Big List of Free Consumer Data Reports 2024: Check Your Credit, Banking, Rental History, Insurance, and Employment Data

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magUpdated for 2024. Since these are available every 12 months, it is a good idea to check these near or around the same time each year. A lot of companies make their money by collecting and selling data – your personal data. It can be critical to know what they are telling prospective lenders, landlords, even employers about you. Under the FCRA and/or FACT Act, many consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) are now legally required to send you a free copy of your report every 12 months, as well as provide a way to dispute incorrect information.

Some have an online request form, but some are purposefully making it harder to check your reports by removing the online option. Don’t be afraid to call them if needed. You probably won’t want to bother checking all of them anyhow, but if you’ve experienced any sort of rejection or adverse action in these areas the cause might be found inside one of these databases. Keep in mind that you may not have a file with all of these places. Requesting a copy of your own consumer reports does not hurt your credit score.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been doing a much better job maintaining their own comprehensive list of CRAs (PDF version) recently, so I am editing down this list to include direct links to the overall categories along with the larger and more widely-used consumer reporting agencies.

Credit-Related

Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The three major credit bureaus track your credit accounts, payment history, and other related information like bankrupts and liens. Free online credit reports now available weekly (the frequency was increased from annual to weekly during the COVID pandemic, but that change has been made permanent).

(Note: As part of a class action settlement, you may also request up to six additional free copies of your Equifax credit report directly from myEquifax during any 12-month period through December 2026.)

You can also now freeze your credit reports for free, but you must contact each bureau separately. For the contact info, please see Big List of Ways To Protect Your Identity: Free Credit Monitoring, Free Credit Locks, and Free Credit Freezes

LexisNexis. One of the largest personal information databases that includes public records, real estate transaction and ownership data, lien, judgment, and bankruptcy records, professional license information, and historical addresses on file. Free copy, must mail in form.

CoreLogic Credco. One of the largest credit-related CRAs and often used by mortgage lenders, your CoreLogic Credco Consumer File can contain: previous homeownership and mortgage info, rental payment history, any reported delinquencies, and other debt obligations like child support. Free copy once every 12 months.

Banking-Related

Chexsystems. A consumer information database used by an estimated 80-90% of all banks to help determine the risk of opening new accounts. Think of it as the banks’ version of a credit bureau. If a person commits check fraud or overdraws their account, it will be listed here. In addition, the simple act of opening or closing a bank account may be recorded in their database. Having a negative ChexSystems record can leave you blacklisted from opening bank accounts at most major banks. Free copy once every 12 months. You can now request your report online.

Subprime-Related (Payday Lending)

Microbilt and subsidiary Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC). Microbilt is a provider of credit data for the “approximately 110 million underserved and underbanked consumers in the United States.” Free copy once every 12 months.

Rental History

Realpage (LeasingDesk) Consumer Report. Provides tenant screening through their LeasingDesk product, including “the industry’s largest rental payment history database.”

CoreLogic SafeRent. SafeRent provides both tenant and employment screening data, including information regarding landlord tenant and criminal public court records. One free report every 12 months.

Experian RentBureau Rental History Report. “Every 24 hours, Experian RentBureau receives updated rental payment history data from property owners/managers, electronic rent payment services and collection companies and makes that information available immediately to the multifamily industry through our resident screening partners.”

TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions. SmartMove provides tenant credit, eviction, and background checks.

  • MySmartMove.com FAQ page
  • SmartMove will disclose the contents of a criminal and/or credit report retained by SmartMove to an individual who requests a copy of their report. To verify your identity and obtain a copy of your report(s) or dispute any information within that report, please contact customer service at 866-775-0961.

Auto and Property Insurance

C.L.U.E. Personal Property Report. A division of LexisNexis, CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, which collects information that is used to calculate your insurance premiums. This report provides a seven year history of losses associated with an individual and his/her personal property. Includes date of loss, loss type, and amount paid along with general information such as policy number, claim number and insurance company name. This also means you can find out about previous claims on the house you are currently renting or recently bought, even if they weren’t made by you.

C.L.U.E. Auto Report. This report provides a seven year history of automobile insurance losses associated with an individual. Includes date of loss, loss type, and amount paid along with general information such as policy number, claim number and insurance company name.

A-PLUS Loss History Reports, subsidiary of Verisk. ISO stands for Insurance Services Office, A-PLUS stands for Automated Property Loss Underwriting System. Auto and property loss claim history.

Utilities

National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange. NCTUE tracks when people don’t pay their phone, cable, or utility bills. One free report every 12 months.

Retail

The Retail Equation. Tracks product return and exchange abuse at retail merchants.

Medical History

MIB (previously known as Medical Information Bureau). Run by 470 insurance companies with a “primary mission of detecting and deterring fraud that may occur in the course of obtaining life, health, disability income, critical illness, and long-term care insurance.” They record information of “underwriting significance” like medical conditions or hazardous activities. If you have not applied for individually underwritten life, health, or disability income insurance during the preceding seven year period, then you probably don’t have a record.

