March 2021 – REI INK

Alex Seehaver and Don Cameron

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Going From “Putting Your Toe in the Water” to National Recognition Being named the HomeVestors® National Franchise of the Year for the fifth time over the last ten years is no small feat. Yet that is exactly what happened to Donald Cameron and Alex Seehaver of Hi-Land Properties, an independently owned and operated HomeVestors franchise headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi-Land Properties is one of more than 1,100 independently owned and operated franchises in 176 markets nationwide. Since 2005, Hi-Land has purchased over 1,400 homes from local sellers. Donald Cameron bought his first of five franchises in 2005 after being introduced to Ken D’Angelo, the then owner and founder of HomeVestors of America. With a background in the construction industry, Don decided to “put his toe in the water” and begin to buy single-family properties. With a desire to grow the business, he chose HomeVestors because of their name recognition and the various tools they offered to their franchisees. Beginnings of the Dynamic Duo In 2008, Alex Seehaver joined Hi-Land Properties starting in the marketing side of the operation. As Alex describes it, “When I first joined Don, I did marketing, answered the phones, took out the trash…anything that had to be done for the good of the business.” Alex is now the Vice President of Hi-Land Properties. Alex’s background was in finance, but most importantly, Alex and Don both shared the entrepreneurial traits of hard work, integrity, discipline, and goal setting. Don credits his strict adherence to goal setting as a major factor in their rapid success. The team sets goals every year; they review the goals on a monthly and quarterly basis; and they also set quotas which are reviewed just as regularly. Combined with their absolute commitment to advertising and using the HomeVestors tools, they had a formula in place for expansion and success. Today, Hi-Land owns five franchises in Florida, covering the East Coast counties of Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Brevard, Volusia and Flagler as well as the West Coast counties of Collier, Lee and Charlotte. Seehaver serves as the Ad Council President for all of their East Coast territory. “This is not a job,” says Cameron. “I cannot even imagine retiring. This business has forced me to become more organized and focused. It also made me more compassionate and more empathetic with people who are less fortunate. When people are distraught over possibly losing their home, we pay them upfront, buy their house, and in some cases, afford sellers the opportunity to remain on the property post-closing if they desire a little more time to arrange for a move.” Present and Future Currently, Hi-Land Properties’ bread and butter is “fix and flip” because they have their own in-house general contracting firm to manage the renovations as well as their own real estate brokerage. Having these in-house capabilities allow them to take on more difficult properties that need complex work. They are also doing more wholesaling and are even buying properties with complex legal issues. They have found a niche in dealing with properties that have extensive code liens and also homes that have “fractional” ownerships such as when three people inherit a home, and not everyone wants to sell their share. Looking ahead to 2021, Alex and Don see several challenges facing the real estate market such as the ending of foreclosure moratoriums and forbearance programs as well as potential increases in interest rates. But they also see an opportunity to help more people. And while housing inventory is low, the “sell-side” of the industry is a lot easier. Their advice to new real estate investors: Start small. Be conservative. Follow the HomeVestors® system. HomeVestors What exactly does it mean to be a HomeVestors business owner? Owning a real estate business is life changing and naturally comes with risks! When you become a HomeVestors® business owner, you get immediate access to motivated seller leads, financing resources, one-on-one coaching with your local Development Agent, proprietary software for analyzing properties and deals, and access to a nationwide network of coaches and peers. Your house-buying business is yours and you run it as your own venture. If you are interested in a franchise, contact April Nealey at april.nealey@homevestors.com Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.

