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...
April 14th – Scapegoat
What I'm Reading Scapegoat: Luxury housing developments are often vilified by NIMBYs. However, they play an important role in the housing ecosystem. In a market that is functioning properly, today's new luxury unit is tomorrow's move-up and, if not enough new units are built, the fixed housing supply gets bid...
March 1st – Fuel on the Fire
What I'm Reading Fuel on the Fire: With long rates rising, investors in the mortgage bond market had to sell treasury positions in order to hedge their holdings, accelerating last week's bond market selloff. Christopher Maloney of Bloomberg explains what is happening perfectly: The forced sellers are investors in the...
January 26th – Deep Hole
What I'm Reading Deep Hole: Nearly 20% of American renters are behind on payments. The typical delinquent renter now owes $5,600, being nearly four months behind on their monthly payment, includes utilities and late fees according to a new analysis from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, and Jim...
January 25th – Rocket Fuel
What I'm Reading Rocket Fuel: Morgan Housel's latest piece about how COVID has substantially accelerated wealth and income inequality is an outstanding read and makes a strong case for an economic boom in the coming years - at least for some. This section on mortgage refinancings and the accompanying chart...
January 18th – Sharpened Pencils
What I'm Reading Sharpened Pencils: There is so much money flooding into the build-to-rent space that it is making land in outer-ring suburbs expensive and making deals difficult to pencil out. This is the point in the cycle where it takes aggressive underwriting to make a lot of cookie cutter...
January 7th – Reading the Tea Leaves
One Big Thing Now that the elections have come finally, mercifully come to a close, I thought that it would be a good idea to take a look at the likely winners and losers both in the real estate sector and the economy as a whole. I’m going to do...
January 4th – Blurred Lines
What I’m Reading Blurred Lines: States are facing off in a high-stakes legal battle over who is entitled to income taxes on remote workers when one is employed by a company in one state but resides in another. The results of this high-stakes legal battle will have a profound impact on...
December 22nd – Under the Tree
Quick programming note: I’m going to be taking a break from blogging the next week or so and won’t be posting every day. That being said, if something looks particular interesting, I’ll check in. This week’s big news is obviously the $900 billion rescue package that looks likely to be...
December 15th – Checked Out
What I’m Reading Checked Out: Buyers are spending more time than ever in their vacation homes. Mansion Global See Also: A new homes.com survey found that 45% of respondents would move if they could work remotely. Forbes Soaring: Home equity reached a record high in 2020 as American homeowners gained a whopping $1 trillion. Core Logic See...