Milliman IntelliScript. Tracks your prescription drug purchase history. “Milliman IntelliScript will have prescription information about you only if you authorized the release of your medical records to an insurance company and that company requested that we gather a report on you.”

Employment History

The following companies all offer background screening services for employers. Most will not have any information about you unless you authorized a potential employer to run a background check on you (probably during the application process). Some will not provide you information unless there was adverse action. Otherwise, you can get one free copy every 12 months.

The Work Number (division of Equifax). They also keep historical income records.

Backgroundchecks.com

Checkr

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PeerStreet Bankruptcy News: 95% of Uninvested Cash Released (Updated October 2023)

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Update October 2023: Peerstreet e-mailed creditors on 10/18/23 that you can get 95% of your “investable cash” back by logging into your account and manually requesting a withdrawal. It will not be done automatically, so be sure to make that request! I successfully received my funds on 10/24/23, about $100 in interest that I didn’t sweep out before their sudden bankruptcy.

On October 17, 2023, the bankruptcy court approved PeerStreet’s motion to allow retail investors to withdraw 95% of their Investable Cash balance held in PeerStreet’s retail customer “FBO” (for the benefit of) account (the “Retail Customer FBO Account”).

[…] The order provides for a three-day grace period for PeerStreet to re-enable the platform to permit the withdrawal of these funds. Starting on Friday, October 20, 2023, PeerStreet investors can log on to their PeerStreet account at peerstreet.com and withdraw 95% of the amount attributable to that investor (“Withdrawable Cash”). The withdrawals will be processed via ACH and investors should receive their funds into their bank accounts within 3-5 business days after their request.

This Business Insider article (paywall) covered the bankruptcy and also included some interesting information. It pointed out how having Michael Burry as an early investor helped their profile, and Andreessen Horowitz was also an investor with their funding totaling over $120 million! Michael Burry is also a creditor to the tune of $600,000:

Burry declined to comment for our story, but bankruptcy filings show that he, too, has a lot to lose. In addition to his investment in the company, he was a user of the site with over $600,000 in investments and about $9,000 in cash in his PeerStreet account.

The article also speculates that Peerstreet was partially a victim of its own success:

According to Ippolito, it’s a common story: A crowdfunding company grows in popularity to the point where deals are fully funded in 30 minutes or less, prompting it to increase the number of deals on the platform. Skyrocketing demand for deals comes with “a temptation to reduce the underwriting,” he said.

Unfortunately, other than this, I haven’t learned any new actionable information from browsing Reddit and other internet forums, other than the process is still moving forward. There is a contingent pushing for the outstanding loans to be transferred to a third-party servicer and have them “run out”.

Original post:

PeerStreet, a startup that tried to scale up real-estate backed “hard money loans” and was open to “accredited investors”, abruptly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late June 2023. If you log into your investor account, you’ll see the following notice:

Peer Street, Inc. and its affiliated companies (“PeerStreet”) filed for protection under chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Monday, June 26, 2023.

Are we creditors? I would point out that there are multiple “investors/customers” in this situation. There are the investors and owners of the company itself, which include big VC names like Andreessen Horowitz, World Innovation Lab, Colchis Capital, and Michael Burry. Then there are vendors and suppliers where PeerStreet owes them money, their employees who are owed paychecks, and finally us customers of PeerStreet that purchased interests in their securitized loans.

This HousingWire article provides some additional context. An interesting paragraph:

According to the court filings, PeerStreet has an estimated 100-199 creditors, and its assets and liabilities are between $50 million and $100 million. However, as of Monday, the group had $4.4 million in cash – in addition to $18.5 million in its mortgage business.

These low numbers may suggest that PeerStreet note-holders are not considered “creditors”, and the notes that we hold are not considered their assets? I’m pretty sure they have way more than 200 accountholders and have originated over a billion dollars of notes since inception. Ideally, the notes that we hold are separate securities, and PeerStreet is just the custodian.

Next steps? First, I would like to stress that I am not a lawyer, and all of the following is just a best guess on my part as a small-time Peerstreet customer who still has fractional ownership of outstanding loans and some uninvested funds. While I have put a decent amount of my “self-directed play money” into PeerStreet in the past, I am relatively fortunate in that currently I only have two outstanding loans with a $1,000 balance each, along with about $100 in interest payments that I did not withdraw in time. The money still in limbo is less than the $5,000+ in interest that I have already earned on the platform. I feel sympathetic to those with six-figure amounts still stuck at PeerStreet.

Critically, I don’t think this money will disappear, but it will take a long time to figure out. That’s really the main lesson of PeerStreet in general, honestly. The headache of illiquidity. Foreclosure proceedings can take forever. I doubt bankruptcy proceeding are much faster.

