I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few years now, but felt motivated to write on it after reading Ryan Gorman’s Medium post announcing what he’s working on now with btcRE. Gorman as the former CEO of Coldwell Banker understands real estate better than most people, and yet… there was something I felt was … Read more
I left out any predictions about the housing market in 2023 in my Seven Predictions post for a bunch of reasons. The most important being that it’s really kind of boring for people who are not super interested in the topic, which means just about everyone who isn’t a VIP subscriber. But now that 2023 … Read more
A reader sent me this provocative article in The Atlantic, with the provocative title, “The Homeownership Society Was a Mistake.” At first, as I read through the damn thing, I was concerned that the writer had tapped into something real in the psyche of younger Americans who are getting royally screwed by the economy generally, … Read more
I’m working on a number of presentations these days, and a big chunk of them are me playing economist. I am pointedly and proudly not an economist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Actually, no, I can’t remember the last time I stayed at a Holiday Inn of any kind, … Read more
This is just a quick look-see. Thanks to Jay Parsons, an economist with RealPage, I found the RealPage 2022 Market-Rate Apartment Affordability Report. There are some interesting findings in there with the main takeaway being that market-rate (i.e., non-subsidized) rentals are doing just great: But this first-of-its-kind study into one of the largest segments of … Read more
This is a public call for help. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I spent the last month or so trying to understand the view that higher interest rates, leading to higher mortgage rates, will tame the crazy housing market. Macroeconomics being what it is — at times, I feel like it’s a mystery wrapped … Read more
Thanks to a video from Digital Asset News, I found out about this website called Truflation. It’s free to use so go ahead and enjoy (?) yourselves in exploring what the real change in cost of living might be in the U.S. Since the government will be releasing its official June CPI print tomorrow, and … Read more
Over the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of posts, articles, tweets, and other expressions of… what to call them… predictions? opinions? studies? that all drive to the idea that the US housing market is either collapsing already, or about to collapse. Because the Fed, you know? Raise rates on fiat dollars, and … Read more
I had originally planned on the Four Horsemen series to be five parts: the four Horsemen, plus a wrap-up laying out the consequences for the real estate industry. But as I mentioned in part 5, a couple of you have asked for a slightly medium-to-longer term post-apocalypse outlook on the industry. Once the dust settles, … Read more