Earlier this year, Lin He made a $400,000 profit from a single home flip.

The 3,600-square-foot house in Malibu was in foreclosure and was listed for $1.39 million. He purchased it for $985,000 in 2017 without ever stepping foot inside.

“Boy, it was bad. It was a lot worse than I thought,” he said. The renovations took three months and cost him around $300,000, plus he incurred many other costs like taxes, staging and realtor commissions.

But it was worth it.

He listed the home for $1.97 million — exactly double the price he paid for it. He got a full-price offer within three weeks of listing it.

Home flipping increased to an 11-year high in 2017, according to data from ATTOM. That’s roughly 6% of all home and condo sales.

The rapid rise in home prices nationwide has made flipping more lucrative than it has been in recent years. The average gross return in the past three years was 50%, according to ATTOM. From 2004-2006, the average return on a flip was 31%.

Related: Even rising mortgage rates won’t stop homebuyers

House flipping surged in popularity following the Great Recession, when prices bottomed out and some investors saw a buying opportunity.

“At the bottom of market, you had professional investors well capitalized who were able to go in and scoop up deals with a lot of cash,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM.

He, who’d been working in real estate for years, became an investor around that time. Between 2008-2014, He bought more than 100 homes. Some he flipped, others he kept in his rental portfolio.

Many housing markets have seen prices return to pre-recession levels. Some have become so hot that prices increased by double digits.

The epic rise caused He to hit pause on flipping in 2015 and start to deleverage. He sold off a portion of his rental portfolio and focused more on his design-build construction business.

But when the Malibu home came up last year, it was too good of a deal to pass up.

Related: Are you ready to buy a home?

The ratio of flipped properties to sales nationwide was 6.2% for the first three months this year, according to CoreLogic, matching the post-crash high at the start of 2013.

Banks and other institutional investors were heavy in the flipping market at that time, but these days more individuals are getting in on the action.

“There are more of these bandwagon home flippers or novice home flippers jumping into the market because home prices are going up,” noted Blomquist.

But amateur flippers have their work cut out for them. The lack of inventory means prices are high and many are buying homes that need a lot of work, he added.

High home prices are a double-edged sword, and the temptation is just too great for a lot of flippers. They see prices continuing to go up they can continue to make money even though buying at high price,” said Blomquist.

But flipping isn’t as easy as it looks on TV.

“It’s not glamorous and it’s real work, dealing with gross properties,” said He. “It can have the potential to give you a good return on your money, but it’s not as easy as people think.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 5, 2018: 10:29 AM ET

Rolls-Royce has officially announced the name of its new large hatchback vehicle that will be designed to travel off-road as well as on pavement. It will be called the Cullinan.

But Rolls-Royce would prefer that you don’t call it an SUV.

Rolls-Royce refers to it, simply, as a high-sided car. The Cullinan is named after the largest flawless diamond ever found. Weighing nearly 1.5 pounds, the Cullinan diamond was uncovered in South Africa in 1905 and, today, is owned by Queen Elizabeth.

The Culllinan name is not entirely new for this vehicle, The Rolls-Royce SUV — because, really, that’s what it is — has been called “Project Cullinan” since shortly after its development was announced three years ago.

“It is the most fitting name for our extraordinary new product,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said in an announcement. “Cullinan is a motor car of such clarity of purpose, such flawless quality and preciousness, and such presence that it recalibrates the scale and possibility of true luxury.”

Rolls-Royce has been testing the Cullinan in various locations around the world, the automaker said, including African deserts, North American canyons and arctic snows.

The Cullinan is just one of many ultra-luxury SUVs that are either in development or already on the market. Bentley currently offers the Bentayga, while Lamborghini recently began production of the Urus, which it bill as the first “super SUV.” Lamborghini expects sell at least as many Uruses as it now sells of its sports car models combined.

SUVs, which now come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and types, are the fastest growing segment of the automotive market. In the United States, SUV sales surpassed traditional car sales years ago.

The Cullinan will share much of its engineering with the new Rolls-Royce Phantom full-size sedan. That vehicle was designed with a new “engineering architecture” created specifically for Rolls-Royce vehicles, distinct from other products made by parent company BMW. In the future, other new Rolls-Royces will also share that basic engineering design.

Rolls-Royce also released photos of the vehicle, covered in an elaborate black-and-white color scheme to somewhat obscure details of its design. It will be shown to the public, without camouflage, some time this year.

CNNMoney (New York) First published February 13, 2018: 4:54 PM ET

Housing markets out west are on fire.

Prices are rising, supply is tight and competition among buyers is fierce. That’s all good news for homeowners. Not so much for buyers.

Home prices have risen faster than wages in many cities, creating an affordability issues for buyers — especially first timers.

