An earlier post made clear this economy’s powerful near-term growth momentum. It also warned about longer-term economic risks, especially given Washington’s efforts to hype the economy. Against this background of conjoined economic optimism and worry (common enough in almost all economic analyses) the expansion in residential real estate seems so far to rest on a remarkably
Real Estate
Broker Associate at LIV | Sotheby’s International Realty based in Breckenridge, Colorado. On March 10, 2021, Freddie Mac and Fannie May announced that they will buy fewer second-home and investment mortgages. Although the news did not set the real estate market into a downward spiral, it is now raising concerns for consumers as well as for real estate
Founder and CEO of The Raisner Group (formerly Proteus Capital Management), a private real estate investment firm in New York City. New York City has suffered deeply from Covid-19. Its economy was destroyed, people fled in droves and the population registered over 30,000 deaths. Nevertheless, the Big Apple is beginning to make a strong comeback: A large
Twelve years in the making, the highly anticipated Four Seasons Private Residences at 706 Mission, San Francisco is now open and welcoming its first residents. Located in the city’s Yerba Buena District, the ambitious project includes the historic Aronson Building reimagined as luxury residences and a newly constructed tower featuring estate-style homes. Designed by Handel Architects, the project includes
Pedestrians walk past signage for SoftBank Group outside a store in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 29, 2018. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images Digital mortgage lender Better.com announced Tuesday that it will make its market debut by merging with Aurora Acquisition Corp., valuing Better at $7.7 billion. The company, ranked No. 15 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50
Akapong Osotsil / EyeEm | EyeEm | Getty Images Consumer debt edged higher during the first three months of 2021, due primarily to a jump in mortgages and auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. Total household debt balances rose by $85 billion in the first quarter, a 0.6% increase that brought the total level
Real estate agents leave a home for sale during a broker open house in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images A brief drop in mortgage interest rates sent some borrowers rushing to their lenders to see if they could get any savings. That sent total mortgage application volume up 2.1% last week from
A man wearing a mask walks past the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, in Beijing, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, February 3, 2020. Jason Lee | Reuters BEIJING — While investors around the world fret over inflation, China’s central bank has more
A general view of the Oakland Athletics playing against the Houston Astros with a limited capacity crowd at RingCentral Coliseum on April 03, 2021 in Oakland, California. Ezra Shaw | Getty Images Perhaps Major League Baseball is bluffing as it plays a game of baseball liar’s dice to help the Oakland Athletics secure a new
From gas and groceries to computers, cars and clothing, Americans are already paying more for everyday expenses. As the economy reopens in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are putting their stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and stashed cash to work. Yet all that spending — coupled with supply chain setbacks — is
Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of millennials (ages 25 to 40) say they have at least one regret about purchasing their current home, according to a new poll of more than 1,400 U.S. homeowners from Bankrate. Only about 45% of Gen X (ages 41 to 56) and 33% of baby boomers (ages 57 to 75) reported
The work-from-anywhere culture of the coronavirus pandemic is not going away with vaccines, and that has created an opportunity for small cities to lure new residents. So-called digital nomads are in high demand and are now being offered cash to relocate. Programs are popping up across the country. The poachers don’t want the workers to
People wear protective face masks outside Salesforce Tower in New York City. Noam Galai | Getty Images Cloudera exited its downtown San Francisco office early last year with plans to sublease the space and move its employees south to the software company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. But the pandemic left the company with nobody to take
Contractors work on single-family homes under construction in the Cadence Park development of The Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine, California, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images Strong buyer demand is keeping homebuilders confident, but the risk of rising construction material costs continues to weigh on housing affordability. Builder sentiment
Nine years after its founding, real estate brokerage Compass went public on Thursday, minting a huge windfall for the company’s investors and employees. As of early afternoon Eastern Time, cofounder and CEO Robert Reffkin was worth more than $500 million, Forbes estimates. Reffkin, 41, owns 2.3% of Compass’ normal Class A stock and 100% of
Pope Francis is using his pulpit to call attention to climate migration. “When we look, what do we see? Many are being devoured in conditions that make it impossible to survive. Forced to abandon fields and shorelines, homes and villages, people flee in haste carrying just a few souvenirs and treasures, scraps of their culture
We’ve been given so many rules about designing our homes, such as always painting the walls white and that your dresser, bed, and nightstands must match. But following the rules of interior design often leads to visually uninteresting spaces. So, do we need to listen to everything we’ve been told? After all, they say that
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. Jeenah Moon | Getty Images Prosecutors in Manhattan have subpoenaed Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s personal bank records, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The prosecutors, who are conducting a sweeping probe surrounding Donald Trump and his company, are also questioning gifts that Weisselberg and his family received
During the pandemic, many real estate agents had their busiest year EVER. There were millions of people who suddenly needed more space, no longer wanted to be “stuck” in cities they had moved to for work or school, or finally had an opportunity to get their dream home at a great price and with a
An ‘Open House’ sign is displayed as potential home buyers arrive at a property for sale in Columbus, Ohio. Ty Wright | Bloomberg | Getty Images Home price gains are accelerating at an alarming pace, fueled by Covid pandemic-related inflation, which some claim is not getting enough attention from the Federal Reserve. Home prices nationally