In the news
What if you scale each state to the value of its housing?
Here's a cartogram of the United States that rescales every state in proportion to the total value of all its housing stock. This ends up having some features in common with a population density map — a small, crowded state like New Jersey gets big, while a huge, empty state like Wyoming gets small — but with some important differences. Look at Texas, for example. Lots of people live in Texas. More people than live in New York, in fact. And the houses in Texas are, on average, bigger than the houses in New York.
Read more...
Here's a cartogram of the United States that rescales every state in proportion to the total value of all its housing stock. This ends up having some features in common with a population density map — a small, crowded state like New Jersey gets big, while a huge, empty state like Wyoming gets small — but with some important differences. Look at Texas, for example. Lots of people live in Texas. More people than live in New York, in fact. And the houses in Texas are, on average, bigger than the houses in New York.
Read more...
Higher home loan rates likely as Fed rate hike looms
Higher mortgage rates are likely to face consumers once central bank policymakers raise the federal funds rate for the first time since 2006. The rate has been near zero percent since late 2008.
Mortgage and other long-term rates already have begun rising in anticipation of a Fed rate increase, which could come as early as Wednesday but is more likely later this year.
As the Great Recession began, the Fed lowered rates aggressively. The near-zero rate in place for nearly 6-1/2 years has hurt savers and those on fixed incomes. Interest on five-year CDs, for example, have been below 1% since 2012.
Read more...
Higher mortgage rates are likely to face consumers once central bank policymakers raise the federal funds rate for the first time since 2006. The rate has been near zero percent since late 2008.
Mortgage and other long-term rates already have begun rising in anticipation of a Fed rate increase, which could come as early as Wednesday but is more likely later this year.
As the Great Recession began, the Fed lowered rates aggressively. The near-zero rate in place for nearly 6-1/2 years has hurt savers and those on fixed incomes. Interest on five-year CDs, for example, have been below 1% since 2012.
Read more...
The Fed's laughter, through the years
The Fed’s transcripts have painstakingly documented every instance of laughter for decades. They do note, for instance, when committee members referred to drinking with Janet Yellen and then collectively engaged in "[laughter]." After the Fed released its 2009 transcripts two weeks ago, we undertook the task of parsing every laugh going back to 1990, the earliest year with searchable transcripts. (This task was made less groan-inducing by the fact that Ben wrote a program to do it for us.) We set about this project without any hope of finding a meaningful trend in the data, yet we came away with a telling one: Starting in 2000, the frequency of laughs per transcript page grew steadily until late 2007, when the effects of the housing crash were starting to be felt—and then the laughter dropped precipitously.
Read more...
The Fed’s transcripts have painstakingly documented every instance of laughter for decades. They do note, for instance, when committee members referred to drinking with Janet Yellen and then collectively engaged in "[laughter]." After the Fed released its 2009 transcripts two weeks ago, we undertook the task of parsing every laugh going back to 1990, the earliest year with searchable transcripts. (This task was made less groan-inducing by the fact that Ben wrote a program to do it for us.) We set about this project without any hope of finding a meaningful trend in the data, yet we came away with a telling one: Starting in 2000, the frequency of laughs per transcript page grew steadily until late 2007, when the effects of the housing crash were starting to be felt—and then the laughter dropped precipitously.
Read more...
Earthquake plan to retrofit unsafe L.A. buildings presented to City Council
Mayor Eric Garcetti’s bold and costly plan to mandate the retrofit of all unsafe buildings in Los Angeles to withstand a major earthquake was formally presented to the City Council on Wednesday, where the political battles over its future were outlined.
While no one disputed the details of the report, developed by seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey over the last year, several speakers talked of the economic impact the proposal would create for both landlords and tenants.
Read more...
Mayor Eric Garcetti’s bold and costly plan to mandate the retrofit of all unsafe buildings in Los Angeles to withstand a major earthquake was formally presented to the City Council on Wednesday, where the political battles over its future were outlined.
While no one disputed the details of the report, developed by seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey over the last year, several speakers talked of the economic impact the proposal would create for both landlords and tenants.
Read more...
Orange County housing market appears to be topping out _
Orange County's robust housing market appears to be topping out. And much of Southern California may not be far behind.
New figures out Wednesday show that both median home prices and sales volume climbed across the region in December. But the numbers were weakest in the priciest part of the six-county Southland: Orange County.
Read more...
Orange County's robust housing market appears to be topping out. And much of Southern California may not be far behind.
New figures out Wednesday show that both median home prices and sales volume climbed across the region in December. But the numbers were weakest in the priciest part of the six-county Southland: Orange County.
Read more...
Crashing oil prices to hit home-price appreciation
Home prices ticked up in November, supporting growth, but the pace could slow as the crash in crude-oil prices hits certain U.S. housing markets, according to a report released Tuesday.
U.S. home prices inched up 0.1% in November, pulling up annual growth to 5.5% from a year-over-year pace of 5.4% in October, according to CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif.–based analysis firm. But by November 2015 the annual pace could cool to 4.6% — the slowest growth since mid-2012 — as dropping energy prices strike states such as Texas and North Dakota.
Read more...
Home prices ticked up in November, supporting growth, but the pace could slow as the crash in crude-oil prices hits certain U.S. housing markets, according to a report released Tuesday.
U.S. home prices inched up 0.1% in November, pulling up annual growth to 5.5% from a year-over-year pace of 5.4% in October, according to CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif.–based analysis firm. But by November 2015 the annual pace could cool to 4.6% — the slowest growth since mid-2012 — as dropping energy prices strike states such as Texas and North Dakota.
Read more...