What I'm Reading Thin Air: Mortgage payments are getting more unaffordable as record home price growth erases savings delivered by historically low interest rates. Wall Street Journal The affordability problem will continue to get worse if / when interest rates continue to rise. Borrowers have record equity in their homes...
July 27th – Mismatch
What I'm Reading Mismatch: Most of the US is simultaneously experiencing a severe housing shortage and an office glut. Conventional wisdom suggests that vacant office buildings could be converted to residential uses. However, the bureaucratic processes are difficult, the conversions are typically too costly and office floorplates don't translate well...
May 26th – Piling On
What I'm Reading Piling On: The US Commerce Department has made a recommendation to more than double tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber in the midst of a housing affordability crisis that has been driven in part by soaring building costs. If the Biden Administration wanted to make the crisis worse,...
April 23rd – Dead on Arrival
What I'm Reading Dead on Arrival: $12.3 trillion of economic stimulus over the past year effectively killed off the US credit default cycle despite the lingering pandemic, resulting in the lowest-rated companies enjoying their cheapest borrowing costs in history. Bloomberg Blowback: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced an interim rule...