The borrowers on my loan are certainly benefiting from this fact. The notes are for a tri-plex and a four-plex in Brooklyn NY, and my suspicion is that they are happily collecting rent from their tenants while not paying a single penny toward the mortgage note. These notes matured in 2018 and 2021! The thing is, the property value has gone up, and will eventually still cover the loan balance. But in the meantime, awesome cashflow numbers for them! Not very ethical, but that’s another lesson as well. They have no incentive to hurry things up at all. Who knows when these loans would have been paid back even if PeerStreet stayed in business! As such, it took me a few weeks to get up the energy to read through all these boring bankruptcy documents.

Stretto is the “bankruptcy management solution provider” that is coordinating the process. Here is are pertinent quotes from the Stretto FAQ:

Does this mean Peer Street is going out of business?
While a Chapter 11 case is pending, the debtor may continue to operate its business and remain in possession of its property. Until a sale of its assets, Peer Street will preserve the value of all of its assets for the benefit of its stakeholders, including identifying additional assets that can be monetized. Peer Street’s continued operation after a sale of the business depends on the structure of the sale. While in chapter 11, Peer Street will continue to monitor and service its assets, and customers will continue to have the same access to the Peer Street platform to monitor their investments that they had prior to the Chapter 11 filing. However, withdrawals or returns on investments will be suspended absent further order from the Bankruptcy Court, which would include an order confirming a chapter 11 plan that provides the treatment for all claims against the Peer Street entities.

Have you secured financing during the Chapter 11 cases? How can you be sure you have the financial resources to complete the process successfully?
Peer Street has sufficient cash on hand and from anticipated collection to fund its day-to-day operations during the Chapter 11 process. To support ongoing operations, we have negotiated with our pre-petition secured lenders for the consensual use of cashflows from our business. This will help to ensure we are able to meet our go-forward commitments to employees and vendors.

[Customers] When will I get my investments/money back?
Any investments made through the Peer Street platform, including cash on deposit, funds invested with respect to the ownership of fractional interest in loans, and funds invested in Peer Street’s other investment opportunities, such as Pocket, Portfolio and/or Opportunity Fund, will only be returned pursuant to an appropriate order of the Bankruptcy Court, which may include an order confirming a chapter 11 plan. Peer Street hopes to pursue confirmation of a chapter 11 plan expeditiously.

You will periodically receive notices from the Bankruptcy Court, including emails sent by Stretto, the Court approved noticing agent in the Chapter 11 Cases. It is important that you review and take appropriate action in response to any notice you receive related to the Bankruptcy Cases.

Peer Street and its advisors cannot give you personal legal advice so you may want to consult your own
counsel.

Do I need to file a proof of claim in the bankruptcy to withdraw my investments?
Yes. If you believe you have a claim against Peer Street, please follow the instructions for filing a proof of claim.

Now, you may recall that PeerStreet told us that they would put the loans in a “bankruptcy-remote vehicle”. So we’re good, right?

What investor protections does PeerStreet have in place?
Investments in loans are held in a bankruptcy-remote entity that is separate from our primary corporate entity. In the unlikely event PeerStreet no longer remains in business, a third-party “special member” will step in to manage pending loan investments and ensure that investors continue to receive interest and principal payments. Additionally, from the time funds are received in an investor account until an investment closes (but not while funds are invested), investor funds are held in an Investors Trust Account with Wells Fargo and FDIC insurance of up to $250,000.

Well, the problem is the part where is says “In the unlikely event PeerStreet no longer remains in business”. Technically, PeerStreet is still in business. Therefore, Peerstreet and the lawyers still have control over the loans and any cash payments. These loans are still backed by real-estate, and real-estate prices have still risen significantly in general over the past few years, so I am still hopeful that most of the money will still be returned.

In the meantime, do we file a claim? My take is that it should not hurt to file a claim, and at least do so before any deadline occurs. Here is the link to file a claim. I don’t see any deadline at this time.

I decided to file a claim electronically to the best of my ability now (mostly so I don’t forget about this entire thing). Again, not a lawyer and I’m not going to hire one for this small amount. I downloaded and saved all of the promissory notes and background information for each of my outstanding loans from the PeerStreet website, and attached them to the claim form as supporting documentation. The debtor for my notes was Peer Street Funding, LLC, EIN 47-1789485 (may not be the same as yours).

There is a newly-formed subreddit called r/Peerstreet_Creditors and Bogleheads thread that may offer more useful information (but know that it may be speculative as well). Please let me know if you know of any other active discussion forums on the topic.

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Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing: Is Due Diligence by Individual Investors Even Possible?