Leading the Way in the Leasing Lifestyle

by Carole VanSickle Ellis
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Invitation Homes Continues to Leverage the Shift in American Thinking on Housing by Carole VanSickle Ellis Invitation Homes has an 80,000-home inventory spread across 16 U.S. markets, has been classified as an “all-weather” asset by market analysts at Seeking Alpha, and serves the increasingly large population of Americans who define “living life on their own terms,” in part, as participating in a leasing lifestyle. The company is weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and associated investor fears about rent collections and changing residential leasing policies with aplomb and, yes, profitability. And yet, the first thing CEO Dallas Tanner mentions in his interview for this story is how excited he is about the new smart-home technology features the company is making available to residents. “It’s one of the many innovations Invitation Homes is making to improve the experience of its customers during a time when Americans are increasingly seeking a flexible, easy lifestyle through renting versus owning. We are offering a product that centers around security and wellbeing,” Tanner said. Then, without further delay, he dove right into the opportunities Invitation Homes offers the roughly 34 percent of the renting population in the United States that currently rents a single-family home. “The market for single-family rentals has always existed, but no one has ever done it really well at the scale we are striving for,” Tanner elaborated. “For us, the focus is always, ‘How can we do this better? How can we push the opportunities and limits of what has traditionally defined leasing to create a lifestyle that people genuinely want to choose?’” Working Hard to Understand the Consumer When you think of Invitation Homes, you probably think “Wall Street real estate”. After all, the company is a REIT (real estate investment trust) that first emerged on the scene in 2012 after Tanner’s first investment company joined forces with The Blackstone Group. In that first year alone, the company purchased more than a quarter of the properties it holds today. In 2017, the company went public in the second-largest initial public offering (IPO) of a REIT in history. Today, it is considered one of the best all-weather stocks in the real estate sector thanks to an innovative blend of intensely focused customer service, strong operational procedures, a top-notch portfolio, and a committed team of professionals. The success of this integrated approach is borne out in the company’s quarterly metrics; despite the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March of last year, by August Bloomberg TV reported Invitation Homes’ rental revenue was performing around historic norms. At a time when many of the nation’s landlords and tenants were scrambling to keep afloat, Invitation Homes residents were, in large part, staying ahead of the game. Tanner was pleased that demand for his product was stronger than ever and that his residents were able to pay their rents, of course, but he was more interested in the why and how. True to form for Invitation Homes executives, he did not let the opportunity to conduct more customer satisfaction surveys and transactional interviews go to waste. In fact, by the beginning of August, he was ready to report on his findings and take the next steps in continuing to improve residents’ “leasing lifestyle”. “We have begun surveying residents…to learn more about how the pandemic may be influencing things about their housing decisions,” he told Bloomberg at the time, noting that about a third of move-ins said they were leaving dense urban areas to move into Invitation Homes’ largely suburban territories, and another third said that COVID-19 had “increased their desire to live in a single-family home versus an apartment or town home”. Paul Mauk, vice president of portfolio development at the company, was a founding member of the COVID-19 task force that Invitation Homes put together to respond to the crisis and to help residents and associates navigate the constantly changing health environment that began in early 2020. “We are a very cross-functional group,” Mauk recalled. “Early on, we met every day to really focus on what our residents and associates needed from us during that difficult time, and we still regularly touch base now to make sure we’re adjusting as the pandemic continues. It has been rewarding to see how our management team is laser-focused on the safety and well-being of our residents and our associates.” Because Mauk’s primary role within the company is to continue to propel the customer experience forward, his experience on the COVID task force also directly correlates to what Invitation Homes refers to as “the leasing lifestyle”. Despite relatively small market share (the Invitation Homes portfolio of roughly 80,000 properties equates to about one half of one percent of all single-family rental homes nationally), the company is significantly larger than other companies in the industry. Tanner and his team believe this means that the customer experience should always scale upward, and Mauk is a key player in that process. “We are always discussing how we can provide additional services to our residents thanks to our scale and massive capabilities that otherwise might not be as accessible or as affordable to a consumer,” Mauk said. “Our daily process involves figuring out the best way to enhance the residential experience for our residents. One example is smart-home technology that provides security for the property and the tenant and gives the resident the ability to remotely control their home temperature, door locks, etc.” The company also plans to begin offering a video doorbell component soon, and, in 2020, rolled out an air-filter delivery program in which each enrolled resident receives an air filter delivered to their home every 90 days. “This program provides better air quality both in and outside the home, benefitting the environment,” Mauk said. Invitation Homes also is currently working on pest control and landscaping service packages. Mauk noted that during the past year, Invitation Homes has retained more than 80 percent of its existing residents, an indication that the amenities of the leasing lifestyle are proving attractive and,

