Weekly News (March 25, 2025)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation  3/25/2025

                  Federal Fund Rate: 4.25 -4.50%        Prime Rate: 7.25 – 7.50%

A Secret Mortgage Blacklist Leaves Condos Unsellable

  비밀리에 유지된 융자금지명단으로 판매가 어려워진 콘도 

WSJ   3/18/25(Tue)

• Condominium owners across the country are facing a paralyzing problem: They can’t sell their properties because of a fast-growing and mostly secret mortgage blacklist.
• The blacklist is maintained by Fannie Mae and includes condo associations that the mortgage-finance giant thinks don’t have adequate property insurance or need to make critical building repairs. Being on the list can make it harder for potential buyers to get a mortgage.
• According to lenders and real-estate agents, Fannie Mae greatly expanded the list after the Surfside condo collapse in Florida in 2021 killed 98 people. Compounding the problem, a nationwide insurance crisis is making it more expensive for condo associations to afford adequate coverage.

• The number of properties that fail to meet Fannie Mae’s standards has risen to 5,175 this month from a few hundred before Surfside, according to Stephen Marcus, a condo lawyer at Boston law firm Allcock & Marcus.
• Fannie Mae and sister organization Freddie Mac don’t make loans, but buy about half of the country’s home loans from lenders and package them to sell to investors, then guarantee payments on them. Loans that meet Fannie or Freddie’s underwriting standards, known as conforming loans, can be less expensive and require lower down payments than bespoke mortgages.
• Florida has more than 1,400 developments blacklisted. That is in part because of a strict condo-safety law enacted following the Surfside disaster. The next four states featuring heavily on the blacklist— California, Colorado, Hawaii and Texas.

The 10 States with most condo in Blacklist

WSJ  3/18/25

Trump’s Housing Chief Upends Mortgage Giants

         트럼프 주택부분  참모, 모기지 큰조직체 흔들어

WSJ   3/24/25(Mon)

• In his first full week as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home-builder heir and former private-equity executive William Pulte ousted more than a dozen board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Far bigger changes, Trump officials have said they would pursue efforts to privatize Fannie and Freddie, that the first Trump administration wasn’t able to pull off. Privatizing Fannie and Freddie, which came under government control after the 2008 financial crisis, could generate a windfall for the government. One proposal circulated in recent months estimated that the privatized entities would be valued above $330 billion, with the government’s stake at more than $250 billion.
• Under that plan, Fannie and Freddie would raise an additional $20 billion to $30 billion from new investors, akin to an initial public offering. A raising of that size would put it on par with the largest IPOs of all time.

Home Sales Rise As Some Adapt To High Rates

    높은 이자률에 적응되면서 주택 판매 증가세

WSJ    3/21/25(Fri)

• Sales of existing homes rose in February, reflecting an increase in shopping activity and in the number of homes for sale since the start of the year.
• U.S. existing-home sales rose 4.2% in February from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, the NAR said Thursday. That was far better than expectations. Economists surveyed by The WSJ had estimated a monthly decrease of 3.2%. It was the first month-over-month increase in two months.
• Some buyers and sellers who have been waiting for the market to improve are getting used to current mortgage rates and deciding to make a move anyway, economists and real-estate agents said. Many of these moves are spurred by life events such as having a baby, getting a divorce or relocating for a new job.

• “The shock is gone,” said Junior Torres, a real-estate agent in Seattle. “People are coming to realize mortgage rates are going to be between 6% and 7%, and this is exactly where we are right now.”

Large Sun Belt counties continue to post nation’s strongest population gain

선 벨트지역이 두드러진 인구 증가 현상 보여     

Costar     3/24/25(Mon)

• Harris County, Texas, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Maricopa County, Arizona, have seen some of the strongest population growth over the last few years, and they topped the charts once more in 2024.
• Harris County, with its county seat of Houston, increased in population by over 105,000 residents from July 2023 through July 2024. That was after already adding an average of over 52,000 new residents annually from April 2020 through July 2023.
• Miami-Dade County in Florida, the second-highest population gain, added more than 64,000 residents from July 2023 through July 2024.
• The third U.S. county, Maricopa County in Arizona. The county’s population increased by over 57,000 new residents from July 2023 through July 2024.

Sun belt area population growth

Costar 3/24/25

Airbnb Readies Push Into New Business

에어비엔비, 새로운 비지니스 분야로 진출할 준비

WSJ     3/18/25(Tus)

• Airbnb prepares for the launch of new businesses in May to expand its revenue streams beyond home sharing.
• The San Francisco-based online marketplace for short term rentals said in February that it was planning to invest $200 million to $250 million this year to set up those businesses, with the aim of eventually generating $1 billion in revenue from them. Airbnb booked $11.1 billion in revenue last year, up 12% from the prior year, while its net income fell 45% to $2.65 billion.
• Airbnb hasn’t disclosed the number of businesses it intends to launch, nor their individual focus. The company has said it plans to relaunch its experiences offering to heighten users’ stays through travel activities, such as bike tours and food tastings. Airbnb began to offer a limited array of experiences in 2016 but largely set it aside when the pandemic hit.

Airbnb annual Revenue and Profits

WSJ  3/18/25

HyunDai Auto will invest additional $21B till 2029

현대차, 2028까지 미국에 210억불 추가 투자      

   Korea Daily     3/25/25(Tue)

• It is the first time that Korean company announced big scale of investment in U.S. after Trump 2nd term began.
• Chairman, Jung mentioned at the investment presentation at the White House, hosted by Trump that we will invest $21B in U.S. for the next 4 years, and $8.6B will be invested into Automobile production, $6.1B into parts/distribution/steel manufacturing, $6.3B into energy and future industry.
• Also he mentioned that HyunDai has invested $20B so far since the company started investing in U.S. first time in 1986, and has created 570K jobs in 50 states.
• As the 3rd automobile plant in Savannah, Georgia, Meta Plant America(HMGMA) will add 200K annual production capacity, and therefore total production capacity in U.S. will become 1.2M annually.

BYD Beats Tesla to $100 Billion in Sales

BYD 의 영업실적($1000억불)이 테슬러를 앞질러

WSJ  3/25/25(Tue)

• BYD said Monday that its revenue last year grew to the equivalent of $107 billion, topping $100 billion for the first time and besting Tesla’s revenue of $97.7 billion for the year. BYD’s profit at $5.5 billion trailed Tesla’s $7.1 billion, but it is catching up fast.
• Like other Chinese carmakers, BYD is racing ahead of Tesla in offering advanced driver-assistance features to Chinese customers. BYD said in February it would make its “Eyes of God” driving-assistance software available in all models including one under $10,000.
• BYD Chief Executive Wang Chuanfu on Monday said that he wanted BYD to expand its global reach. But that will be difficult in the U.S., which has imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, and perhaps other nations in Europe and beyond that are concerned about a sudden influx of Chinese imports.

BYD vs. Tesla

WSJ 3/25/25