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A surprising takeaway from peer-to-peer lending through Prosper and LendingClub was that the borrowers who most strongly promised to pay you back (e.g. “I promise I will pay you back, so help me God, thank you so much”) turned out to also be the most likely to default. If you extend that to crowdsourced real estate investing, this is probably the analogous statement:

“We exclusively work with leading sponsors on commercial real estate offerings that meet our strict marketplace requirements.”

Reading this WSJ article Missing Millions and a Rabbinical Arbitrator: Real-Estate Deal Gone Bad Hits Popular Crowd Funder (gift article, should bypass paywall) about CrowdStreet, you get more of a peek behind the curtain. The strange title? Apparently one of their sour deals has resulted in $63 million of “missing” investor funds while also stipulating that any disputes be settled by a rabbinical court rather than the US legal system. Now that’s a new thing to look for in the fine print.

There is much more information in the full article, but here are a few quotes on Crowdstreet returns:

The Journal analyzed data on expected and realized returns of 104 completed deals from the sale of property or investor redemptions, which the company posted from 2013 to August 2022.

The Journal analysis found that more than half of those investments promoted on CrowdStreet’s platform failed to meet their target returns. Hundreds of CrowdStreet users lost some $34 million on 19 deals that underperformed as of this July, according to the Journal’s analysis. A dozen of those deals lost nearly 100% of investor funds.

CrowdStreet also hosted successful deals. More than 20 deals outperformed projected return rates by at least 10 percentage points. Hundreds of others are still outstanding. It often takes at least three years before investors can realize a return on their investments.

Some of the deals did well, some did awful. You can see their completed deals here. Many of their complete losses were hotel-related (“The 100% loss shown simply represents absolute total loss of capital incurred by investors”, ouch). Houston Red Lion Hotel. Cloverleaf Suites Overland Park. Intellistay Courtyard Tulsa. Four Points Sheraton Little Rock, Arkansas. That sounds like some poor deal structuring if your downside is so extreme.

The stated aim of all these real estate start-ups is to make commercial real estate investing more accessible to individual investors. Unfortunately, in my opinion it has been shown that individual investors simply aren’t given enough information to judge whether the deals are good or not. I would look up property addresses, learn about neighborhoods, try to look up the history of the borrowing groups, read through the comparables, appraisals, and contracts, but in the end, you are trusting the platform to perform most of the due diligence. There are no audited financial reports for me to read. There are no ratings agencies. How can one tell the difference between skill and luck? I have managed positive overall returns with my specific investments with PeerStreet, RealtyShares, Fundrise, Patch of Land, and others, but I had the most faith in PeerStreet’s model and they are likely to end up my worst performer.

The problem is the platform is strongly incentivized to do what is necessarily to maintain a high rate of deal flow and transactions, so they can make fees. When you are “exclusive” and “strict”, you don’t get deal flow now that the boom times have ended. Once the deal flow stops, they are dead in the water. This adds pressure to allow marginal borrowers and questionable deal terms.

I’ve only put relatively small amounts of “play account” funds into these sites, but as I don’t feel I can properly judge the individual deals nor properly judge the deal brokers, it’s probably time for me to avoid this asset class altogether.

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Fundrise vs. Vanguard Real Estate ETF REIT Review 2023 (Final Update and Cashout!)

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Final update July 2023, with full cashout. It has now been nearly 6 years for my experiment comparing a Fundrise Real Estate portfolio and the Vanguard Real Estate ETF. In Fundrise, we have a start-up with “crowdfunding” beginnings that offers users a share of a concentrated basket of properties actively chosen from the private market. In Vanguard, we have a one of the largest real estate ETFs in the world – users own a tiny passive slice of ~165 public-traded REITs. I invested $1,000 into both in October 2017 and cashed out in July 2023, for a holding period of 5 years and 9 months.

fundrise_logo

Fundrise Starter Portfolio background. When I bought in, the Fundrise Starter Portfolio was a simple 50/50 mix of two eREITs: the Fundrise Income eREIT and the Fundrise Growth eREIT*. Since these are finite baskets of entire properties, over time they will close one fund and start another similar basket. What new investors are buying today will be different apartment complexes and office buildings than what I bought in 2017. Here were my holding as of the end of June 2023:

Each private eREIT works within recent crowdfunding legislation that allows all investors to own a basket of individual real estate properties (not just accredited investors with high net worth). The minimum deposit is now just $10. You must buy shares directly from Fundrise, and there are only limited quarterly liquidity windows as this is meant to be a long-term investment. There are also additional options available with higher investments:

Vanguard REIT ETF background. The Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) is the ETF share class of a $60+ billion index fund that invests in publicly-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). You can purchase it via any brokerage account. You have the liquidity of being to sell on any day the stock market is open. A single share currently costs about $100, but many brokers offer fractional dollar-based trades if you want. All shareholders are holding the same ratio of (tens of?) thousands of office buildings, hotels, storage centers, nursing homes, shopping centers, apartment complexes, timber REITs, mortgage REITs, and so on. Here is a recent breakdown:

Expenses. The Fundrise Starter Portfolio has an 0.85% annual asset management fee and a 0.15% annual investment advisory fee (1% “all-in” total). The Vanguard REIT ETF has an expense ratio of 0.12% on top, but each public REIT also has their own internal costs like employee salaries to manage their properties. In each case, investors are paying for real estate management, office space and salaries for those employees, etc. REITs may also use debt to increase their real estate exposure (leverage). Is the technology offered by Fundrise a more efficient way to invest in real estate?

