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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

As expected, the Fed bumped rates 50bps earlier today to 4.375%. Markets were hoping the Fed might halt increases going forward due to declining inflation, and because in September Fed members anticipated raising the fed-funds rate to slightly above where…