Going to take a bit of a blogging break for August as I'm going to be travelling for a good part of it. Have some big professional news on tap as well but time for a much needed family vacation first. May be posting some charts from time to time...
July 27th – Close to the Nest
What I'm Reading Close to the Nest: In the latest illustration of general mobility decline, a new US Census study found that by age 26 more than two-thirds of young adults in the U.S. lived in the same area where they grew up. 80% had moved less than 100 miles away...
May 25th – The Great Unbundling
What I'm Reading The Great Unbundling: A recently published Federal Reserve analysis of household formation shows a meaningful decline in living with roommates / others since the pandemic, coupled with a rise of living alone. This happened as consumption of housing went up during the pandemic and I've referred to...
May 24th – Shock and Awe
What I'm Reading Shock and Awe: Amazon has put 10m square feet of warehouse space on the market (it could reportedly go up to 30m sf) as the ecommerce giant deals with excess supply brought online during the pandemic. However, a deeper look tells a different story. The 10m sf...
May 20th – Holding the Bag
What I'm Reading Holding the Bag: The Federal Reserve now owns $2.72 trillion in mortgage backed securities, up from $1.4 trillion in 2020. It has announced the intent to shrink that amount substantially in order to help tighten monetary policy. However, most of those loans are at much lower rates...
April 27th – Hitting the Wall
What I'm Reading Hitting the Wall: Trucking demand is “near freight recession levels,” according to Bank of America. Shippers’ outlook on rates, capacity and inventory levels are matching attitudes not seen since May and June 2020, when pandemic lockdowns sent freight volumes into a historic decline. Freight Waves Halted: Ships...
March 28th – The Laundromat
What I'm Reading The Laundromat: “In the United States, as in many countries, real estate is an attractive investment for kleptocrats looking to park dubiously sourced money, as it continues to be one of the least transparent industries. This lack of transparency, and the flood of corrupt and illegal cash...
February 15th – Upside-Down
What I'm Reading South of the Border: Californians looking for lower mortgage or rent payments are increasingly heading south to Mexico for more affordable prices, and the influx of residents has sparked a real estate boom in Tijuana. Fox Business As I have said in this space before, of of...
January 5th – Stuck in Place
What I'm Reading Boxed In: Despite an incredibly tight apartment market, Los Angeles won't allow rent hikes for tenants in rent-stabilized units - which accounts for approximately 75% of inventory - until at least 2023. This despite costs rising sharply, including labor and materials for building repairs as well as...
January 4th – End of the Line
What I'm Reading Tick Tock: The window for banks to use troubled debt restructuring (TDR) is coming to an end. TDRs have been a way for lenders to modify a loan’s terms, because of a borrower’s financial or legal difficulties, and account for an impairment of value. Under the initial...