News

Did You Know?

- 05/11/21

Did You Know?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that it is possible the Federal Reserve may have to raise interest rates to keep the economy from overheating if the administration’s spending plans are enacted. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated last week that the central bank isn’t worried about a persistent rise in inflation and that he expects that price increases over the coming months will be transitory. We shall see.... (WSJ)

San Francisco's controller office projects that the city’s commercial and residential tax base fell just 0.46% in 2020, from $301.4 billion to $300 billion, resulting in a $7.6 million loss in revenue for the fiscal year starting in July. That's significantly less than you might have expected after reading all those gloom-and-doom headlines! (Bloomberg).

The surge in lumber prices in the past year has added $35,872 to the price of an average new single-family home and $12,966 to the market value of an average new multifamily home, according to the NAHB. Steel prices are up 18% and Copper up 27%.... Single-family housing starts were up 41% in March year over year. New lot supply is down 20% YOY. and pricing is up 11%. (CNBC).

The US economy grew at an impressive 6.4% rate in the first quarter as the US economy rebounds from mass shutdowns in 2020 and a deep recession. Jobless claims now are approaching a third of where they were in July 2020.

Did You Know?

- 03/11/21

Did You Know?

Remember a few months ago when we said super-low interest rates were possibly a buyer's ULTIMATE COLLECTOR-QUALITY buying asset? The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.55% yesterday, its highest level since before the pandemic up from 1.46% earlier Thursday and 0.92% at the beginning of the year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen above 3% for the first time since July, and this has started to weigh on applications to buy or refinance homes. (WSJ)

FLEEING California? Hardly! California housing had the hottest real estate month in 17 years! Homebuyers gobbled up houses at a 484,730 annual pace in January, up 22.5% in a year, the third consecutive gain above 20%. The statewide median price paid was $699,890, up 21.7% in a year and the biggest gain since February 2014. If that’s not overheated to you, consider this: The last time sales and prices jumped more than 20% in the same month was August 2003.

Second-home sales were up 44% year over year in 2020, according to the NAR. About 45% of vacation home buyers are in their 50s and 60s and buy for personal use. (Marketwatch)

Did You Know?

- 03/01/21

Did You Know?

This year may have kicked off with the lowest mortgage interest rates in history, but the record lows aren't going to last. Rates are now starting to climb and are expected to continue heading higher throughout 2021. Just last week, mortgage rates rose to the highest point since August 2020. The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage went up to 2.97%, almost half a percent lower than a year ago. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 2.34%. It marked the biggest one-week move since last March when the pandemic was beginning to unfold. (CNN)

Southern California real estate is booming everywhere, contrary to the narrative that speaks of Californians FLEEING en masse.....The median sales price across the six-county region reached $599,500 — a 13% increase from January 2020. The number of sales increased 13% year-over-year. January was the 6th consecutive month in which the regional median price increased by a double-digit percentage year-over-year and the 5th consecutive month in which the number of sales did so. (L.A. Times.)

Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments has released details on a $90 million luxury condominium community coming to Newport Beach, part of its $1.25 billion master-planned development at Uptown Newport. Expected to break ground in March, the Parkhouse Residences will be built on the 25-acre, two-phase development. The firm is building 30 condos among five buildings designed by WHA Architects, Design styles will come in a combination of half-floor flats and two-story penthouses with starting prices of around $1.9 million.

Did You Know?

- 02/08/21

Did You Know?

Some more good news: The number of workers seeking unemployment benefits fell for the 3rd straight week, a sign that layoffs have started to ease following an increase in early January. The total remained at a higher weekly level than before a winter surge in coronavirus cases and claims also remained well above the pre-pandemic peak of 695,000 and are still higher than in any previous recession for records tracing back to 1967.

The U.S. economy is expected to expand more rapidly in 2021 than projected in July, but it'll take several years for output to reach its full potential and for the number of employed workers to return to its pre-pandemic peak, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Annual growth is likely to average 2.6% through 2025. Expect modestly higher inflation and higher interest rates over the coming years than anticipated in July. (WSJ)

During 2020, the homeownership rate jumped to roughly 67%, up nearly 3% from a year earlier after remaining largely flat for a decade, according to the Census Bureau. Price appreciation is now outpacing wage appreciation in 90% of housing markets nationally, according to Attom Data Solutions. The median prices of single-family homes and condos are less affordable than historical averages in 63% of U.S. counties, up from 54% a year ago,(CNBC)

The personal savings rate rose to 13.7% last month, far higher than the pre-pandemic level of roughly 8%. Excluding last year, the savings rate is at the highest level since 1975. Households collectively saved $1.4 trillion in the first 9 months of 2020, about twice as much as what they saved in the same period in 2019. Now imagine just HALF of the difference flowing into the economy......(WSJ)