Cooler CPI Report Signals the End of “Good News is Bad News”
Today’s CPI report for March 2023 showed a .1% increase in prices from February, a considerably slowed pace of inflation. This was a reduction to a 5.0% increase year over year, which is down from a high of 9.1% last summer, but still well above the FED’s target of 2%. …
Changes California Can Make to Increase Housing Inventory
Since the pandemic began three years ago, our market and real estate markets nationwide have experienced unprecedentedly low levels of for sale and for rent inventory. Even with much-reduced demand due to interest rates doubling in less than a year, supply in most areas remains well below pre-pandemic levels. The …
A Couple of Bank Failures and a Near Miss
Wow! What a week! After I laid out the case last week for higher or lower interest rates ahead of upcoming scheduled data, little did I know that this would become irrelevant quickly. One day after my post, in a rapid turn of events, fearing imminent illiquidity, Silicon Valley Bank …
Why the Next Few Days Could Determine the Strength of the Real Estate Market in 2023
In congressional testimony given by FED chairman Jerome Powell this week, he stated that the FED funds rate is likely to end up higher than previously expected and they are leaving themselves open to a faster pace of rate hikes in the coming months. The most recent rate hike was …
Interest Rates Resume Rapid Rise
After a steep decline in mortgage interest rates from November through the end of January, rates have quickly returned to the up-side in February with the 10-year treasury yield rising over 50 basis points during that time. Following this rise in treasury yields, the average 30-year fixed conforming loan rate …
Why New LA Area Transfer Taxes are Dangerous and Will Not Last
Recently, voters passed two new measures in the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica to establish additional transfer taxes on the sale of real estate. These taxes kick in for sales over a certain price with the additional revenue going to curb homelessness. In Los Angeles, this measure is …
Tomorrow’s CPI Release has Serious Market Implications
As we’ve previously discussed (and a topic that everyone has been hearing about a lot), the United States and the world have been dealing with severe inflation for the last year or so. This is mostly a result of massive stimulus pumped into the economy during the pandemic, including artificially …
Inflation – What is it and How Long Will it Remain?
Inflation is the nasty word we’ve been hearing a lot about this year. Inflation is defined as the increase in prices and decline in the purchasing power of money. Inflation generally runs about 2% per year in this country and, until recently, the United States has not experienced severe inflation …
It’s a Buyer’s Market!
After years of waiting, it’s finally here. Aside from a short blip during the first few months of the pandemic in 2020, we have not seen a slowdown in demand like this in years. For sale inventory is increasing and offers are slowing substantially. When 5+ offers for condos and …