Hybrid Valuation Tools Are Making Remote Appraisals Easier for the BTR Market

by Kade Clark
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Cost Effective Alternatives for the BTR Investor by Kade Clark Historically low interest rates and thin inventory of available homes to buy have pushed up home prices, creating a hurdle for Americans who want more space for working from home, remote learning, and maybe a treadmill to stay in shape. This combination of factors has attracted investors to the single-family rental market and forced some to create their own opportunities in the burgeoning build to rent (BTR) segment of the market. In the third quarter of 2020, construction started on roughly 14,000 rental houses, according to the National Association of Home Builders. That’s up 27% from the 11,000 homes built in the third quarter of the previous year. Accelerating BTR activity has put pressure on obtaining valuations at a time when social distancing requirements make in-person property inspections especially problematic. Fortunately, there are new and compliant alternative valuation tools that are making remote appraisals more efficient and reliable for the BTR market. Using Artificial Intelligence to Evaluate Value The Radian Real Estate Services Inc. suite of digital valuation services available from its Red Bell Real Estate, LLC subsidiary uses artificial intelligence to draw insights from nearly two billion real estate images to more accurately and quickly evaluate the value of residential real estate across the country. BTR investors typically shy away from ordering traditional appraisals due to the expense and turn time. The introduction of hybrid appraisals in the BTR space now fills that gap and provides other valuation alternatives that are cost effective. Through Red Bell, Radian offers interior and exterior Amplified Appraisal Reports (AAR) and Appraiser Reconciled Broker Price Opinions (ARBPO). The difference between the two is that the AAR includes a property inspection completed by a local real estate agent while the ARBPO begins with a Broker Price Opinion (BPO) completed by a local agent. An appraiser then reviews the information and determines the market value using Radian Interactive Value (RIV) which is integrated with the products. Radian’s subsidiary Red Bell is a member of more than 400 MLSs nationwide, most of which update their feeds every 15 minutes for close to real-time information. The RIV runs the subject property through a similarity index and provides the appraiser with 20 of the closest comparables in terms of property characteristics, distance, etc. for three categories of property—sold, listed and under contract—for a total of 60 comparable properties, if available. The appraiser has the ability to review all photos associated with the comps as well as their listing history and choose those that best align with the subject property. The appraiser can also expand or reduce the market area and enter specific filters in order to narrow the comparable selection. These hybrid appraisals are both Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) compliant and are completed by appraisers who are licensed and/or certified in the state of the subject property’s location. The turn time for hybrid appraisals is similar to that of a regular BPO—about five business days—and priced in line or just slightly above that of a BPO depending on the product. Unique Challenges with BTR Valuations In the BTR space, appraisers are well equipped to handle the valuation for properties that have yet to be built because their rigorous training allows them to identify comparable market alternatives that are similar in quality of construction, design, location and overallcharacteristics. They have the knowledge and ability to review builder floor plans, build-out amenities, and locational influences in order to select the most appropriate comparable sales. In some instances, the client is the sole development in a community and doesn’t market the properties for sale but instead creates a rental market within the community. As a result, identical development market transactions are not available. When that is the case, an appraiser completing the ARBPO and/or AAR can look to adjacent developments in the area for market data. They can locate and utilize sales with similar locational appeal, similar access to retail, commercial development, and recreational activities. Additionally, they can select sales that are comparable to the subject property in characteristic similarities. In most cases, they are able to bracket main features/amenities in a pair-sales analysis approach with positive/negative, and weigh consideration for differences that impact value. With large-scale BTR communities popping up across the country, the challenge for investors and appraisers is in accessing the enormous range of information necessary to make an accurate property valuation. This challenge is compounded by the public health crisis that makes in-person analysis difficult or impossible. Fortunately, the new digital valuation tools available now can streamline this process and make alternative appraisals accurate and cost effective even when done remotely.

