Markets were on pins and needles as to if Powell would be open to the possibility of a rate hike. He hardly sounded hawkish Wednesday. A dovish message hardly helps cool down the positive wealth effect coming from equities and … Continued
US households have built up massive equity in their homes, but homeowners are not rushing to tap into equity. Rising rates are probably to blame. The situation is unlikely to get better in quarters to come, as the Fed keeps … Continued
US home prices are through the roof. But homeowners are not rushing to tap their equity. Their balance sheet has improved thanks to all the stimulus money post-pandemic. This creates a nice cushion to fall back on especially when home … Continued
From trade disputes to declining corporate profits to yield-curve inversion, there is no shortage of issues for worrywarts to worry about. From recent highs, major US equity indices have dropped in the mid- to high-single digits. Medium term, more downside … Continued
Appreciation in US home prices – or a lack thereof – tends to impact consumer psyche. Currently, prices are not that far away from record levels, but the rate of growth is in deceleration. If the trend persists, this has … Continued
US home sales peaked in November 2017, homebuilder sentiment in December 2017, and housing starts in January 2018. From its January 2018 intraday high through December low, ITB collapsed 39 percent. It is trying to bottom, but currently in no-man’s … Continued
U.S. consumers are alive and well. There is both good and bad in this – good now but potentially bad down the road. Consumer spending in December rose 0.4 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $13.7 trillion. … Continued
CNBC.com ran an interesting story last Thursday (March 3rd) on resurging home flipping in the U.S. Turns out, according to RealtyTrac, nearly 180,000 family homes and condos were flipped in 2015, making up 5.5 percent of all sales. This was … Continued