The math is truly daunting for would-be homebuyers: The difference between the mortgage payments and rents is the largest it’s been since the 2006 housing bubble that led to the Great Recession.
People are initially drawn to real estate investing for all sorts of reasons … Many simply come looking for cash flow. Others are seeking long term financial security or a way to protect themselves against inflation …
After surging far more than expected in December and January (and beaten expectations in each of the last six months), new home sales were expected to slide in February (despite the unexpected jump in existing home sales as mortgage rates took a pause from their blast off higher).
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his entire team should be cognizant of the fact that rents have been declining for many months. Despite this, Powell has been examining laggard data that persistently appears inflated.
Existing home sales in February jumped 14.5% to an annualized rate of 4.58 million, the largest monthly percentage increase since July 2020 and ending a 12-month slide, data from the National Association of Realtors out Tuesday showed.
All our client money is held in our investment funds, and excess fund cash is in T-Bills for security, so I wasn’t asking about that. I was asking about cash that our firm had on deposit at a commercial bank. Like so many other small and medium sized businesses, that in aggregate make up the US economy, we turned to a local bank when we started the firm in Santa Barbara, California, 10 years ago this week.
Americans have been battered by two years of negative real wage growth as personal savings are depleted while credit card debts jump to record highs. Shelter inflation continues to soar while housing affordability is at its lowest in decades.
Privately owned housing starts in February came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,450,000. This is 9.8 percent above the revised January estimate of 1,321,000, a much bigger jump than the expected 0.1 percent increase.
Highest Potential SFR Returns in Indian River, Collier, Wayne, Mercer, Charlotte Counties; Best Returns Concentrated in South, Midwest and Northeast, Lowest in West; Rental Returns Increase From 2022 in About 90 Percent of Counties Analyzed, Reversing Years of Decline
The NAHB index rose two points to 44 in March, according to a Wednesday press release. The mild rise in homebuilder confidence exceeded economists’ expectations; a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll of economists believed the index would drop to 40. The NAHB’s March score is the highest reading since September 2022.