Envelope Stuffer to CEO

by Carole VanSickle Ellis
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PIP Group’s Charles Sells’ Real Estate Journey by Carole VanSickle Ellis When Charles Sells, founder and CEO of Platinum Investment Properties (PIP) Group looks back on how he got started in real estate, he proudly admits he started at the very bottom of the ladder. “In my early 20s, I took a part-time job at a company investing in tax liens stuffing envelopes for $10 an hour,” he recalled. Today, nearly two decades later, tax liens and other creative investment strategies are the key to PIP Group’s consistent delivery of high-performance assets and reliable returns to hundreds of loyal real estate investor-clients. “At the start, I literally fell into the job with the tax-lien company as a side-gig to earn extra money when I wasn’t bartending,” Sells said. “I had always been interested in real estate. When I finally got the chance to be involved with it, I fell in love with it—permanently.” He quickly rose through the company, becoming a real estate manager before striking out on his own with just four clients and about $4,000 to his name. “I used every penny for legal agreements and other paperwork to form PIP Group,” he said. “Today, we have managed more than $180 million in tax liens, fund oversight roles, private loans, and fix-and-flips.” While he was falling in love with real estate, Sells also fell in love with his future wife, Lena. At the time, she was working for a competitor. Sells hired her away, “and then I fell in love,” he admitted. “She is the smartest person I ever met. She speaks four languages fluently [and] essentially runs the show now.” The two share two children, and Sells also has two sons from a previous marriage. The Right Pace for the Right Time Although Charles and Lena run PIP Group together today, Sells started out with another partner, Don Fullman. “I had the trust of my existing clients, but with most investors having a median age over 50, not many potential clients are willing to listen to a 26-year-old kid just getting started. So, I finally decided I needed a figurehead to be the face of the business—somebody older, more experienced with life to be the front man,” said Sells. Although Fullman retired from the company years ago, Sells never forgets one of his old partner’s favorite axioms. It has gotten the company through tough markets, competitive markets, and volatile ones by helping company’s leadership stay focused on what matters: getting good deals done for clients. “Don would say, ‘You’re trying to do too much, too fast,’” Sells said. “I was a young self-starter, and I wanted to do everything. I wanted to be in all the states, be invested in commercial and multifamily, you name it and I wanted to do it.” Fullman’s advice kept the new CEO focused when PIP Group had one of its biggest growth surges in the history of the company in 2009. “Business tripled nearly overnight. It probably would have killed a less-prepared company,” Sells said. Fortunately, PIP Group stayed focused on the end goal, going above and beyond for clients. “Whatever responsibility we have to our clients, we try to go about 10 steps further,” Sells explained. “We want to always do what is right, not just what is required.” In 2009, that meant leveling with clients about what the company could (and could not) do for them in one of the most opportunity-laden markets the country had seen in years. As the housing crash sent home prices spiraling downward, many of PIP Group’s clients were eager to dive into new markets and try out new acquisition strategies. “We were honest. We told them to avoid pie-in-the-sky dreams and provided reliable, trustworthy information about how we were investing and what kinds of returns we were seeing,” Sells said. The result was that the company experienced exponential growth and did not fall into the quagmire of customer-service meltdowns that plagued many investment firms during the early part of that decade. Of course, not every client was able to hold steady during the early 2010s. Thanks to these determined individuals who refused to look at hard data and preferred quicksilver action that sometimes failed to pay off, Sells also learned the importance of not just having hard data to support a purchase but also of being able to communicate that data to others and put his own skin (or Lena’s) in the game when necessary. “I have seen literally thousands of incredible opportunities slip by because an investor wants to ‘follow their gut’ rather than take advantage of our years of experience investing in real estate,” Sells said. “The biggest profits are nearly always going to be in the average-looking properties rather than the ones that look like ‘home runs.’ But you have to be able to communicate that or your client may get caught up in the excitement and completely disregard your experience and knowledge.” PIP Group communicates with investors about ongoing projects and potential deals using simple, straightforward methodology that helps clients measure risk and maintain realistic expectations. Sometimes, those expectations need to be tempered. Other times, both Sells may believe investor expectations are falling short of where they should be. Charles Sells recalled a time in 2019 when Lena elected to build a deck that had been quoted by a local professional as being a $20,000 job. Lena felt the timeframe (three weeks) and the cost were both too high. She was determined to prove her expectations for the budget and timeline of the project were closer than the contractor’s. Lena dug the postholes and laid the deck-boards in four days, proving the inefficiency of the service provider the client had planned on using. “PIP’s lead executives are not afraid to get their hands dirty and make sure the job is done right,” Sells explained proudly. Offering a Hand Up to Others Sells has come a long way from his beginnings with $4,000 for legal paperwork and $22,000 in

