Posted on 06/27/2024 4:15:40 AM PDT by Kaiser8408a
It seems everything Biden touches turns to stone. This used to be called “The Medusa Touch” but I changing that to “The Biden Touch.” And that includes housing. Or we can simply sing along with the late Jimmy Buffet and “Wasting aways again in Bidenville.”
And near 7% mortgage rates aren’t helping (as The Fed continues its fight against Bidenflation).
US new home sales were expected to dip 0.2% MoM in May… but they didn’t..
New home sales crashed 11.3% MoM (after April’s 4.7% drop was revised up to a 2.0% MoM rise). That is the biggest MoM drop since Sept 2022…
Source: Bloomberg
This is the biggest YoY drop since Feb 2023, taking the SAAR down to the same level as it was in 2016…
Source: Bloomberg
Median new home price fell 0.9% YoY to $417,400 – lowest since April 2023 – (with the average selling price at $520,000) with a big downward revision for April from $433k to $417k!…
Source: Bloomberg
For the first time since June 2021, median existing home prices are above median new home prices…
Source: Bloomberg
As BofA warned yesterday:
“The US housing market is stuck, and we are not convinced it will become unstuck anytime soon. After a surge in housing activity during the pandemic, it has since retreated and stabilized. We view the forces that have reduced affordability, created a lock-in effect for homeowners, and limited housing activity will remain in place through our forecast horizon “
At the same time, the supply of available homes increased to 481,000, still the highest since 2008.
Source: Bloomberg
It seems homebuilders finally gave up filling that gap in anticipation of an imminent Fed rate-cut to save the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at confoundedinterest.net ...
Remember the good old Carter days of mortgages at 22% ?
In high prop tax states it’s not just interest rates.
Bet cash sales are declining, too, in those states.
Because of the confiscatory property taxes which can climb far faster than intetest rates.
Putting the hurt on the auto market as well, with inventory piling up at 100+ days. I know idiots who are paying over $1,500 a month on their car (an F-150 in one instance) loans. More than their mortgage. Oh well, it's their money.
Ummm, this was the intended result of raising rates.
Just went to contract to sell my house in NY. On the market for 15 days. Contract is for full asking price.
Everything Biden touches turns to stone? Not the term I would use, but it sure isn’t anything like a treasured substance. Bidenomics is a very facetious title for dressing up a financial calamity, none of which had to come into existence.
The basis of wealth is not stores of gold or other precious metals, it is the ability to convert energy into useful product. What used to be the cheapest form of energy, in terms of converting it to useful form, has been petroleum and natural gas. But some arcane “scientific” considerations have led to the heavy taxation and reduced extraction of these primary energy sources, and an overall strangulation of virtually all the economy. Potentially, the use of nuclear power to generate electricity could make the electricity so cheap that it need no longer be metered, just a simple flat charge for most users. But suspicions about nuclear energy still persist, even though virtually every objection has been overcome with newer designs of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.
Central state “planners” of a managed economy just cannot get out of their own way. And Bidenomics is as much of a “planned economy” as the old “Five-Year Plans” so favored in the Soviet Union.
Young people under 50 don’t remember or didn’t live in the Carter years. I bought my first house in 1980 at 11% just before the interest rates exploded. All Carter could do was change the part in his hair.
IN NJ it’s extremely luck to get a home at asking price. A bid 25-35% over list won’t guarantee success.
After a month of serious looking in Montclair, Nutley, Rutherford, Ridgewood, Glen Rock & surrounding towns with relatively low crime rates & good (B grade) schools on behalf of my cousin’s son & pregnant wife, having lost out on 3 bids >35% over list, we are in contract for a house at asking.
The house is in the top 1% for it’s town by price, which I normally would have passed by for that reason, but that kept the multiple bid scenario at bay and the bid was successful. For surrounding towns the house gives value for money but it will not appreciate as well as a house moderate in value in that town.
If I hadn’t helped they would have remained in dilapidated rentals despite both having good jobs and saving >50K for at least another 5 years. Biden has put a generation on a path where the “American Dream” is increasingly unavailable.
I would not even loan family money at 2 or 3%. Just silly.
Our economy has been wrecked. The ways to fix it are well known. When you spend too much you have to cut back. Way back. We have neither the will or the leadership to do it. This article from yesterday is just one of many examples of the tip of the iceberg in waste, fraud and abuse. The only way to stop things like this is to ruthlessly stop almost everything and build back to something responsible. Even if there were the will to be fiscally responsible there are not enough hours in the day to execute the process in a systematic way. The government needs a huge axe.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/north-carolina-facility-to-house-migrant-children-remains-empty-after-years-of-preparation-5660486?utm_source=Goodevening&src_src=Goodevening&utm_campaign=gv-2024-06-26&src_cmp=gv-2024-06-26&utm_medium=email&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYvc5YRofh9bN6LcCu0VKCbd9x0wMJiVA28Z54A6ks2wLVg%2BwXnSooNWHaQ%3D%3D
Have other freepers seen what I have seen in my neck of the woods. There are no single homes being built. Only massive apartment complexes. My Parents live in Oregon and when I visit all I see are apartments being built. Every scrap of land now.
Obamatons.
I live in the sticks—but in the nearest suburban area (twenty miles away—CT) the newest apartment complex is hilarious.
They built it on the top of a steep hill on a tiny site with just enough parking for one car per apartment.
There is nowhere to put the plowed snow in the winter—literally nowhere.
Next winter will be their first winter—should be hilarious after a big snowstorm.
Between DEI and the education “reforms” the level of competence in the USA has plummeted at the same time that self esteem has soared.
I think the corruption has also gotten worse.
Developers are just buying entire city councils and zoning boards—and ramming insane projects through.
Money is often at the root.
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