most important.Climbing up the ladder of influence in the literary world on a national stage, he realized that "careerism" isn't what makes us tick as much as finding a place to till and produce and live off the fat of the land with your family.It was Thomas Jefferson who said "Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."Davidson took that to heart and moved his family from Austin, Texas back to the family homestead in Wasilla where he was raised. He still writes prolifically as a Senior Editor for The Federalist and speaks around the country but his roots are getting deeper in the soil of the Mat Su Valley.I am blessed to chat with him on today's show and thrilled to remind readers that he will be our keynote speaker for our 2025 Spring Dinners in Anchorage next Thursday, May 29th at Main Event Grill and on Saturday, May 31st at his mom's horse barn called At the Barn MatSu, a beautiful venue nestled on their homestead.Please CLICK HERE to get your tickets and join us.For a taste of John's intellect and passion, I hope you can tune in today.Support the show
Join travel experts Ryan and Julie as they explore America's Last Frontier in this comprehensive guide to Alaska travel. Whether you're considering an Alaska cruise, land-based adventure, or combination trip, this episode covers everything you need to know to plan your dream Alaska vacation.Land-Based Alaska VacationsStarting points: Anchorage and FairbanksTransportation options: Alaska Railroad, rental cars, guided toursDeeper immersion into wilderness and local cultureAccess to interior Alaska destinations like Denali National ParkCustom itineraries for specific interests (fishing, photography, wildlife)Best for: Active travelers, photographers, wildlife enthusiastsAlaska CruisesInside Passage routes from Seattle or VancouverHassle-free travel with scenic coastal viewsPopular ports: Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, SewardLimited time in each destinationBest for: Cruise lovers, multi-generational travelers, comfort seekersAlaska Cruise Tours (Land + Sea Combination)Pre or post-cruise land extensions (3-7 days)Most popular add-on: Denali National ParkBest of both experiences: coastal views and interior explorationConvenient planning through cruise linesBest for: Travelers wanting comprehensive Alaska experienceBest Time to VisitLate May through early SeptemberOptimal weather conditionsPeak whale watching seasonMost ports and attractions openPacking EssentialsLayer for all weather typesWaterproof clothingComfortable walking shoesPrepare for temperature variations in single dayPhysical ConsiderationsAssess mobility and activity levelsSome excursions require physical fitnessAge restrictions on certain activitiesWide variety of adventure levels availableBooking StrategyBook early due to limited travel seasonReserve excursions after booking main tripConsider cruise and tour package dealsPlan around port schedules and timingConnect with All Things TravelWebsite: WonderAndBeyondTravel.comEmail the hosts for personalized travel planningSpecializing in family travel, cruises, and destination expertiseNext Episode PreviewJoin us next week as we explore the new travel trend of "retirement moons" - a growing vacation concept for retirees.Want to cruise with Ryan and Julie in July 2025? Join our cruise with friends of the podcast (yes, that's you as a listener)! Check out the details: https://forms.gle/Jpikq82XPQS63v5N8Visit our website, allthingstravelpodcast.com, for freebies and more podcast info! Ready to plan your vacation? Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your family. Saving you time, money, and stress! Visit our website www.allthingstravelpodcast.com and click on "Plan Your Next Vacation" Join the travel conversations and the fun in our Facebook Page and Instagram Page! Please share the show with your travel buddies!! Click this link and share the show! Never miss an episode and help us take you to the top with us by following and leaving a 5-Star review on your favorite podcasting app!
Text us your questions to answer on a future episode (if you want me to contact you, please include your email)Mandy from Salmonberry Tours joins Jennie to talk about the logistics of getting from Whittier or Seward to the Anchorage airport before or after a cruise and how to have an intimate local experience along the way. Salmonberry ToursAlaska 2025 StickersShop all Alaska Travel planners and premade itinerariesFollow Jennie on InstagramSupport Alaska Uncovered on Patreon as a free or paid subscriberMusic credits: Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.Support the show
Keith discusses the mortgage landscape, emphasizing the benefits of cash-out refinances with Ridge Lending Group President, Caeli Ridge. They unpack the Trump administration's plan to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which could impact the mortgage market. Investors are discovering powerful strategies to leverage property equity and optimize their financial portfolios. By understanding innovative borrowing techniques, savvy real estate investors can access tax-efficient capital and create sustainable wealth-building opportunities. Consider working with a lender that specializes in investor-focused loan products and provides comprehensive education on the options available. Resources: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/554 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review” For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai Keith Weinhold 0:01 Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, we're talking about the mortgage loan landscape in this era. Is title insurance a rip off today? Is it worth it for you to pay discount points at the closing table to get a lower interest rate? Learn about how a cash out refinance. Is your ability to borrow tax free, much like a billionaire does, and what are the dramatic changes that the current administration could take to alter the mortgage environment for years, all today on get rich education. Speaker 1 0:34 Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, who delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast or visit get rich education.com Corey Coates 1:20 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. Keith Weinhold 1:36 Welcome to GRE from Liverpool, England to Livermore, California and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you are listening to get rich education, the voice of real estate. Since 2014 it's been estimated that there are about 800 billionaires in USA, and hey, you might be one of them, but there's a pretty good chance that