Final performance numbers. Based on an initial $1,000 investment in October 2017 and immediately reinvestment of all dividends, here are the monthly balances of my Fundrise portfolio vs. the Vanguard REIT ETF.

Again, there are quarterly redemption windows, and I initiated my request for a full withdrawal May 26, 2023 in preparation for the end of the second quarter on June 30th. On July 4th, I was notified that my request was approved, and I received the funds into my bank account on July 7th.

While the balances have much closer at times, the final balance was $1,931 (12.2% annualized return) for Fundrise, compared to only $1,272 (4.3% annualized return) for the Vanguard REIT ETF. The final endpoint is probably the widest margin during the entire experiment.

Commentary. One issue with this comparison is that this chart uses two different types of NAVs (net asset values). Vanguard updates the NAV daily based on the combined agreement of millions of investors. Every trading day, there is a price where you can liquidate your VNQ shares. Meanwhile, Fundrise NAVs are only estimates as there is no daily market value available since they hold entire apartment complexes, office buildings, and so on (similar to your house, but with even fewer comps). Your liquidity from Fundrise is limited to quarterly windows that are not guaranteed. That is why I wanted to finish this experiment will a full cash-out, so we can at least somewhat test if the NAVs are realistic. I was honestly a bit skeptical that the Fundrise NAVs could keep going up while the VNQ NAVs were struggling, but they did cash me out at the NAVs they posted. I have to give them credit for that. In the end, perhaps Fundrise is closer to owning a basket of pieces of real apartment complexes and buildings, in that the rising interest rates really didn’t hurt residential housing prices so far either.

The potential drawbacks still remain. In a more stressful bear market, the liquidity is not guaranteed and neither is the NAV if you were forced to liquidate the entire thing as opposed to trading existing shares to new investors. I made my withdrawal request before the sudden PeerStreet bankruptcy filing, but Fundrise is also a young company without a long history of profitability. (Fundrise does benefit from earning ongoing management fees on the assets under management, while PeerStreet earned a cut of the loan proceeds. Without a steady stream of new loans, PeerStreet quickly stopped making as much money.)

Bottom line. I have finally concluded a nearly 6-year experiment (5 years was the initial goal) where I compared investing $1,000 each into real estate via Fundrise direct active investment and the passive REIT index ETF from Vanguard. Based on actual cash-out numbers, Fundrise final balance was $1,931 (12.2% annualized return), while the Vanguard REIT ETF final balance was $1,272 (4.3% annualized return).

You can learn more about all Fundrise Real Estate options here. Anyone can invest with Fundrise; you don’t need to be an accredited investor.

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Homebuying Struggles: Low Inventory, High Prices, Highest Ever Mortgage Payments

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I definitely feel for prospective homebuyers in the current market. My parents are one of them, looking for a place in retirement. According to Redfin and Mortgage News Daily, we currently have low inventory (partially due to people with sub-6% mortgages), sticky high prices (both asking and actual sales), and the highest mortgage rates in a long time, all of which are combining to create the highest ever mortgage payment required to purchase the median-priced home.

It’s especially bad if you’ve been searching for a while, perhaps passing on certain purchases while things just keep getting more out of reach (even as you seemingly keep compromising on what you “need”). My parents have widened their geographic search area, lowered their size requirements, and of course raised their spending budget.

These charts have handy color-coded years, which only heightens the potential regret.

Here are 30-year fixed rates over the past 5 years.

I’m definitely surprised that the monthly payment has gone up roughly 15% in the last year alone – I don’t even want to calculate the change from 2020 or 2021…

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Home Ownership Affordability: Historical Factors and Charts

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The recent double-whammy of rising home prices and quickly rising interest rates has created a drop in home sales. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta created the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor (HOAM) Index, which tracks the ability of a median-income household to afford a median-priced home. The index uses median home price, median income, prevailing interest rate, median monthly principal and interest (P&I) payment, total median monthly payment (including P&I, taxes, insurance, and private mortgage insurance [PMI]), and annual total payment share of median income. “Affordability” is defined using the HUD threshold of total housing payment staying under 30% of income. It’s very interesting to track the changes and the factors behind those changes over the last 15+ years. Found via The Big Picture.

As you can see, we are back at the lowest level of home affordability since the 2007 housing bubble period. However, the Financial Times (paywall?) argues that since most existing homeowners have a low-interest, fixed-rate mortgage, there won’t be much forced selling or steep price drops in the near future.

