With the unemployment rate at a 16-year low, faster growth requires getting people to work who are currently unwilling. To entice more women, targeted parental leave should be offered. For the elderly, reduce their income taxes by two percent for…
Nine years after the government takeovers, there’s again talk of reforming Fannie and Freddie; good luck! Builders, Realtors, bankers, and investors want a strong government guarantee to backstop the $10 trillion mortgage market and keep the popular 30-year fixed rate…
Elliot speaks on the greater Reno-area housing market to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Read more here.
There are 870 federal court judgeships with lifetime appointments. 122 are vacant, giving Trump the chance to appoint 13% of the judiciary, the second highest percentage an incoming first-term president has enjoyed dating back to at least 1969, a much…
Surprisingly, Y-o-Y housing starts fell 5.5% in May. YTD, single-family starts are up 7.4% but multi-family starts are down 2.8%. Continuing that theme, total starts are progressively weakening due to MF activity plunging from a +20% Y-o-Y increase in January…
The Friday File: Father’s Day spending is expected to reach a record $15.5 billion this year, up from $14.3 billion in 2016. $3.3 billion will be spent on experiential activities, followed by $2.2 billion on gift cards and an equal…
In 1940, the percentage of one-person households in the USA was 7.7%, by 1960 it was 13.3%, and by 1980, 22.7%. In 2000, the rate was 25.8% and in 2016, 28.1%! DC has the highest percentage of one-person households at…
While the Fed increased short-term rates by one-quarter-of-one percent, as expected, it’s their intention to raise rates again this year by the same amount that was mildly surprising. With inflation slowing across the globe and core CPI down steadily since…
Household net worth climbed by $2.3 trillion in 17Q1 and it is now a record $94.8 trillion and a record 5 times GDP, well higher than during the housing or dotcom booms. Stock market wealth rose by $1.3 trillion and…
From 1914-2006 there were 19 interest rate rising cycles. We’re now in the 20th. In 16 of the 19, a recession followed, meaning 84% of the time a recession followed a sustained rise in short-term rates. However, since WWII there…