Archive for December 2022

45% of U.S. adults consider wishing friends and family a Happy New Year an essential part of a New Year’s celebration. At 36%, the second most popular thing to do is watch the countdown on TV, followed by watching the ball drop in NYC at 30%. In fourth at 29%, is a midnight kiss, followed…

After climbing 2%/month in spring and summer 2021, and 1.5%/month in spring and summer 2022, in 9/22 M-o-M rents began falling. Since 10/22, all major rent indices have shown M-o-M rents falling, with the declines increasing and by well more than seasonal norms. In 11/22 national rents declined by about 0.66%. In a preview of…

The omnibus spending bill passed by Congress guarantees the government won’t shut down, that’s good. Unfortunately, it increases spending and that’s bad. Specifically, discretionary spending in FY23 will rise to $1.65 trillion up from $1.5 trillion in FY22, an increase of 10%, a real increase of 3%, or $50 billion, 0.2% of GDP. With the…

The Friday File: Inflation, measured by the Christmas Price Index and based on purchasing each day’s items once in “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” jumped 10.5% in 2022, the most since 2008, to $45,523. Unsurprisingly, pear trees, a proxy for housing, rose 25.8%. Gold rings rose the most 39.1%; seven swans-a-swimming remained the costliest at…

Makers and sellers of oversized bows that decorate new cars are in a funk, with orders down compared to Christmas 2021. It’s because sales are soft, inventories are down, and people are increasingly purchasing cars they previously leased as new car prices are so high. As for car-bow prices, a premium one with a 4-foot…

Despite rising rates and recession fears, because of the top-to-bottom redesign of the home mortgage market resulting from Dodd-Frank and other laws and regulations, which have culminated in substantially tighter underwriting standards, it would take a 40% to 45% decline in home prices to cause damage like what occurred during the 2006-2009 Housing Bust. Moreover,…

The Friday File: The holiday of Hanukkah begins this Sunday night. This is the 2,187th time the holiday celebration commemorating the liberation of Jerusalem and the rededication of Second Temple will be celebrated. Over the course of the eight-day holiday, 44 candles are burned. Two the first night, three the second, and so on. This…

As recently as 2/22, M-o-M house prices appreciated 1.9%, and in 3/22 they rose 2.1%, the two strongest months ever. Then appreciation rates slowed. In April appreciation was 1.7%, in May 1.3%, and in June just 0.2%. Then prices started falling. In July prices fell 0.5%, in August they declined 0.9% and in September they…