Could your mall host dozens of ghost kitchens, making the food you want for delivery only? That's the plan of some developers who want to maximize capacity use at America's underutilized food courts. The Wall Street Journal reports: As the U.S. hospitality industry rebounds from pandemic closures, former hotelier Sam Nazarian is moving into the food-hall business, marrying the traditional dine-in model with delivery-only “ghost kitchens” in hopes of solving revenue problems that have long plagued retail and food spaces. Mr. Nazarian said his new venture, Creating Culinary Communities, … [Read more...]
‘Truly Extraordinary’ Rise in American Home Prices
Home prices in America have been rising rapidly. The latest reported growth was faster than at any point in the last three decades. Remember, that includes the Housing Bubble. Mamta Badkar report in the FT: US home price growth accelerated in April at the fastest pace in more than three decades as strong housing demand continued to come up against a shortage of residential properties. The S&P Case-Shiller national home price index, which covers all nine US census divisions, rose 14.6 per cent year on year in April, data on Tuesday showed. That followed a 13.3 per cent annual jump in … [Read more...]
Has Someone At the Fed Finally Noticed Housing Inflation?
Has the Federal Reserve finally caught on that housing prices have been rapidly rising? Is it too late to prevent a bust? It seems Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed, might be starting to pay attention to housing. The FT's James Politi and Colby Smith report: A senior Federal Reserve official has warned the US cannot afford a “boom and bust cycle” in the housing market that would threaten financial stability, in a sign of growing concern over rising property prices at the central bank. “It’s very important for us to get back to our 2 per cent inflation target but the goal is for … [Read more...]
Inside Real Estate Market: This Bubble’s Popped Baby
Your Survival Guy’s been watching lumber prices. I reported here and here that much of the increase was due to a bottleneck at sawmills. (There’s plenty of trees, just no excess capacity at the mills creating finished lumber.) Lumber futures reached a high of $1,711.20 per thousand board feet in May. On Tuesday, July futures were down to $1,009.90, off 41% from the record high. Ryan Dezember reports in the WSJ: The rapid decline suggests a bubble that has burst and the question is how low lumber prices will fall. Even after tumbling, lumber futures remain nearly three times what is typical … [Read more...]
2020 Exposed the Madness of Living in Big Cities
America's big cities are normally a balanced churn of people arriving and people departing, but 2020 tipped the balance. Residents rushed to escape the city, with Americans eager to build islands for their families away from the riots, looting, and COVID lockdowns imposed on them by governors gone wild. Other Americans who would normally have moved into the city were too afraid or just didn't want to deal with COVID restrictions, and mass unrest. In big blue cities, where the wealthy are treated like a piggy bank for politicians focused on their own legacies, departures soared. With remote … [Read more...]
Singapore Attracts the Ultra-Wealthy
Ultra-wealthy people from China, India, Indonesia and other places are coming to Singapore to find a refuge from the pandemic in their home countries. Bloomberg reports: One top banker who declined to be identified said Chinese clients ranked first among new account openings, followed by those from India and Indonesia. Another said that client meetings-once a tortuous process of flying to Jakarta and fighting traffic-had become much easier because many of his Indonesian customers were staying in the same luxury condominium in Singapore. Harish Bahl, founder of Smile Group, a family office … [Read more...]
What Inflation? Rents Hit 14-Year High
While the Fed can't seem to find enough inflation to quench its thirst, Americans are paying the highest rents they've paid in 14 years. Bloomberg reports: Rents for single-family homes in the U.S. climbed to the highest level since September 2006 as the pandemic pushes Americans to seek out more space. Rent jumped 4.3% in March compared with a year earlier, according an index from CoreLogic Inc., led by double-digit increases in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Housing costs are surging across the U.S., adding to concerns about rising inflation as vaccination campaigns and falling Covid-19 … [Read more...]
Fidelity Escaped: Now Young Professionals Are Following
Opportunistic, fresh out of college, young Americans moved to big cities for decades until the COVID-19 pandemic and the BLM/Antifa riots and looting hit in 2020. For a new generation whose college educations couldn't be put to use in their suburban or rural home towns, city living was the best path to success. Now, with the rise of remote working, governors gone wild, and America's big blue cities in chaos, young people are finding their way back home in what one professor calls a rethinking of the "balance of our lives." Here's the story of one couple who came back to Rhode Island, … [Read more...]
Junk Bond King Predicted This About Real Estate
The rise and fall of junk bond king Michael Milken was well documented in the book, Den of Thieves. Years later, I remember him saying in an interview that the next “big thing” would be the securitization of residential real estate. In other words, you could look up the price of your neighbor’s house and trade it much like a stock. Today, that’s pretty close to reality. You can buy stocks that own thousands of single-family homes or visit Zillow to see your neighbor’s “Zestimate.” As I wrote to you here, when we were in Key West in March, we took a random house tour simply out of curiosity. … [Read more...]
What’s the Rationale for Subsidizing the Mortgage Market?
The Federal Reserve's low interest rates are subsidizing the mortgage market, and creating a bubble in housing. Randall W. Forsyth explains in MarketWatch, writing: When the Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day meeting on Tuesday, it ought to consider whether its policies aimed to bolster housing may be having negative side effects. With the market for new and existing homes red hot, the rationale for subsidizing the mortgage market has largely passed. Indeed, the Fed’s policies may be hurting home affordability as much as they’re helping. The Federal Reserve’s … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- …
- 23
- Next Page »