“Everything from the Rocky Mountain states and west from there are doing much better than the rest of the country and it’s been like that quite consistently,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.

Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco are leading the way with annual double-digit home price gains in March, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

Nationwide, price rose 6.5% during that period.

Seattle has now seen nearly six years of positive annual price gains, with 27 consecutive months of double-digit gains.

Related: It’s really tough to be a homebuyer in Seattle

During the peak years before the housing boom, it was the sunbelt states that were dominating home price appreciation, noted David Blitzer of S&P Dow Jones Indices.

“Following the technology collapse in the stock market in 2000, people saw owning a house as a great investment, better by far than the stock market. The Sunbelt had an attractive climate, available land and reasonable housing. Job growth was less of a factor,” he said.

But now it’s the rise of the tech sector that’s helping to drive the surge.

Strong economic growth and job creation are two main drivers of price increases. As good jobs bring new residents to a city, the strong demand for housing pushes prices up.

Many markets on the West Coast have the trifecta right now.

The tech boom has created strong talent pools, local economies are booming and there’s not enough housing to fill the demand.

Taxes could also play a factor in people moving west, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at Redfin.

Washington state doesn’t have an income tax, and Proposition 13 in California has reduced property tax rates on homeowners.

“The East Coast has some of the highest tax rates in the country,” she said. “Not just property, but also income taxes, and now with the new the tax changes, you can only deduct up to $10,000 on state and local taxes, so that’s a doubly whammy.”

Low inventory means homes are selling fast, with West Coast buyers facing the toughest conditions.

Denver buyers have to act the quickest: half of all homes were pending sale in just six days in April, according to Redfin. Homes in Seattle spend a median of seven days on the market. The number increases to nine days in San Jose, California, and Tacoma, Washington.

Related: How to save $9,000 on your mortgage

Rising home prices have been a boon to homeowners.

Nationwide, the average homeowner gained $16,300 in home equity from the first three months of 2017 to the same time this year, according to a recent report from CoreLogic.

Owners in the West saw the largest increases. California homeowners got a bump of $51,000 in home equity, on average. And in Washington the average increase was around $44,000.

When prices become too high they can push people to move to cities with more affordable housing.

High prices can also cause businesses to relocate or re-think plans to open shop.

“In places like San Jose and San Francisco, even a starter home can cost more than $1 million,” Yun said. “I am not sure they can attract high talent over time. You may begin to see the copy cat effect of other cities trying to replicate high tech sector areas.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 13, 2018: 12:05 PM ET

One of the most amazing things about the Bugatti Chiron, besides its $3 million price and top speed of 261 miles per hour, is how nicely it drives on streets where it can’t go nearly as fast.

But Bugatti just unveiled a new version at the Geneva Motor Show that’s engineered to do even better on the track. The Bugatti Chiron Sport has just as much power as the standard car — 1,500 horsepower via a 16-cylinder engine and four turbochargers. But, with tighter suspension and 40 pounds less weight, Bugatti says it’s significantly quicker in lapping a race track.

“The Chiron Sport has become perceptibly more nimble and its new agility, especially in tight corners, makes for a much more emotional experience for the driver on winding roads and handling circuits,” Bugatti president Stephan Winkelmann said in a statement.

Bugatti promises that the Chiron’s gentle on-road character remains largely intact even with the improved cornering ability.

The steering has been slightly modified in this version. The all-wheel-drive Bugatti Sport also has a new torque vectoring program that varies the amount of power sent to each wheel for better turning. In a tight corner, for instance, it might send more power to wheels on the outside of the curve to help push the car through the turn.

The Sport model shaves down its weight by using even more carbon fiber — the Chiron already uses an enormous amount of the lightweight, but very expensive, material. Even the Sport’s windshield wiper arms are made from carbon fiber. The wipers have also been redesigned to do away with the need for an articulated joint, saving weight and making them more aerodynamic.

The starting price is roughly $3.4 million for the Chiron Sport, or $400,000 more than the base Bugatti Chiron. Bugatti is part of the Volkswagen Group (VLKAY).

CNNMoney (Geneva, Switzerland) First published March 6, 2018: 3:41 AM ET

Renting in Manhattan is notoriously expensive. But lately it’s becoming just a little bit more affordable … a little.

Prices have been on a general decline this year as more apartments become available, and landlords continue to make concessions.

Rental prices declined for the first four months of the year, according to market reports by real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

In March, rental prices dropped 3% from a year earlier to $3,400.

Luxury apartments have seen the biggest price drops.

Rentals with three bedrooms or more have seen a nearly 6% annual drop in May, while rents on two-bedroom units are down 4.6%, the latest report found.

Last month, overall prices crept up 0.6%, partly because the summer ushers in a flood of new renters and there was a jump in bigger apartments hitting the market.