The Atlanta Fed also points out several other home affordability tracking sites, including the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Their The State of the Nation’s Housing 2022 report points out that while the average monthly payment required has risen significantly, there is also a historically high amount of housing under construction (after a big slowdown after 2007).

I do believe that home affordability will eventually rebound, but there are several ways that could work out. More housing supply and/or reduced affordability could reduce prices, incomes could rise (or at least incomes could rise with inflation while housing prices stay flat), or interest rates could go back down due to a recession that calms inflationary pressures.

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Peerstreet Update 2022: Interest Rate Spreads, Secondary Market, Pocket 3.5% APY

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Another one of my Peerstreet loans was paid off recently, and I realized that it has been over a year since my last update on this experiment in real-estate debt. Here’s my current view on this unique investment.

Peerstreet in a nutshell. “Fractional investments meet hard money lending”. Real estate investors need money quickly to purchase a property, so they pay a higher interest rate for lighting-fast funding but usually only hold the debt for 12-36 months. This used to be for wealthy folks with lots of cash lying around, but Peerstreet lets SEC-accredited investors put in as little as $1,000 to fund a portion of any specific property. The loans are backed by a first lien on the real estate property.

My performance in a nutshell. Since 2016, I have funded 72 loans on 72 different properties with between $1,000 to $5,000 each. I have earned nearly $5,000 in interest at an overall IRR of 6.8% so far (verified with Excel). 67 of the loans have been paid off, 2 are current on their payments and mature in 2022, and 3 are in various stages of being late. Due to rising real estate prices, I am just being patient and letting Peerstreet handle the legal gymnastics.

Why I stopped investing in a nutshell. My 72 loans were all between 7% and 10% interest. The median was 7.50% and the average was closer to 8%. However, in the past year the rates have been more often in the 6.5% to 7% range. Traditional 30-year fixed mortgage rates are now close to 6%, and Peerstreet’s rates are a bit higher now but I am still choosing to sit out at these offered rates. I have been seeing loans taking longer to become fully funded so perhaps I’m not alone. Below are the two most recent loans available, just as an example:

Secondary marketplace. Peerstreet has added a new feature where selected people (usually larger institutions) can make offers on your existing loans prior to maturity, possibly offering you valuable liquidity. In my experience, I have only received a few lowball bids on my loans that are in foreclosure, on the order of 50 cents on the dollar. No thanks. It will be much more interesting if/when they open this up to everyone, so that you can have a more efficient marketplace for loans in default.

Peerstreet Pocket 3.5% APY. Peerstreet also rolled out an optional feature called Pocket that pays higher-than-online-bank rates on your short-term cash. They just raised the rate up to 3.5% APY. You can deposit daily, but only withdraw once a month (with two weeks notice). The funds are not FDIC-insured and are backed by the financial ability of Peerstreet (effectively this is lending money to a young start-up company).

Bottom line. I still like the idea of Peerstreet and have had an overall positive experience (you do need enough invested to maintain proper diversification across loans), but the interest rates currently being paid out just aren’t high enough to maintain my interest. I’m currently withdrawing my funds gradually as the loans get paid back over time and investing them elsewhere. 10% interest rates would get my attention back, though! 💰

If you are interested, you can sign up and browse investments at PeerStreet for free before depositing any funds or making any investments. You must qualify as an accredited investor (either via income or net worth) to invest. If you already invest with them, they now sync with Mint.com.

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Public REITs vs. Private Equity Real Estate Funds: A Performance Comparison

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There are many ways to access real estate as an asset class – publicly-traded REITs like Realty Income, diversified REIT ETFs, private funds that hold baskets of individual properties, and many new fintech varieties. This Institutional Investor article discusses a new research article comparing public REITs and closed-end private equity real estate (PERE) funds:

In a new study published in the Journal of Portfolio Management’s real estate issue, authors Thomas Arnold, David Ling, and Andy Naranjo found that, when compared side-by-side, real estate investment trusts outperformed U.S. closed-end private equity real estate, or PERE, funds by 165 basis points annually.

Here is another Nareit article about the study, where I noticed that the research was actually sponsored by Nareit. Here is a direct link to the study itself.

This other Institutional Investor article points out one of the “benefits” of private real estate funds – namely the fact that they don’t offer accurate daily pricing. You should also consider this a “benefit” of personal homeownership – when things are scary, houses simply don’t sell (instead of giving you a shockingly low price at that moment).

REITs, like any public security, are priced in real time. At the depth of the economic shutdown in March and early April, REIT investors imagined doomsday scenarios as commercial property and hotels sat empty and analysts forecasted that individuals would be unable to make rent payments for the foreseeable future. The price of REITs fell in line with that outlook.

