As we all know, America’s housing market has been in a slump for many years.  Years of negative news made home buyers and real estate investors nervous about the future of the U.S. housing market.  However, the following infographic should bring optimism back to most people. This infographic reports the opinions of real estate...
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The budget shenanigans in Washington so far haven’t had an effect on the recovery, but an extended period of lower government spending and job cuts will quickly lead to economic stagnation. The economy is a self-reinforcing mechanism, a small dip in growth will be followed by further declines, even if the first dip was...
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Home construction rarely matches the actual demand for new homes, which can change quickly – there’s often too much or too little. Because the US population grows one percent per year about 1.5 million new homes are needed every year. During the boom of the mid-2000s, two million homes were built per year; at...
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There’s been a lot of fuss on how the “fiscal cliff” will get the U.S. economy into trouble in 2013. For starters, here’s a thorough explanation of how it can impact the economy. (Video published by the WSJ on Oct. 31, 2012.) Read the rest of Real Estate, Inflation and the Fiscal Cliff »...
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It’s becoming clear to me that what we’ve been thinking of as a stage in the recovery actually is the recovery. Job growth at a 1.5 percent annual rate is well below our hopes from previous cycles but its getting hard to imagine faster growth unless the government starts spending more money (ha-ha) or...
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Unemployment in September fell to 7.8% (according to government stats) but otherwise the economic situation was pretty much as it has been for the last six months: improving but at a slow rate.  Employment was up 1.4% over last year, with health care and business services providing the bulk of new jobs, as usual. Some...
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After nine consecutive months of appreciation, August was the first month where home values decreased by 0.1% to $152,100, according to Zillow. 2012 has seen a turnaround in the housing market with sustained appreciation that, at times, has been very strong.  As we progress through the latter half of this year, we expect home...
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Let’s do the jobs math. In August, as in the preceding months, the number of jobs was 1.4 percent higher than last year. We’re probably stuck at this growth rate which translates to 1.8 million new jobs per year. Unemployment is at 8 percent but it rarely gets below 5 percent, so the “excess”...
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Why has this economic recovery been so sluggish? In a normal recovery, job growth would be accelerating at this point, rather than dragging along at the same modest level month after month. One culprit, off course, is the housing boom that left many homeowners with more debt than their home is worth. Another is...
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Why has this economic recovery been so sluggish? In a normal recovery, job growth would be accelerating at this point, rather than dragging along at the same modest level month after month. One culprit, off course, is the housing boom that left many homeowners with more debt than their home is worth. Another is...
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