“End of September and October, when the last wave of students and transfers move in, probably the first thing we will see is incentives increasing and then from there, prices dropping,” said Nathan Tondow, managing broker at Zumper in New York City. “For any renters looking, if they look in August versus February, the same one-bedroom apartment is probably $200 more in summer.”

Related: Why West Coast home prices are surging

Concessions have been kicking into high gear this year — up 12.5% year over year and have been rising for three years, according to Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel.

Apartment listings are currently enticing tenants with incentives like two months of free rent, reduced security deposits and paid broker’s fees.

Landlords have also been more open to negotiations when it comes to keeping current tenants, according to Hal Gavzie, executive manager of leasing at Douglas Elliman.

“Landlords are being much more aggressive to keep current tenants renewing and they are negotiating those rents. Maybe a year ago they would have been increasing it by a certain amount, but now they are either keeping flat or reducing,” said Gavzie.

The main reason for the rent drops and rise in concessions is a flood of new inventory, giving renters more choice.

In the past three years, around 19,000 new units have hit the market in Manhattan, according to Nadia Balint, data analyst at Yardi Matrix.

Another 10,000 units are under construction and 27,000 more are in the planning stages.

That new inventory will continue to tilt the market to favor renters even more.

“An increase in new apartments waiting to be filled means renters are in the position to negotiate upfront price cuts. This has all the signs of a renter’s market,” said Balint.

While luxury rentals have seen the biggest discounts, that usually trickles down to other price levels as well.

Construction costs are high in New York City, so builders tend to focus on projects that will generate the biggest profit.

“If the top is the softest, it melts into the next layer,” said Miller. “All of the sudden, now you have an older rental competing for the same-size new apartment that also has a rock wall, a pool, and other amenities for the same price, so then those rents soften.”

Related: Home prices are on an epic run

New York isn’t the only city with a slowing rental market.

Other larger coastal cities, including Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC, saw rental prices flatline, according to Balint.

The national average rent increased 2% in May, the slowest season start since 2010, she added.

The top 25 fastest growing rental markets in the country were small cities, thanks to strong local job markets, economic growth and population migration. Rent prices in Detroit increased the most among the nation’s largest cities in May, followed by Las Vegas and Denver.

“Affordable migration has something to do with it, and when a company relocates to a lower taxed state or a more affordable market where land is cheaper, it brings in new jobs in certain markets, so if local economies are strong, the real estate market starts to grow as well,” said Balint.

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 20, 2018: 11:52 AM ET

The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is not expected to translate into an immediate boost for British tourism.

Industry experts say the nuptials will act as a powerful marketing tool to entice tourists in the years to come. But there won’t be more visitors during the wedding month of May.

“Don’t expect visitors from abroad to come for this royal wedding; it is a pageant for domestic consumption,” said Tom Jenkins, CEO of European tourism association ETOA.

The 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton did not result in a noticeable uptick in tourist arrivals or spending, according to the UK Office for National Statistics.

This wedding shouldn’t be any different.

“There was no discernible increase in bookings for the UK as a consequence of the royal wedding,” said Olivier Jager, CEO of the ForwardKeys, a travel research firm that monitors 17 million flight bookings a day.

Analysts expect that any spike in visits from royal fanatics will be counteracted by the desire of other tourists to stay far away from the hubbub.

Related: Royal wedding coverage from CNN

Still, the wedding could boost visitor numbers over the long run.

Deirdre Wells, head of the British travel association UKinbound, said coverage of the wedding is “the best free advertising we can wish for as a country and reminds people that they should come to the UK.”

Wells predicts visitors will feel compelled to book UK trips in the coming years after watching the wedding on TV.

“Meghan and Harry’s wedding will continue to keep the UK in focus, especially from a US perspective, which is likely to sustain the current [tourism] momentum,” said Alexander Göransson, an analyst at the market research firm Euromonitor.

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry invite public to wedding day

Visitor arrivals to the UK have been rising for years, with the country welcoming nearly 38 million people in 2017, according to Euromonitor. It’s the sixth most visited country in the world.

Tourism is worth £127 billion ($176 billion) annually to the UK economy, according to UKinbound.

Related: How much does a royal wedding cost?

The wedding will be held in Windsor, which is about 25 miles outside central London.

It could be tricky to get a hotel booking near the wedding venue. But travel agents said that getting a room anywhere else, especially in London, shouldn’t be a problem.

“It’s not going to have a huge impact on London [hotel] capacity,” said Wells.

US travel agents said they’ve had to reassure clients who previously booked travel in May that overcrowding won’t be a problem.

“[Clients have] asked me if I felt they should postpone and reschedule after the festivities as it might be ‘too busy’ in London. I emphatically told them no,” said Diane Bean, a travel agent based in Maine who runs the company Off On Vacation.

“I’ve found that prices are still stable for Great Britain as a whole,” she added.