Alternative Strategies: Off-Market Properties are the Hidden Gems for Investors

by Rick Sharga
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Options Within the Single-Family Industry by Rick Sharga For those not interested in splurging on Bitcoin or fighting with hedge funds over GameStop shares, there are no shortage of alternative investment opportunities in real estate. Typical real estate transactions involve working with a real estate agent, finding a property listed for sale on the local multiple listing service (MLS), and competing with other investors and traditional homebuyers to purchase the property, either for the purpose of renting it or re-selling it at a profit. Often someone becomes an “accidental investor,” by buying a new home and deciding to rent out their current property; or buying a vacation property and renting it out to other vacationers when they’re not using it themselves. But for more experienced—or at least more adventurous investors, the hidden gems are often off-market properties, which are not listed on an MLS. Finding these properties requires more homework and using specialized resources; sometimes requires non-traditional financing; and these properties often take longer to transact on. But these off-market properties also provide the opportunity for greater financial return on investment (ROI). Virtually any type of real estate investor can benefit from off-market properties, which typically have fewer potential buyers competing to purchase the home (and bidding up the sale price). Lower sales prices are critically important for fix-and-flip investors, whose ROI depends on buying at the best price, minimizing repair costs and time, and selling at market pricing. Wholesale investors have ready buyers – both fix-and-flip and buy-and-hold investors – but are lacking inventory in today’s MLS market, so finding off-market properties is critical. And investors looking for rental properties have the same issues—too little inventory, and purchase prices that are too high. So where can investors find these hidden gems? Let’s take a look at a number of possibilities. Hidden Gems: The Distressed Property Ecosystem In spite of the foreclosure moratoria in place today from the Federal Government (along with some state and local government actions), there are still foreclosure properties available for investors to purchase. And when the moratoria and the CARES Act mortgage forbearance program have expired, it’s very likely that there will be a surge of defaults. Historically, many of these properties have been repossessed by the lenders (bank-owned, or REO properties), and subsequently listed by real estate agents for sale. That’s unlikely to happen in this cycle—there’s more demand than supply of homes for sale, and homeowners have a record amount of equity. Even with a significant increase in default activity, it’s likely that many of these properties will be sold before the foreclosure auction. If that scenario plays out, it means investors need to focus most of their efforts on properties in the earliest stages of foreclosure (the Lis Pendens filing in judicial foreclosure states and Notice of Default in non-judicial states). During this pre-foreclosure phase, the homeowner has a predetermined amount of time to try to cure their default; if they can’t do this, the property is scheduled to be auctioned off. But it’s during this period of time when investors need to reach out to these financially-distressed homeowners and attempt to negotiate a discounted purchase. Given the rapid price appreciation of homes today, a savvy investor should be able to work out a deal that pays off the debt to the lender, gives the homeowner cash to get a fresh start, and still represents a lower-than-market purchase price. Default notices are available in the public record and can be found in the County Recorder’s Office; published in legal journals and local newspapers; or found online in subscription sites like RealtyTrac. When reaching out to distressed homeowners, there may also be a chance to execute a short sale—a sale where the purchase price is below the amount owed on the mortgage. This generally only happens if the homeowner can prove financial hardship to the lender, and local market conditions suggest that the lender would be better off taking a lower amount on the sale than executing a sometimes-expensive foreclosure. Investors should consider the purchase price compared to the potential resale price of the home, or the potential cashflow generated as a rental property to determine whether or not a short sale makes sense. Foreclosure Auctions Not all properties will sell prior to the foreclosure auction. Some are vacant and abandoned, leaving no one to negotiate with. Other times homeowners may be in denial and wait too long to attempt to avoid a foreclosure. For whatever reason, foreclosure auctions also represent an opportunity to find off-market deals. Each state has slightly different rules regarding these auctions, but generally they’re live events, often held at the county courthouse or an adjacent facility, and executed by either the sheriff in judicial states, or a trustee in non-judicial states. The properties at these auctions must be purchased with cash or a cashier’s check (sometimes 100% on the day of the auction, sometimes 10-20% on the day of the auction with the remainder due in a few days or weeks). Many of these properties are marketed on online auction websites like these (in alphabetical order): Auction.com, Hubzu, RealtyBid, ServiceLink Auctions, Williams & Williams, and Xome. Investors should keep in mind that these auction properties often represent the highest ROI of all foreclosure properties, but also come with the most risk, since they’re sold as/is, without the benefit of an internal inspection. There are also sometimes tax or mechanics liens levied against the property, so it’s important to get a title report, and do whatever diligence is possible to mitigate the risk. Real Estate Owned Bank-owned homes (otherwise known as REO—real estate owned) probably will not be as plentiful this cycle as they were during the Great Recession for the reasons mentioned above, but are worth researching since they often offer relatively good ROI potential. Some of these properties are sold at deep discounts, but at various levels of disrepair, so inspections and accurate repair estimates are critically important. Check with local real estate agents to find