you aren't well. When it comes to lending and mortgages, you can actually take a page out of a billionaires playbook and do something very much like what they do whenever you perform a cash out refinance if you've got dead equity in a property, and you can borrow against your own home to a greater extent than you can against your rental properties, even either one of those is a tax free event, you've now got tax free cash, and you can use that money on anything from investing it in the stock market To using your proceeds for a down payment on more real estate or buying a boat or going to Disneyland, and you didn't have to relinquish your asset at all. You continue to hold on to the asset. Now, the mechanics are somewhat different, sure, but when you do a cash out refinance like this, it's a bit like billionaires borrowing against their stock. Instead, you're borrowing against the value of your real estate. In fact, listening to this short clip, it's Trevor Noah talking about how billionaires do exactly this, and you'll notice that the crowd laughs because it actually sounds funny that you can really do this, Speaker 2 3:22 the shares that they hold in a company, because it is an unrealized gain, right? So they go like, yeah, you're worth 300 billion, but we can't tax you on those stocks because you haven't sold the shares, so you don't, like, have the money. And I understand the argument. They go like, No, you don't have it. It's just what it's worth, because it will also crash, and then you have nothing, so we can't tax you on it. Then I'm like, Okay, I understand that. Then Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter, all right? He offers to buy it. And then he says in his offer, he goes, I'm putting up my Tesla stock as collateral. Then I'm like, so you do have it? Then he's like, no, no, no, no, I don't have it. I don't have it. I'm just gonna say so then they accept the offer. He now buys Twitter. Now that they've accepted his offer, he now goes to private equity and banks and like other rich people and whatever. He goes like, can you guys borrow me the money to buy Twitter? And then he's like, I'm I want to buy Twitter because I don't want to sell any of my Tesla shares, so I want to use your money to buy Twitter. And then it's like, but then they're like, What are we loaning it against? And he's like, Well, my Tesla shares. Then I'm going, like, Wait, so, so you, you can, you can buy a thing based on what you have, yes, but when we want to tax you, you can say, I don't have it. Do you hear what I'm saying here? Keith Weinhold 4:46 Yeah, you can borrow against your real estate if you have substantial equity in it. We'll talk about just how much now billionaires borrow against their stock holdings using financial products like portfolio lines of credit or. For securities based loans. These are the names for how they do it, essentially taking out loans and using their stock as collateral. And this allows them to access cash without selling their assets and without incurring capital gains taxes, much like you can so you can say that you don't want to sell your property in you don't have to go through some capital raising round either, like a billionaire might have to when they're borrowing against their stock. You can just have a more standard mortgage application for your cash out refinance, and you don't even have to have a huge portfolio. I mean, even if you just own one 500k property with 50% equity in it, you can do this so it's available to most any credit worthy person, again, tax free. But of course, this doesn't mean that you always should take this windfall, because it often creates a higher monthly payment. You've got to be the one that makes that decision in controlling your cash flows, that is key. I'll talk about that some more with today's terrific guests. Also the Trump administration's desire to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac we're going to talk about that and what that would do to the mortgage landscape. I am in the USA today, next week, I'll be bringing you the show from London, England for the first time, the following week, from Edinburgh, Scotland. Yes, the mobile GRE Studio will be in effect. I typically set it up myself, and I usually don't need the help of the hotel staff for an appropriate Sound Studio either. And then shortly after that, I will be in Anchorage, Alaska, where I'm competing in these fantastic mountain running races. And then by next month, that's where I hope to meet up with you in person for nine days of learning and fun, as I'll be in Miami as part of the faculty for the terrific real estate guys invest or summon at sea, where we're all going to disembark from Miami and go to St Thomas, St Martin and the Bahamas, and then after that great event, it is a long flight from Miami back to Anchorage again. And that's got to be one of the longer domestic flights, not just in the nation, but in the world, Miami to Anchorage, and then shortly after that, I will be in the Great Northeast early this summer, New York and Pennsylvania, including for my high school reunion. So I'll really be putting the miles on these next couple months. One interesting thing that I've noticed for next week's show, where I'll be joining you from London, is how much I'm paying per night at both my hotel in England and then later my hotel in Scotland. That's obviously a short term real estate transaction. These are some of the more expensive places in the world, really. So next week and then the week after, I just think you'll find it interesting. I'll tell you how much I'm spending per night in both London and then Edinburgh. And they're both prime locations, where the hotels are the center of London and then right on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. That is in future weeks as for today, let's talk about the mortgage landscape with this week's familiar and terrific guest. I'd like to welcome in one of the more recurrent guests in our history, so she needs little introduction. She's the longtime president of the mortgage company that's created more financial freedom for real estate investors than any lender in the nation because they specialize in income property loans. It's where I get my own loans for my own rental properties. Ridge lending group. Hey, welcome back to GRE Caeli ridge. Caeli Ridge 8:57 Thank you, Keith. You know I love being here with you and your listeners. I appreciate you having me. Keith Weinhold 9:01 You've helped us for so long. For example, who can forget way back in episode 56 Yeah, that's a deep scroll back when Chaley broke down each line of a