Rural Relocation Bonus, Massive Appreciation, Jobs Update
Instead of offering tax incentives to lure corporate headquarters, some rural cities are offering ‘relocation bonuses’ of up to $10,000 & a new bike to draw young professionals working remotely to their towns. Rates – improved slightly this week as Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) bounced up, breaking outside of the narrow December trading range. This […]
Location? Jobs, Rent, Appreciation
Housing Boom – suddenly the mantra location, location, location doesn’t seem as relevant when: many people are working remotely, most schools are going virtual, and everyone wants more space. Redfin site traffic is up 40% since the pandemic and pending sales are at historic highs. The traffic to listings that are in towns with populations […]
Fed Meeting, Jobless Claims, Remarkable 10-Year Change in Home Equity
Rates – moved back down to historic lows near after Fed meeting on Wednesday that rocked equity markets. Jobs – the number of people filing for unemployment for the first time continues to decline but remains at an alarming 7X pre-covid numbers and over 2X previous recession highs (600K). Fed – the Fed met on […]
Disney Shanghai, Jobs Report, Forbearance Numbers
Social Distancing – in China is extremely deliberate. To enter the Disneyland park you need to: wear a mask, pass a temperature check, & pass an individual QR code check which provides data on your recent travel and spits out an algorithmic score of your infection risk based on movement. Rates – increased nominally this […]
Back Open? Unemployment, Appreciation, Tepid Rates.
After 97% of the country implemented some type of ‘stay at home’ guidance in various states businesses began to reopen this week. The question of how to reopen safely and at what capacity is a fine line people will be negotiating. Rates – the price of Mortgage Backed Securities fluctuated nominally during the month of […]
FICO Algorithm Update, Rates Improve, New Homes Selling
FICO Scores – are about to change and 40,000 million Americans will see a 20+ point drop and a similar number will see a comparable increase. The FICO algorithm is updated roughly every 5 years and this time the update focuses on personal loans. Currently personal loans are growing faster than any other debt category […]
Female Labor Force, Soft Weekly Earnings, Fed Juice?
Women secured 95% of the net jobs added in December and for the second time in US history women make up over 50% of the workforce. This figure is for payroll jobs that excludes farm workers and self employed individuals. During the great recession men were handed ‘pink slips’ before women and there was a […]
Historic Bubbles, Rates Improve, Home Appreciation
Bubbles – NPR’s Planet Money is doing a series on bubbles & this one took place in Kuwait during the late 1970’s. A massive influx of oil money had recently changed the city from minimal infrastructure (no running water/minimal electricity) to a bustling metropolis. With a highly regulated market and stable political climate became a […]
Income Inequality, Jobs, Appreciation
Income Inequality – during the first 70 years of the 20th century the ‘top 1%’ share of income dropped below 10% of the total pie. Over the previous 50 years it has rocketed back up to 20%. Alarmingly, a similar trend is absent in Western Europe. Rather than focus on tax-code redistribution of wealth, Europe […]
Thanksgiving Price, Home Sales Strong, Rates Improve Marginally
Thanksgiving – NPR runs a story on the cost of Thanksgiving every year where they have volunteer shoppers from around the country survey and evaluate prices for the classic Thanksgiving meal for 10. The price came out to $48.91 which is up one single penny from last year. Turkey has come down 4% at $1.30 […]