Nancy Strong, CEO of Strong Travel Services in Texas, said she’s considering traveling to Windsor with her granddaughter for the wedding day. But she said that clients aren’t “clamoring” to visit.

“Am I going to go? Yes, I probably will,” she said. “When the English put on a party, they know how to do it and do it well.”

CNNMoney (London) First published March 13, 2018: 7:10 AM ET

The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, and that’s led some to worry that mortgage rates will spike and put an end to the housing boom in the United States.

Not so fast, according to the head of a big homebuilder.

Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Miami-based builder Lennar, said Tuesday that “concerns about rising interest rates and construction costs have been offset by low unemployment and increasing wages.”

He added that there is still a “short supply” of houses on the market after “years of underproduction of new homes.” And he said “demand remained strong” and “affordability remained consistent” thanks to rates that remain relatively low.

Miller made those remarks in Lennar’s earnings release Tuesday morning. The company reported revenue and profits that topped Wall Street’s forecasts.

Shares of Lennar (LEN) surged more than 7% on the news. Rival builders Pulte (PHM), DR Horton (DHI), Toll Brothers (TOL) and KB Home (KBH) all rose too.

Lennar’s results are an encouraging sign for the group, which has been hit hard this year on fears that higher interest rates will start to take a bite out of demand for new homes.

Builder stocks have been hit hard this year, with many of them — including Lennar — falling more than 20% in 2018.

Related: Why West Coast home prices are surging

But Lennar’s results and other recent data may be assuaging fears that the bottom is going to fall out of the housing market.

The federal government said Monday that new home sales in May were better than expected, citing particular strength in the southern part of the US.

That should be good news for the broader economy.

Lewis Alexander, chief US economist at Nomura, said in a report Tuesday that he was raising his GDP estimate for the second quarter, citing the stronger home sales figures and expectations of higher broker commissions.

And according to the closely watched S&P Case-Shiller index that was released Tuesday morning, home prices continued to rise across the country — with 17 of the 20 cities tracked in the index registering increases.

“Given the combination of strong demand and lean inventories, especially for existing homes, we expect home prices to continue appreciating at a modest pace for the remainder of the year,” said Barclays economist Pooja Sriram in a report Tuesday.

As long as the housing market remains stable, that should give consumers more confidence. To that end, the government reported strong retail sales figures for May earlier this month.

And it was led by healthy gains at home-improvement stores like Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW). These chains tend to do well when people are looking to sell their home.

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 26, 2018: 10:55 AM ET

When I drive a McLaren, I remember how I imagined the experience of driving a sports car when I was a child, long before I’d ever driven any car. I couldn’t know it at the time, but the car I imagined hadn’t been created yet.

I imagined the engine being loud but not terrifying; that turning the steering wheel would provide the sort of immediate response I got when turning the handlebars of my bicycle.

At the same time, it would not be raw or harsh. I imagined it to be like a highly civilized go-kart. The McLaren 720S is that idea perfected. It’s fast, precisely loud enough, precisely refined enough and it’s all wrapped in a space alien body that looks like no other car on Earth.

Press the gas, and the car’s turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine, capable of producing 710 horsepower, slams your head into back of seat. Sixty miles an hour can be reached in less than three seconds. Mash on the brake pedal and the wing in the back flips up to catch the air like a parachute while also grinding the back wheels into the pavement for greater stopping power.

The ride is firm — your rear-end is, after all, roughly dachshund-height off the ground — but not punishingly so. The transmission shifts are quick and smart but never jarring. (Like most supercars, McLarens have automatic transmissions with paddle shifters.) Steering responsiveness, suspension stiffness and engine behavior can all be set using knobs. That’s not a terribly novel idea but the ease with which it can be done using readily accessible knobs is. Press a button and the knobs are active, press it again and all the settings return instantly to the default mode.

Exotic supercars of 2017

The niftiest feature is the gauge cluster. It’s a computer screen or, rather, two of them. In normal driving mode, you see a big screen with all the driving information you could possibly need and a lot you probably don’t. Put it in Sport mode and, to minimize distractions, the screen flips down revealing a much narrower display along what had been its top edge. That narrow screen shows you just what you really need. The car’s speed down the road, the engine’s running speed and what gear the seven-speed transmission is in.

The experience is very similar in the less expensive McLaren 570S. By less expensive, I mean $190,000 versus $290,000. Less expensive does not mean inexpensive. That $100,000 saved means considerably less horsepower, albeit still a bunch by any normal standards. And the 570S is still very quick with a zero-to-sixty time, as measured by Car & Driver, of an even three seconds. And it still offers that unique McLaren experience which is to say, it’s about as sports car as any sports car has ever been.

CNNMoney (New York) First published April 23, 2018: 10:11 AM ET