good faith estimate for us, that's basically a closing statement sheet. She told us exactly what we pay for at the closing table, line by line like origination fee, recording costs and title insurance so helpful. It's just the sort of transparency that you get over there. Buyers pay for title insurance at the closing table. It is title insurance a rip off. A few years ago, a lot of people speculated that title insurance would fade away because the property's ownership could be transparent and accessible to everybody on the blockchain, but we don't really see that happening. So tell us about title insurance, and really, are we getting value in what we pay for there at the closing table? Caeli Ridge 9:54 Well, I think the first thing I would say is that it really isn't going to be an option as far as I. Know, as long as the individual is going to source institutional funding leverage use of other people's money, they're going to require the lender, aka Ridge lending, or whoever you're working with, they're going to require that title insurance that ensures their first lien position. Doing that title search, first and foremost, is going to make it clear that there isn't some cloud on title, that there isn't some mechanic lien that had been sitting out there for however many years it may have just been around. And those types of things never go away. So for a lending perspective, it's going to be real important that that title insurance is paid for and in place to protect their interests, things like judgments, tax liens, like I said, a mechanic's lien, those will automatically take a first lien position in front of a mortgage. So obviously we're not going to risk that and find ourselves in second lien position in the event of default and somebody else is getting paid before we are. So not really an option. Is it a rip off? I don't know enough about how often it's paid out, and not to speak to that, but I will tell you that it isn't a choice. Keith Weinhold 11:07 Title Insurance, like Shaylee was talking about. It protects against fraud related to the property's ownership, someone else claiming rights to the property, and this title search that an insurer does it also, yeah, it looks for those liens and encumbrances, including unpaid taxes, maybe unpaid HOA dues, but yeah, mortgage lenders typically require title insurance, and if you the borrower, you might think that's annoying. Well, it does make sense, because the bank needs to protect their collateral. If a bank ever has to foreclose, they need to have access to you, the borrower, to be able to do that without any liens or ownership claims from somebody else. Caeli, how often do title insurance companies mess up or have to pay out a claim? Does that ever happen? Caeli Ridge 11:50 I mean, if I have been involved in a circumstances where that was the case, it's been so many years ago, they're pretty fastidious. I don't know that I could recall a circumstance where something had happened and the title insurance was liable. They go through the paces, man, they've got to make sure that, and they're doing deep dives and searches across nationwide to make sure that there isn't any unnecessary issue that's been placed on title Not that I'm aware of. No. Keith Weinhold 11:50 Are there any of those other items that we tend to see on a good faith estimate that have had any interesting trends or changes to them in the past few years? Caeli Ridge 12:27 Yeah, I've got a good one, and this is actually timely credit reports. So over the last couple of years, something has been happening with credit reports where, you know, maybe three, four years ago, a credit report, let's say a joint credit report, a husband and wife went and applied that credit report might cost 25 bucks. Well, now it's in excess of 100 plus. Some of what we're going to be talking about today, it kind of gets into the wish list of Jim neighbors, who is the president of the mortgage brokers Association. He's been talking to the administration about some of his wishes, and credit report fees is actually one of the things that they're wanting to attack and bringing those costs down for the consumer. So when we look at a standard Closing Disclosure today, credit report costs have increased significantly. I don't have the percentages, but by a large margin over the last couple of years, Keith Weinhold 13:21 typically not one of your bigger costs, but a little noteworthy. There one thing that people might opt and choose to have on their good faith estimates, so that borrower therefore would actually pay more out of pocket with today's higher mortgage rates. And I'm sure not to say high, because historically, they are not high. Do we see more people opting to pay discount points at the closing table to get a lower rate and talk to us about the trade offs there Caeli Ridge 13:46 right now, first and foremost, that there isn't a lot of option for investment property transactions, whether it be a purchase or refinance. There's not going to be that option where the consumer gets to choose to say, Okay, I want to pay points for a lower rate or not pay points for a higher rate the not paying points is the key here. There isn't going to be a zero point option for investment property transactions. And this gets a little bit convoluted, and then I'll circle back and answer the question of, when does it make sense to pay the points, more points versus less points? We have been in a higher rate environment that I think a lot of people have become accustomed to as a result secondary markets, where mortgage backed securities are bought and sold, they keep very close tabs on the trends and where they think things are headed. Well, something called YSP, that stands for yield, spread, premium, under normal market circumstances, a consumer can say, okay, Caeli, I don't want to pay any points. Okay, I'll take this higher interest rate, and I don't want to pay any points, because that higher interest rate is going to have YSP, yield, spread, premium to pay compensation to a lender, and you know, the other third parties that may be involved in that mortgage backed security. But. Sold and traded, etc, okay? They have that choice under normal market circumstances. Not the case right now, because when this loan sells the servicing rights, whoever is going to pick up the servicing rights, so when Mr. Jones goes to make his mortgage payment, he's going to cut a check to Mr. Cooper. That's a big one, right? Or Rocket Mortgage, or Wells Fargo, whoever the servicer is, the servicing rights are purchased at a cost. They have to pay for the servicing rights, and let's say