Mars House, Mild Inflation, Strong Home Sales
Tired of getting beat out making offers on homes, why not purchase a digital one? This home is chalk full of features including gem-like furniture made from tempered glass & a roof embedded with MicroLEDs capable of displaying different colors or even landscapes – did I mention that the backyard view is in Mars? If […]
2021 = Recovery? Home Sales & Values on Fire
Three positive economic indicators in 2021:1.) People are spending money again – retail sales are up 5% and bar/restaurant sales are up 7%2.) The lives of more economically vulnerable people are improving – 5 million fewer people reported not having enough food to eat (unfortunately there are still 24M people short on food) and only […]
New Construction Demand, Home Sales on Fire
“We have been under producing for the past decade,” – Lawrence Yun, chief Economist of NAR hopes that an infastructure bill will bring high speed internet and public transportation to rural areas increasing the demand to build in places where it is cheaper and quicker to build housing. Rates – improved slightly this week as […]
Higher Priced Homes Selling, Builders Confident, Forbearance Update
Homes in the $100,000 to $250,000 range only saw a 4% gain in sales compared to a year ago, while sales of homes costing more than $1 million more than doubled. Lawrence Yun Rates – ticked up marginally this week maintaing the slight upward trend over the last quarter. They remain nearly 1% lower than […]
Pandemic Impact, Job Update, Home Sales Soar
In a survey by the Federal Reserve, a surprising 77% of people said they were doing ‘OK’ financially at the end of July which is a 2% increase year over year. Some of this sentiment coincides with timing of unemployment benefits. The restaurant sector is experiencing major pain but Americans are consuming 40% more pizza […]
Consumer Trends, Rates Inch Up, Home Sales on Fire
In addition to purchasing more groceries, consumer buying patterns have impacted other non-obvious sectors. Sales are up on cigarettes, used cars, energy, camp supplies, and fake meat. Rates – moved up slightly this week as the 10 Year US Treasury increased for the 3rd consecutive week. Rates are down 3/4% from this time last year. […]
Home Sales Soar & Jobless Claims Continue
Rates – mortgage rates decreased slightly this week after increasing noticeably last week. Rates are down 3/4% from this time last year. Jobs – the number of people filing for unemployment for the first time increased this week and bumped above the 1M threshold. If you add the number of people filing for unemployment on […]
Extended Stimulus, Unemployment Claims, New Homes Selling
Brief conversation with Gary Cohn, former executive of Goldman Sachs and former advisor to President Trump. When asked what he would advise on the economy: ‘We need an all-hands-on-deck virus stop methodology. That would be the most important thing we could do right now because instead of going through this cycle of stopping and starting…Once […]
Student Loan Secondary Market, Jobs Update, Strong Home Sales & Appreciation
Many of us wonder why rates on student loans rates are much higher than the market rates for cars, mortgages, or HELOCS and why you can’t re-finance student loans without moving them to a private bank and losing many of the hardships benefits or repayment options. Here’s a brief story of someone who sued Navient […]
Century Bond, Jobless Claims, Home Sales
Austria is issuing its 2nd 100-yr bond with a yield of 0.88%. Why would anyone want to put money away for 100 year for such paltry returns? One reason is capital appreciation if you believe rates will continue to go down. For example if the rate of that yield decreased to 0.44% theoretically you could […]