This morning let's start with some GOOD news....yes, we all need some of that right now!
- Weekly jobless claims dropped 17,000 to 232,000
- Continuing claims decreased 112,000 to 1.476 million
- Fourth-quarter US GDP growth was raised to 7.0%....WOW!
- New daily COVID Omicron cases are down 90% off their high's and hospitalizations are down 44% in 2 weeks!
- Travel bookings for this summer are ABOVE levels at this time in 2019......book your Summer vacation now!
Did You Know? COMPASS is the exclusive luxury real estate brokerage to sit on the board of WealthX due to the innovative ways in which we leverage the platform to search wealthy consumers. WealthX recently published an article citing The Ultra-Luxury Report, titled “The Super-Rich Bought More Than $40 Billion In Luxury Homes Last Year”. Read article here.
Did You Know? To anyone planning to buy NFT's, BEWARE. This arena is rife with scammers. A COMPASS agent was scammed and robbed of a $50K NFT from his Metamask wallet. Most NFT sites have an ending other than .com or .co so it's hard to tell if the site is legitimate. Phishing sites somehow work their way up on Google to be ahead of the original site. When he googled the site, the fake site with the same site name - but different ending - came up first. It then asks you to connect your NFT/ Crypto wallet to the site, which is normal. But you're in fact connecting your wallet to a fake site. Once connected they stole his NFT worth $50K…
Did You Know? Housing has made a smaller contribution to inflation so far—0.6 of the 5.5 points of excess inflation—but given the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures them, housing prices are likely to rise sharply this year. This is a problem. But, it was also a big problem before the pandemic, when rents were rising by nearly 4% annually. Housing affordability is a serious issue in the U.S. Over the past year, prices overall have risen by 7.5%, far above the usual 2% inflation target set by the Federal Reserve. But 70% of that 5.5 points of excess inflation has come from two categories that make up just 15% of the consumption basket: energy (2 points) and new and used cars (1.9 points). Used cars alone make up barely 4% of the consumption basket, but accounted for a third of the excess inflation. Pricing should correct the moment car production is corrected and energy prices come down once geopolitical instability settles. Home/rent prices could remain high and head higher and become the lead driver of painful inflation. Constraining monetary supply may make this worse, not better. (Barrons)
Did You Know? Rivian may be an indicator of things to come: the EV car maker announced it would raise prices by 20% - far more than the inflation rate - to bolster its profitability. The consumer revolted with mass cancellations of car orders. Consumers will pay more and more.....until they don't, especially when they see they are being price-gouged under the ruse of high inflation. Rivian reversed course immediately. Their CEO apologized profoundly for his poor judgement (a miracle in today's day and age where no-one seems capable of admitting fault!). Maybe - just maybe - Wall Street's lust for huge profits is partially to blame for some of the excess inflation we are experiencing? Some say there is 'great opportunity' during times of crisis.... Recently while searching for a tile, I identified availability with pricing ranging from $17/sf all the way up to $60/sf....for the exact same tile.
When I asked the $60/sf tile supplier why their pricing was so high, I heard the familiar tune: "inflation, supply-chain, labor….” it used to be “Because of Covid….” Now we have another song. UGH
Did You Know? This week in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president of the US. In his famous inaugural address, he delivered these famous words:
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