that's 1% of this bundle of mortgage backed securities that they're purchasing. Well, they know the math is, is that that servicer is going to take about 36 months before that upfront cost is now in the black or profitable. This all will land together. Everybody, I promise you stick with me, so knowing that we've got about a 36 month window before a servicer that picked up the rights to service this mortgage is going to be profitable in a higher rate environment, as interest rates start coming down, what happens to the mortgage that they paid for the rights to service 12 months ago, 18 months ago, that thing is probably going to refinance right prior to the 36 month anniversary of profitability. So that YSP seesaw there is not going to be available for especially a non owner occupied transaction. So said another way, zero point rates are not going to be valid on a non owner occupied transaction in a higher rate environment when secondary markets understand that the loans that are secured today will very likely be refinanced prior to profitability on the servicing side of that mortgage backed security that is a risk to the lender, yes. So we know that right now you're not going to find a zero point option. Now that may be kind of a blanket statement. If you were getting a 30% loan to value owner occupied mortgage with 800 credit scores, you know that's going to be a different animal. And of course, you're going to have the option to not pay points. The risk for that is nothing. Okay, y SP is going to be available for you, the consumer, to be able to choose points at a lower rate, no points higher rate. When does it make sense to pay additional points? Let's say to reduce an interest rate, the break even math. And you know, I'm always talking about the math, the break even math is actually the formula is very simple. All you need to do is figure out the cost of the points. Dollar amount of the points, let's say it's $1,000 and that's what it's going to cost you to, say, get an eighth or a quarter or whatever the denomination is, in the interest rate reduction. But you aren't worried about the interest rate necessarily. You're looking at the monthly payment difference. So it's going to cost you $1,000 in extra points, but it's only going to save you $30 a month in payment when you divide those two numbers, what's that going to take you 33 months? 30 well, okay, and does that make sense? Am I going to refinance in 33 months? If the answer is no, then sure pay the extra 1000 bucks. But that's the math, the cost versus the monthly payment difference divide that that gives you the number of months it takes to recapture cost versus cash flow or savings, and then you be the determining factor on when that makes sense. Keith Weinhold 18:10 It's pretty simple math. Of course, you can also factor in some inflation over time, and if you would invest that $1,000 in a different vehicle, what pace would that grow at as well? So we've been talking about the pros and cons of buying down your mortgage rate with discount points before we get into the administration changes. Cheley talk about that math in is it worth it to refinance or not? It's a difficult decision for some people to refinance today with higher mortgage rates than we had just a few years ago, and at the same time, we've got a lot of dead equity that's locked up. Caeli Ridge 18:40 I would start first by saying, Are we looking to harvest equity? Are we pulling cash out, or are we simply doing a rate and term refinance where we're replacing one loan with another loan, if it's for rate and term, if we're simply replacing the loan that we have today with a new loan, that math is going to be pretty simple. Why would you replace 6% interest rate with a 7% interest rate? If all other things were equal, you wouldn't unless there was a balloon feature, or maybe an adjustable rate mortgage or something of that nature involved there that you have to make the refinance. So taking that aside, focusing on a cash out refinance, and when does it make sense? So there's a little extra layered math here. The cash that you're harvesting, the equity that you're harvesting, first of all, borrowed funds are non taxable. What are we going to do with that pile of cash? Are we going to redeploy it for investing more often than not talking to investors? The answer is yes. What is that return going to look like? So you've got to factor that in as well, and then we'll get to the tax benefit in a moment. But generally speaking, I like to as long as the cash flow is still there, okay, you've got to have someone else covering that payment. Normally, there's exceptions to every rule. I don't normally advise going negative on a cash out refi. There are exceptions. Okay, please hear me. But otherwise, as long as the existing rents are covering and that thing is still being paid for by somebody else, then what you want to do is look at that monthly payment. Difference again, versus what you're getting out of it. And then you divide those two numbers pretty simply, and it'll take you how long. And then you've got a layer in the cash flow that you're going to get from the new acquisitions, and whether that be real estate or some other type of investment, whatever the return is, you're going to be using that to offset. And then finally, I would say, make sure that you're doing adding in the tax benefit. These are rental properties guys, right? So closing costs can be deducted now that may end up hurting debt to income ratio down the road. So don't forget, Ridge lending is going to be looking at your draft tax returns. Very, very important to ensure that we're setting you up for success and optimizing things like debt to income ratio on an annual basis. Keith Weinhold 20:40 Now, some investors, or even primary residence owners might look at their first and only mortgage on a property, see that it's 4% and really not want to touch that. What is the environment and the appetite like today for having a refinance in the form of a second mortgage? That way you can keep your first mortgage in place and, say, 4% get a second mortgage at 7% or more. How does that look for both owner occupied and non owner occupied properties today? Caeli Ridge 21:07 you're going to be looking at prime, plus, in many cases, if you don't want to mess with a first lien, a second lien mortgage is typically going to be tied to an index called prime. Those of you that are familiar with this have probably heard of that. Indicee. There's lots of them. The fed fund rate, by the way, is an index. There's lots of them. The Treasury is also another index. Prime is sitting, I