After Superstorm Sandy, one thing is assured: the impacted regions will rebuild, create jobs, and become stronger. That has always been the American way. The U.S. housing market peaked in 2005 and then started to fall steeply. However, New Orleans … [Read more...]
Latest GDP Surprise
Third quarter economic activity grew at 2.0 percent, which is decent but still subpar compared to the historical norm. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generally grows by three percent on average and should be growing closer to four to five percent … [Read more...]
Employment Rate
The unemployment rate gets all the focus and sometimes receives strong criticism about the way it is computed. Why are discouraged workers not counted as unemployed when they don’t have a job? What about the underemployed, those who want a better … [Read more...]
Who Will Get Future Housing Wealth?
Irrespective of who wins the election, wealth will be more unequally distributed four years from now. The reasoning is that rental households have been rising while the number of homeowners has not increased. Homeowners over the long haul build … [Read more...]
Shadow Inventory: Less Scary
Visible inventory of homes on the market has been falling repeatedly. Existing home inventories are at an 8-year low, while newly constructed home inventory is near a 50-year low. As we enter the winter months, inventories will fall even further. … [Read more...]
Commercial Real Estate Prices Rising
At least in regards to prime commercial real estate properties, prices have been making a very nice recovery. Commercial real estate prices in September were up 6.2 percent from one year ago, and are now very close to the peak prices achieved in … [Read more...]