Home Price Increases in Opportunity Zone Redevelopment Areas Keeping Pace with Nationwide Gains

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Median Values Jump At Least 10 Percent in Almost Two-Thirds of Zones ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, released its fourth-quarter 2020 special report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs act of 2017. In this report, ATTOM looked at 3,588 zones around the United States with sufficient sales data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the fourth quarter of 2020. The report found that median home prices increased from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 in 77 percent of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data and rose by more than 10 percent in nearly two-thirds of them. Those percentages were roughly the same as in areas of the U.S. outside of Opportunity Zones. With prices remaining well below average in most Opportunity Zones, about 38 percent of the zones with enough data to analyze still had median prices of less than $150,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020. However, that was down from 46 percent a year earlier as prices inside some of the nation’s poorest communities rolled ahead with broader market, defying troubles flowing from the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic that slowed or idled significant sectors of the U.S. economy. The pandemic’s impact generally has hit hardest in lower-income communities that comprise most of the zones targeted for tax breaks designed to spur economic redevelopment. Housing markets inside Opportunity Zones continued to benefit from the nation’s nine-year price boom. Opportunity Zones are defined in the Tax Act legislation as census tracts in or alongside low-income neighborhoods that met various criteria for redevelopment in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Census tracts, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, cover areas with 1,200 to 8,000 residents, with an average of about 4,000 people. “The country’s long run of home-price increases continues to leave no part of the housing market untouched, boosting fortunes from the wealthiest to the poorest parts of the United States. The latest evidence is the fourth-quarter 2020 data showing prices going up in Opportunity Zone neighborhoods at around the same rate, and sometimes more, than in more well-off communities,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions. “No doubt, prices remain substantially lower in Opportunity Zones, but the fact that they often rose by double-digit percentages in Q4 is significant. Not only does it show market strength, but it also suggests that many distressed communities are ripe for the redevelopment that the Opportunity Zone tax breaks are designed to promote.” High-level findings from the report Median prices of single-family homes and condos rose from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 in 77 percent of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data to analyze and increased in 58 percent of the zones from the third to the fourth quarters of 2020. By comparison, median prices rose annually in 79 percent of census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones and quarterly in 58 percent of them. (Of the 3,588 Opportunity Zones included in the report, 3,183 had enough data to generate usable median prices in the fourth quarters of both 2019 and 2020; 3,179 had enough data to make comparisons between the third and fourth quarters of 2020). Measured year over year, median home prices rose more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 in 1,945 (61 percent) of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data to analyze. That price increase occurred in 56 percent of other census tracts throughout the country with sufficient data. A wider gap emerged when looking at areas where prices rose at least 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020. Measured year over year, median home prices rose by that level in 1,098 (34 percent) of Opportunity Zones and 24 percent of census tracts elsewhere in the country. States with the largest percentage of zones with median prices that rose, year over year, during the fourth quarter of 2020 included Utah (median prices up, year over year, in 89 percent of zones), Oregon (86 percent), Washington (85 percent), Arizona (85 percent) and Connecticut (84 percent). Of all 3,588 zones in the report, 1,356 (38 percent) had a median price in the fourth quarter of 2020 that was less than $150,000 and 598 (17 percent) had medians ranging from $150,000 to $199,999. The total percentage of zones with typical values below $200,000 was down from 64 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. Median values in the fourth quarter of 2020 ranged from $200,000 to $299,999 in 837 Opportunity Zones (23 percent) while they were at least $300,000 in 797 (22 percent). The Midwest continued to have the highest portion of Opportunity Zone tracts with a median home price of less than $150,000 (59 percent), followed by the South (49 percent), the Northeast (40 percent) and the West (6 percent). Median household incomes in 89 percent of Opportunity Zones were less than the medians in the counties where they were located. Median incomes were less than three-quarters of county level figures in 59 percent of zones and were less than half in 16 percent.