What I'm Reading The Great American Camp Out: Results for the RV Industry Association’s December 2021 survey of manufacturers determined that total RV shipments for 2021 ended with a record 600,240 wholesale shipments, surpassing the 2017 total of 504,599 shipments by 19%. Total RV shipments for 2021 increased 39.5% over...
November 17th – Space Available
What I'm Reading Risk On: The board of CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, voted Monday to use 5% leverage and alternative assets to meet its investment-return target, even after lowering that target just a few months ago. The trustees also voted to increase riskier alternative investments, raising private-equity holdings...
November 11th – Boxed Out
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...
November 9th – Outside Set
What I'm Reading Outside Set: With travel restrictions set to be lifted on 33 countries, brokers in cities popular with wealthy foreign investors are reporting a substantial uptick in requests for showings. This is looking like a big shot in the arm for the luxury segment in coastal gateway cities....
November 1st – Disconnect
What I'm Reading Disconnect: COVID-19 has broken the longstanding connection between wage growth and employment levels. Typically, the rise in wages currently seen would have us at near full employment but that has not yet happened. Full Stack Economics Dispersed: Co-working companies are making big bets on the suburbs, including...
September 7th – Not So Fast
What I'm Reading Not So Fast: The Biden Administration's $3.5 trillion budget proposal is in limbo after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin came out strongly against it in a Wall Street Journal OpEd, raising inflationary concerns. Wall Street Journal Speed Bump: The US construction industry's recovery from the lows of...
April 6th – Take My Money
What I'm Reading Bidding War: Yield-chasing investors are snapping up single family homes, competing with homebuyers and driving up prices. The wave of institutional capital hitting this space is massive and has created an environment where prices are rising much quicker than incomes, prompting JBREC to issue a report concluding...
April 2nd – Go Time
What I'm Reading Go Time: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pushing the Senate toward lifting the federal prohibition on marijuana with legislation that would represent the biggest overhaul of federal drug policy in decades. The plan goes beyond decriminalization and is expected to remove marijuana from the list of controlled...
February 16th – Flight to Paradise
What I'm Reading Flight to Paradise: With the northern hemisphere in the middle of winter and many regions still under pandemic lockdowns, wealthy buyers are more motivated than ever to purchase homes on warm-weather islands, sometimes sight unseen. I'm seeing this play out in real time on the big island...
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...