In contrast, private real estate funds use other valuation methods, including appraisals — which depend on property transactions. Back in March and April, no real estate was changing hands to inform these valuations. As a result, the net asset values of private portfolios didn’t reflect the carnage.

Real estate continues to intrigue me, but I’ve always stopped short of directly investing in a rental property because I want to avoid any management responsibility (or even the responsibility hiring a good property manager). To me, rentals are best considered a potentially-lucrative part-time self-employed business opportunity, with the greater upside and downside involved. I also love that I can completely ignore my portfolio for months at a time, and the dividends and interest payments still keep coming in.

I’ve experimented with other options like PeerStreet, Fundrise and others, but the vast majority of my real estate investments are still in the low-cost index ETF VNQ (Vanguard Real Estate ETF). As long as you are good at ignoring the price drops during the scary times, it has been a solid long-term holding. Per Morningstar, here is the growth of $10,000 invested in VNQ since inception 25 years ago (with dividends reinvested!):

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John Paulson: Best Way For Average Person To Invest $100,000 Today?

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Bloomberg has an interview transcript with investor John Paulson, and it has the catchy headline Billionaire Paulson Who Shorted Subprime Calls Crypto ‘Worthless’ Bubble. He does say that, but the interview also includes some insights on many other topics like asymmetrical trades, gold, the highly-limited supply of crypto leading to high volatility, interest rates, and controlling how you spend your time.

If you are having trouble getting around the paywall, let me include this quote:

If somebody came to you and asked how they should invest $100,000, what would you tell them?

I always say the best investment for an average individual is to buy their own home. So if you take that $100,000, put 10% down, get a $900,000 mortgage, you can buy a home for a $1 million. It was just reported that home prices were up 20% in the last month. So if you bought a home for a $1 million with $100,000 down and the home was up 20%, that’s $200,000 on a $100,000 investment. The longer you wait, the more the house is going to appreciate and the greater return you’ll have on your equity investment. So I think the single best investment for anyone with that type of money would be to buy their own house or apartment.

Basically, mortgages offer cheap leverage on an asset that he believe will keep going up for a while. A person can take $50,000 and control a $500,000 asset. If it goes up 10%, you just made another $50,000 and doubled your initial $50,000.

Yes, we learned that leverage works both ways in the 2008 Financial Crisis, meaning that if that $500,000 drops by 10%, you just lost your $50,000 downpayment. That’s what Paulson is most well-known for – making $20 billion betting against subprime mortgages during that crisis. In fact, I recall Paulson saying something very similar back in 2014 or so, that housing prices are going to keep going up. Here is the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index chart from Calculated Risk:

With this interview, I guess he doesn’t see this trend ending soon. I’m not saying I necessarily agree with this answer, but it is an interesting one when you consider all of the possible options.

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House Downpayments and Low Interest Rates: Keep Your Eye on the Prize

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My neighbors put up their house for sale a couple weeks ago. A single open house, what felt like over 100 private showings, and in escrow within a week. So when I read this WSJ article Where to Stash Your Down Payment if You Didn’t Buy a House This Year, I felt their answer was too wishy-washy and complex. If you are looking for a house, as in – if the right one came up you would buy it – then keep your downpayment in 100% liquid and safe cash. Simple.

Keep your eye on the prize: The house + a 30-year fixed mortgage at 3%. Best quote from the WSJ article:

As Blair duQuesnay, a financial planner at Ritholtz Wealth Management, points out, there is another upside to waiting longer to buy: You can grow the original amount by ramping up your savings. “If they’re still earning, that could add to the down payment,” she said. “And the low interest rates we’re all complaining about? That’s how you’re going to get a low mortgage rate.

Exactly. Don’t complain about earning a low interest rate on your downpayment for perhaps 12 months. Be grateful that you’ll get a low fixed interest rate on your mortgage for the next three decades! A lot can happen in that timeframe, look at the past 50 years (via @lenkeifer):

Don’t forget that the American 30-year fixed mortgage with no prepayment penalty is an amazing product that would not exist if not for government intervention. It’s an awesome inflation hedge. If you don’t move (or even if you move but don’t sell), your mortgage payment is fixed for 30 years, no matter how high inflation gets. Mortgage rates are at historical lows, but even if rates do somehow go even lower, you simply refinance. You are covered either way!

According to this LendingTree study, the average downpayment across the nation’s 50 largest metros is is $46,283. The lowest is $28,000 in Oklahoma City, and the highest is $115,138 in San Jose. That’s roughly 10% of the average home prices in each area. FHA loans require a down payment of just 3.5%.

$50,000 is a lot of money (although many people drive around in cars worth more than that….) but your time horizon is very short when house shopping. Home buying is an emotional roller coaster in the best of times, and inventory is tight. There were over 30 offers on the house that we bought, and we couldn’t sleep until our offer was finally accepted. I’m not interested in the buy vs. rent debate, as there are too many personal and local variables for there to be a single answer. If I was in the market right now, I’d have all my ducks are in a row – mortgage pre-approval, downpayment documentation, income documentation, clean and orderly bank statements, and so on.