think, at seven and a half percent. So you're probably going to be looking at rate wise, depending on occupancy and credit score and all of those llpas that we always talk about, loan level, price adjustment. You know, it could be prime plus zero, it could be prime plus four. So interest rates could range between, say, seven and a half, on average, up to 11 even 12% depending on those other variables. More often than not, those are going to be interest only. So make sure that you're doing that simple math there. And I would prefer if I'm giving advice the second liens, the he loan, which is closed ended, very much like your first mortgage, it's just in second lien position. It's amortized over a certain period of time, closed ended. Not as big a fan of that. If you can find the second liens, especially for non owner occupied, I would encourage it to be that open ended HELOC type. Keith Weinhold 22:15 What are we looking at for combined loan to value ratios with second mortgages Caeli Ridge 22:19 on an owner occupied I think you'd be happy to get 90. I think I've heard that in some cases, they can go up to 95% in my opinion, that would go as high as they'll let you go right on a non owner occupied, I think you'd be real lucky to find 80, and probably closer to 70. Keith Weinhold 22:34 That really helps a lot with our planning. Well, the administration that came in this year has made some changes that can create some upheaval, some things to pay attention to in the mortgage market. We're going to talk about that when we come back. You're listening to get rich education. Our guest is Ridge lending Group President, Caeli Ridge I'm your host, Keith Weinhold. The same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group NMLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President Chaeli Ridge personally while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com. That's Ridge lendinggroup.com. You know what's crazy? Your bank is getting rich off of you. The average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back. No weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing. Check it out. Text family to 66866, to learn about freedom. Family investments, liquidity fund again. Text family to 66866 Hal Elrod 24:38 this is Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning and listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't put your Daydream. Keith Weinhold 24:55 Welcome back to get rich education. We're talking about mortgages again, because this is one. Where leverage comes from. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, we're sitting down with the president of ridge lending group, Caeli Ridge, and I know that she has some knowledge and some updates on new administration leadership and some potential changes for the market there. What can you tell us? Caeli Caeli Ridge 25:16 I'm pretty excited about this one, and I'm watching very diligently to see how it unfolds. So the new director of the FHFA Federal Housing Finance Agency, all is Bill Pulte. This is the grandson of Pulte Homes. Okay, smart guy. I'm excited to see what he's going to come in and do. Well. He had recently, I think in the last couple of weeks, he put out in the news wires asking for feedback from the powers that be, related to Fannie and Freddie, what improvements they would like to see. So first up was Jim neighbors. He is the president of the mortgage brokers Association. He had a few very specific wish list items, if you will. And the first one on his list was the elimination of LLP, as for non owner occupied and second home. So let me just kind of paint a picture here, because there's some backstory I think is important. So an LLPA, for those of you that have never heard that term before, stands for a loan level price adjustment. And a loan level price adjustment is a positive number or a negative number that associates with the individual loan characteristics. So things like loan to value or loan size, occupancy is a big ll PA, the difference between an owner occupied where you live and one that you're going to use as a rental property, that's a big one. Credit score, property type, is it a single family? Is it a two to four? Is this a purchase? Is it a refi? Anyway, all of those different characteristics are ll pas. Well, if we take a step back in time, gosh, about three years ago now, Mark Calabria, at the time, was the director of the FHFA, and he had imposed increases, specific increases. This was middle of 22 I want to say specific increases to the LL pas for non owner occupied property. So if anybody kind of remembers that time, we started to really see points and interest rates take that jump sometime in 2022 more than just the traditional interest rate market and the fluctuations. This was very material to investment property and second home, but we'll focus on the investment property. So Mr. Jim neighbors came in and said, first and foremost, I'd like to see those removed, and I want to read something to the listeners here, because I thought it was very interesting. This is something I've been kind of preaching from the the rooftops, if you will, for many, many years. Yeah, we've got neighbors sticking up for investors here. He really is. And I Yeah, well, yes, he is. And more often than not, they're focused on the owner occupied so I'm just going to kind of read. I've got my cheat sheet here. I want to make sure I get it all right for everybody. So removal of the loan level price adjustments on investment properties and second homes, he noted that these risk based fees charged by Fannie and Freddie discourage responsible buyers from purchasing second homes and investment properties, with that insignificant increase to cost. And here's the important part, originally introduced to account for additional credit risk, many of the pandemic era llpa increases were not based on updated risk metric. In fact, data has shown that loans secured by investment properties often have strong credit profiles and lower than expected default rates. I mean, anybody that has been around long enough to see what we've come from, like, 08,09, and when we had the calamity of right, the barrier for entry for us to get any conventional financing as investors has been harsh. I mean, I make that stupid joke of vials of blend DNA samples. But aside from it being an icebreaker, it kind of feels true. We really get the short end of the stick. And I feel like as investors especially, post 08,09, our credit profiles, our qualifications, the bar is so high for us, the default risk there has largely been removed. We've got so much skin in the game. With 