What I’m Reading
Boxed Out: Supply chain woes are playing to the strengths of large retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Target who buy in massive scale, and therefore negotiating leverage with manufacturers and 3rd party logistics providers. This is in stark contrast to mom and pop retailers who are struggling to procure product to sell. The Washington Post
Sounding Off: Barry Sternlicht was highly critical of the recently-passed infrastructure bill on Starwood’s latest earnings call. Sternlicht’s main point of contention is that injecting $1 trillion into a market where labor and materials are already short will drive construction cost inflation higher. Can’t say that I disagree. The Real Deal
Bottleneck: Slow payments are costing the construction industry an estimated $136 billon, with 72% of subcontractors reporting that they would offer a discount in exchange for being payed within 30 days. Globe Street
Betting the House: The Las Vegas apartment market was virtually off limits to investors in the middle of the pandemic. However, both institutional and private capital have come pouring back in 2021, pushing prices higher and sending cap rates lower as rents surge. Strong fundamentals are driving the move as the hospitality industry recovers and Vegas has relatively low amount of new supply coming online compared with other sunbelt markets. WealthManagement.com
Hot Spot: Single family homes for rent are emerging as the hottest corner of the US property market as investors respond to booming demand from home-seekers priced out of housing for sale. Wall Street Journal
Chart of the Day
Follow up from yesterday’s post after witnessing a bunch of shrieking on social media. Yes, cash out refinances are up a bit. However, they are also not very high by historical standards when it comes to dollar amount and near 20 year lows with regards to LTV.
Source: Freddie Mac
WTF
A Lot to Unpack Here: This opening sentence from a recent Vice article is absolute perfection:
A former Spanish Bishop has been accused of being “possessed” after he left the clergy to be in a relationship with an erotic fiction writer and began working at a company that exports pig semen.
Incentives Matter: A Vienna brothel is offering customers 30 minutes with ‘lady of their choice’ in exchange for getting a COVID shot. Sky News
Basis Points – A candid look at the economy, real estate, and other things sometimes related.
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