Long-term investments and short-term investments should be treated differently. For your house downpayment, don’t worry about the stock market going up another 10%. Don’t buy risky bonds chasing another 2%. Worry that messing around with your downpayment will somehow impair your ability to buy the home that you want. If earning zero interest bothers you, check out my best rates and earn 1% to 3% APY while keeping it 100% liquid and safe. Good luck!

Image credit: Imgflip

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Better Mortgage: $2,000/$6,000 Credit with American Express, $100 Best Rate Guarantee

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Better is an online mortgage lender that promises a fast pre-approval process, no application fees, origination fees, and faster closing. Right now, American Express cardholders have a special offer with a $2,000 statement credit (conforming) or $6,000 (jumbo) when you use their link. Thanks for reader Brad for the tip.

Get an American Express Statement credit after you refinance or finance your home purchase with Better Mortgage. $2,000 for conforming or $6,000 for jumbo mortgages. Lock your rate by 9/13/22 and close by 12/17/22 to qualify for the statement credit — for eligible Card Members only

Better also has a $100 Better Price Guarantee (not restricted to AmEx cardholders):

We’ll match any valid competitor’s offer, and credit you an extra $100. If we can’t, the $100 is yours to keep.

If you think another lender has a more competitive price, just send us their loan estimate within one business day from the date it was issued. We’ll either do better by at least $100, or send that $100 to you; you win either way.

There are various mortgage “closing credit” offers out there, but keep in mind that the most important thing is your total cost, a combination of total closing costs and ongoing monthly payment. The easiest way to compare is to go far enough to receive a Loan Estimate from a variety of sources. (You’ll also need a loan estimate for the Better rate guarantee.) Beyond the major comparison websites, you may still benefit from a local human broker or directly checking with credit unions including Pentagon Federal and Navy Federal (if eligible).

If you can get Better to match or beat the best rate/cost combination, then this $2,000/$6,000 would be gravy on top! Here are some customer reviews of Better.

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The Intriguing History of the 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage

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As part of a complete personal finance education, I submit that the longread article Financing the American Home by Marc Rubenstein should also be required reading. I learned a lot of important facts about the history and meaning behind the 30-year fixed-rate fully prepayable mortgage:

From the consumer’s perspective, it’s an amazing product. It’s a simple loan that offers stable repayments, kept low because they are spread out over such a long period of time. Its kicker is a free option to prepay, which shields the borrower from interest rate risk. If rates go up, borrowers can commend themselves on a great bargain; if they go down, stay calm—the loan can be refinanced without penalty. Win/win.

You’ll only find it in the United States (except for one small European country):

Yet, with the exception of Denmark, it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Even baseball exists in more countries.

Which leads to an interesting observation:

To many, the idea that the US, a beacon of the free market, should support its mortgage market so directly seems odd. The former Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, once remarked: “You Americans are so strange. Most countries have socialised healthcare and a private market in mortgages. You have socialised mortgages and a private market in healthcare.

The article goes on to explore how individual homeownership as a widespread goal has been widely accepted in the US for hundreds of years. Yet, every time the US government tries to shift the mortgage market back towards free-market capitalism, there are no takers. The 30-year fixed mortgage is a clear example of government subsidization (even though they try to obscure it). If the government were to exit the market today and remove their backstop guarantee, mortgage rates (and home values) would have to find a new market-based equilibrium. In other words: tighter lending standards, higher interest rates, and thus at least somewhat lower home values.

So we should be really happy that we have the 30-year fixed mortgage and never pay it off, right? Cheap, dependable leverage forever! I happen to also be reading the book How I Invest My Money by Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy, where “25 finance experts reveal how they save, spend, and invest”. I’m only about six interview in, but you know what every. single. person. has in common so far? They own their primary home, outright with no mortgage! So even with all of the potential financial benefits of low interest rates, tax deductions, and refinance optionality, they felt the psychological benefits outweighed all of that. Wow. These familiar names that I’ve read and linked to many times, including Joshua Brown, Morgan Housel, Christine Benz, and Bob Seawright (with more to add I’m sure) – they’ve all gotten “the letter” that we got when we paid off our mortgage:

So what’s the best move? Here’s my two cents. If you want to own a home and live in it for the foreseeable future, then buy one for both psychological and financial reasons. Use that nifty 30-year fixed mortgage, but don’t necessarily borrow the max that they’ll allow. Then roughly time the mortgage payoff with your retirement date. Love your awesome job and want to work until 65? Then take your time. Serious about early financial independence? Then refinance or prepay principal to shorten the term, and pay it off as part of one of your final retirement goals. I have to agree that a paid-off primary residence offers well-being benefits that are hard to put a price upon.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.