20 25% down, credit score is much higher, debt to income ratios more scrutinized, etc, etc. So I think that this is, if it passes muster. I think this is going to be a real big win for the non owner occupied side of agency, Fannie, Mae, Freddie, Mac lending. Keith Weinhold 29:13 The conventional wisdom is, is that if you the borrower, get into financial trouble, you're more likely to walk away from your rental properties than you are your own home and neighbors, sort of like a good neighbor here sticking up for us and stating that, hey, us, the investors, we're actually highly credit worthy people. Caeli Ridge 29:29 Yeah, absolutely. So fingers crossed. Everybody say your prayers to the llpa and mortgage investor rates gods. Keith Weinhold 29:37 we'll be attentive to that. What other sorts of changes do we have with the administration? For example, I know that Trump and some others in the administration have talked about privatizing the GSEs, those government sponsored enterprises, Fannie, Mae, Freddie Mac and what kind of disruption that would create for the industry. Is it really any credence to that? Caeli Ridge 29:58 They've been talking about it for. For quite a while. I mean, as long as Trump has been kind of on the scene, that's been maybe a wish list for him. I don't see that happening over the next years. That is an absolute behemoth to unpack and make a reality. Speaking of Mark Calabria, he was really hot and heavy on the trails of doing that. So what this is, you guys so fatty Freddy, are in conservatorship that happened back post 08,09, and privatizing them and making them where it is not funded, or conservatorship within the United States government. Now it still has those guarantees against default. It's a very complicated, complex, nuanced dynamic of mortgage backed securities, but if we were to privatize them at some point now, am I saying that that's a bad thing? No, not necessarily, but I think it has to be very carefully executed, and because there are so many moving parts, I do not think that just one term of presidency is going to make that happen. If we do it, it's going to be years down the road from now. Is my crystal ball. I don't think we're going to see that anytime soon. Keith Weinhold 30:58 That's interesting to know. Are there any other industry changes that are important, especially for investors, whether that has to do with the change in administration or anything else? Caeli Ridge 31:08 Well, specific to that wish list from Mr. Neighbors, one of the other things that he had asked, and there were quite a few, for owner occupied changes as well, he wants to reduce the seasoning for cash out refinances of investment properties, which would be huge good. Yeah, right now it's 12 months on a cash out refinance given very specific acquisition details. Okay, I won't go down that rabbit hole, but currently, if you haven't met exactly these certain benchmarks, you may have to wait 12 months to pull cash out of a property from the day that you acquire it, he's asking that that be pulled back to about six months, which would be nice Keith Weinhold 31:46 reducing the seasoning period from 12 months to six months, meaning that an investor a borrower, would only need to own that property for that shorter duration of time prior to performing a refinance. Caeli Ridge 31:58 Cash out refinance, no seasoning required on a rate and term. This is specific for cash out. But again, for cash out, but exactly right Keith Weinhold 32:04 now, one trend that I think about sometimes, especially when I think back to 2008 2009 days since I was an investor through that time, is, are there any signs in the reduction of the appetite or the propensity to lend, to make loans. So how freely is credit flowing? Caeli Ridge 32:25 I think pretty freely. I'm not seeing that they're tightening the purse strings. That's not the lens that I'm looking at it from, and I try to keep that brush stroke broad. There have been, I think that on the post, close side, there's been a little extra from Fannie Freddie, and I think that has to do with profitability markers. But overall, I'm not seeing that products are disappearing necessarily, or that guidelines are really becoming even more cumbersome. If anything, I would say it's maybe the reverse of that, and I do believe that probably is part and parcel to this administration and the real estate background that comes with it. Keith Weinhold 32:59 One other thing I pay attention to, but it just really hasn't been much of a story lately. Are delinquencies in foreclosures. It seems like they've ticked up a little bit, but they're still both really historically low and basically a delinquency being defined as when a borrower makes one late payment, and foreclosures being the more severe thing, typically a 120 days late or more. Any trends there? I'm not Caeli Ridge 33:24 seeing any now. And in fact, I would tell you that, because we focus so much on investor needs, first payment default is I can count on less than one hand, if I had to, how many times I've seen that happen with our clients over 25 years. So nothing noteworthy there for me. Keith Weinhold 33:40 Yes. I mean, today's borrowers are just flush with equity. Nationally, there's a loan to value ratio of 47% which is healthy, in a sense. On average, borrowers have a 53% equity position. Of course, the next thing, I think, is like, I don't really know if that's a smart strategy. They're not really getting that much leverage out there. But I think a lot of people just have the old mentality of get it paid off. Caeli Ridge 34:06 And I think that depending on where you are in your journey, I mean, if you're in phase three, right, where you're just really looking at these investments, these nest eggs to carry you into your retirement and or for legacy reasons, fine, but otherwise, I may argue the point in that I don't care that you have a 3% interest rate on an investment property, or whatever it may be, if it's sitting there idle and as long as it can cash flow, the true chances of those individuals of keeping that mortgage that they got in 2020, 2021, etc, at those ridiculously low interest rates and stroking 360 payments later to pay it to zero is a fraction of a percent right now, whether they're on the sidelines for something else, I don't know, but that debt, equity, I think, is hurting them more than a 3% interest rate is helping them. Keith Weinhold 34:52 And a lot of times, the mindset of someone is, if they don't need to build wealth anymore, and they're older and they already built wealth, they don't care if they're loaned to value. Was down to