Happy Friday, friends! For the last couple of months Maven has been taking a music class which she loves. It’s 30 minutes of singing, dancing, and Maven marching the beat of her own drum; right up her alley. On Wednesday this group of 2-4 year olds took their act to a local senior community and put on a seven-minute performance to everyone’s delight. Some audience members participated, dancing with Maven and the rest of the kids while they sang amidst the most organized chaos I’ve seen in a while. It was really adorable and makes me want to sign her up for every class possible, just for the performances.
We also have a great new listing at 761 Ocean Crest, Cardiff. There will be an open house on Saturday from 11-2 and Sunday 1-4, please stop by and say “hi”!
Nearly every day, Compass’s Leonard Steinberg puts together a handful of real estate news bits that are always so interesting I have to share some of my favorites of the week. To receive these every day from Leonard, please click [_here](mailto:ls@compass.com “”) and include your full name and email address to get on his mailing list.
* Are younger people better savers? In 2023, Americans in their 40s managed to save over $6,930, according to data from New York Life. People in their 30s managed to stash away more, with an average of $9,807! (CNBC)
* LUXE-flation may be double that of regular inflation: Chanel raised the price of its signature handbag by 6.2%, now approaching $11,000….. I guess Chanel is making a small profit if the combined wealth of its owners is about $100 billion?
* Did much higher interest rates help or hurt the fight against inflation? According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the FED did not get to the core issue fueling inflation: The massive global supply side disruption. That may have been better served with time rather than too-high rates. He believes rates were artificially low and needed to be raised for sure, but believes they went too far, too fast, too late….and that the sharp rise in rates actually fueled inflation and made it worse. He also believes as we go through massive global transitions, wars, etc, having a slightly higher inflation target – around 3% – makes sense if it keeps employment strong. (CNBC)
* Rockford IL, Canton-Massillon OH, Ann Arbor MI, Akron OH, and Springfield MA were ranked the TOP 5 housing markets by multiple metrics by WSJ/Realtor.com across two broad categories: real-estate market (60%) and economic health and quality of life (40%). Real estate demand (15%), based on average pageviews per property; real estate supply (15%), based on median days on market for real estate listings; median listing price trend (10%), based on annual price growth over the quarter; property taxes (10%) and climate risk to properties (10%) were the considerations for the real estate. The economic and quality of life category indicators are: unemployment (5%); wages (5%); regional price parities (5%); share of foreign born (5%); small businesses (5%); amenities (10%), measured as the average number of stores per specific “everyday splurge” category (coffee, upscale/specialty grocery, home improvement, fitness) per capita in an area, and commute time (5%). (WSJ)
* CoStar now owns MATTERPORT in a $1,6 billion acquisition…..as they ramp up their quest to outseat Zillow? CoStar now owns HOMES.com and Apartments.com…and TenX (formerly Auction.com)….and Homesnap.com….
* Want to read more about successful auction-brokerage? COMPASS’ preferred AUCTION vendors Paramount and DeCarro have already had multiple success stories. Click HERE as the LUXURY AT COMPASS division addresses this important service.
* In the decade to 2020, the population grew by around 7.4%, the weakest decade of growth since the Great Depression. The population is expected to settle at a growth rate of only 1 million per year by the end of this decade. For context, the average population growth rate in the 1990s was over 3 million people per year. This is just a taste of what’s to come. By the 2050s, the Census Bureau forecasts the population inching higher by a mere 350k per year, not far off where it fell to during the depths of the pandemic. (Home-Economics, Aziz Sunderji)