zero, and they have it paid off, whereas someone that's in the wealth building phase probably wants to get more leverage. Yeah, Chaley at risk lending group, there you see so many applications come in, and especially since you're an investor centric lender, I like to ask you what trends you're seeing. What are people buying? What are people doing? Are they refinancing? Are they paying loans off? Are they trying to take out more credit? Are there any overall trends with investors that you see in there Caeli Ridge 35:29 right now? I think the all in one is a clear winner there. The all in one, that first lien, HELOC, that you and I talked about, we broke my little corner of the internet with that one, that one is a front runner for sure, on the refinance side, specifically, we are seeing quite a bit more on the refi side of things, that equity is kind of just sitting there. So even though, if the on one isn't a good fit for them, I'm seeing investors that are willing to tap into that equity instead of just sitting around and waiting for them to potentially lose some equity if the housing market does start to take some decline. And then I would say, on the purchase transaction side, something that's kind of piqued my interest is the pad split. I'm looking at that more often where, for those that are not familiar, you can probably speak more to this, Keith, they're buying single family resident properties, even two to four unit properties, and a per bedroom basis, turning those into rental properties. And they're looking to be quite profitable. So I've got my eyes on that too. Keith Weinhold 36:23 before we ask how we can learn more about you and what you do in there at Ridge Kayle. Is there any last thing that you'd like to share? Maybe a question I did not think about asking you, but should have. Caeli Ridge 36:35 I would like to share with your listeners that if they are not working with a lender that focuses on their education and has that diversity of loan product that we have, that they're probably in the wrong support group. You need to be working with a lender that has a nationwide footprint and that has diversity of loan product to cover whatever methodology of real estate investing that you're looking for, and really puts a fine touch on the education of your qualifications and your goals as they relate to underwriters guidelines Keith Weinhold 37:10 what we're talking about, and I know this through my own experience in dealing with Ridge, since I use them for my own loans myself, is sometimes Ridge might inform You that, hey, you can go and do this and make this deal now, but that's going to mess up this bigger thing 12 months down the road, whereas if you talk with an everyday sort of owner occupant mortgage company, oh, they're just not going to talk like that, because owner occupants, they might only buy every seven years, or something like that. And investors are different, and you need to have that foresight and look ahead. Caeli, this has been great, a really informative conversation about the pulse of the market. Tell us what products that you offer in there. Caeli Ridge 37:50 Our menu is very, very diverse. I would say what. It's probably easier to describe what we don't offer. We do not have bear lot loans or land loans. We're not offering those right now. We do not have second lien HELOCs currently. We suspended that two years ago. But otherwise, guys, we're going to have everything that you're going to need. So just very quickly, I'll rattle off Fannie Freddie, okay, those golden tickets that we talk about, we've got DSCR loans, bank statement loans, asset depletion loans, ground up construction, short term bridge loans for fix and flip or fix and hold. We have our All In One that's my favorite first lien. HELOC, we have commercial loan products for commercial property and residential on a cross collateralization basis. So very, very robust in the loan product space. Keith Weinhold 38:33 Caeli Ridge, it's been valuable as always. And then Ridge lending group.com, or your phone number Caeli Ridge 38:39 855-747-4343, 855-74-RIDGE, , and then to reach us an email, if that's your better mechanism to contact us info@ridgelendinggroup.com Keith Weinhold 38:50 that's been valuable as always. Thanks so much for coming back onto the show. Caeli Ridge 38:53 Appreciate it. Keith, Keith Weinhold 39:00 Yeah, terrific information from Chaley. As always, if you're enamored of borrowing tax free, like a billionaire, against your real estate, they sure can help you out with that and determine whether that's right. It doesn't mean that you always should, but if you have investment ideas for debt equity, and you're attentive to cash flows, run the numbers with them and see if it's worthwhile. As far as new purchases, we all know that soured affordability has made it especially tough for first time homebuyers, and there's more data out there that shows that tenant durations are historically long, longer than they usually are. Tenants are staying in places longer because they have to. Investor purchases have stayed strong, though investors have been buying about the same proportion of single family homes and making them rentals that they have historically and Redfin tells us that. The value of properties that investors have purchased is up more than 6% year over year, so investors are still buying and that makes sense. We're in this era where there's more uncertainty than usual, there's higher stock volatility than usual, and more people are sort of asking themselves, where would I get a better return than on income property, and where would my return be more stable today than in income property as well? If you work with Ridge lending group for a time, you're probably going to understand why I personally use them for my own loans. You'll notice that they really understand what investors need. Thanks to Caeli Ridge today and thank you for being here too. But as always, you weren't here for me. You were here for you until next week. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream. Speaker 3 40:56 Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively. Keith Weinhold 41:20 You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info, oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access, and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers. It's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters. And I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text. GRE to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text GRE to 66866 The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, get rich education.com.
Send us a textAlaska State House Representative for South Anchorage, Girdwood & Whittier Ky Holland was born and raised in Anchorage. He is the eldest son of Federal Judge Russ Holland who was the judge in the case against Exxon after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill. Ky left Alaska for college in Oregon and stayed away for over a decade. Returning in the late 90s, he continued his work as a mechanical engineer, but expanded into academia and eventually into entrepreneurship. Lack of state investment in the private sector has motivated his legislation during his freshman session in Juneau. But it was a fear that we wouldn't properly fund our schools that led him to run for office for the first time in 2024. We talk about all of that and the case against ten American Samoans in Whittier who have been charged with voter misconduct.
The Dashboard Diaries #1: Greenville, SC May 19, 2025 Alaska feels a bit removed from the rest of the United States because it is separated from the contiguous 48 states by a minimum of 500 mile. Anchorage is even further away. That distance can leave residents not only distinct and different, but often detached. It can be hard for Alaskans to feel connected to the rest of the country. I recently went on a nearly coast to coast drive with my daughter and her family as they moved from South Carolina to Washington State. As we drove 500-mile days for a week a few connections between places on our drive and my home city of Anchorage emerged. During this four-part mini-series we will connect with Anchorage's soul through her history, stories, and people by connecting to four places along the road from our drive across this vast land of ours. Welcome to the Dashboard Diaries a special four-part mini-series brought to you by the AnchorED City Podcast. On this episode we consider a surprising connection between Greenville, SC and Anchorage. https://greaterfriendshipbaptist.org https://www.facebook.com/TheShipAnchorageAK# #anchoredcity https://anchorageutc.org https://www.facebook.com/AnchorageUTC @AnchorageUTC Theme Music by Tech Oasis from Pixabay Resources Used To Make This Episode: Southern Baptist Convention Founded - Timeline Event https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/history/timelines/entry?etype=1&eid=18 Basil Manly https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/basil-manly/ Founding: 1859-1878 https://www.sbts.edu/history/1859-1878/ https://archives.sbts.edu/sbts-history/our-story/founding-1859-1878/ The story of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/life/2016/06/29/greenvilles-seminary/86511098/ Jones, R.P., 2021. White too long: The legacy of white supremacy in American Christianity. Simon and Schuster. Pages 35, 57, 58 & 60. Reamer, David., 2019. Greater Friendship Baptist Church: A History. https://works.hcommons.org/records/9hmn2-t2t94 How Greater Friendship Baptist Church in Anchorage made its mark in Alaska and civil rights history https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/06/07/how-greater-friendship-baptist-church-in-anchorage-made-its-mark-in-alaska-and-civil-rights-history/
Jamar Hill is a coach now, but before that, he was a pro baseball player in the Mets organization. He grew up in Anchorage, where playing baseball wasn't always easy: limited facilities, long winters and not much opportunity to play year-round. He says that in Alaska, you get about a quarter of the playing time compared to other places. But in a way, that made him love the game even more. As a kid, he followed the Alaska Baseball League, one of the best summer leagues in the country. It brought in top talent every year — future first-round draft picks — and watching those games gave him an early sense of how the baseball world worked. By the time he was 16, most of the teams he played on included at least one future Major League player. And by the end of high school, he was drafted by the Mets. He became one of their top power prospects — a lefty bat who hit right-handed pitching especially well. He went on to hit over 100 professional home runs. But beyond the stats, it was his early exposure to high-level talent, and his ability to adapt, that shaped his perspective. That perspective is still with him today — as a coach, a mentor and someone who's all about creating opportunities for the next generation. Today, Jamar is focused on giving back to the community that raised him. As a youth coach and founder of RBI Alaska, he's spent the last 10 years helping young athletes grow — as players and as people. He's currently leading the development of the Mountain View Field House, a year-round indoor training facility that will give local kids access to the kind of resources he didn't have growing up. For him, coaching isn't just about skill development, it's about building character, creating opportunity and showing kids that their environment doesn't have to limit their ambition. He mentors with intention, using his own experiences in professional baseball to help young players navigate the mental, emotional and physical sides of the game. Through that work, he's helping shape confident, resilient athletes who are prepared for whatever comes next, on the field or off.
Austin Knight thought he had life by the horns, until he was fired, and dumped by his girlfriend, on the same day. Facing the task of starting over, he had two routes to choose from—the ease and stability of a corporate job, or joining the U.S. military as a paratrooper. He chose the harder route, and wouldn't change it for the world. A part of the Arctic Angels, the United States' only Arctic Paratrooper unit, Austin shares his aggressive story from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Watch the full podcast on YouTube here.