Weekly News (December 1, 2021)

This week’s Interest Rate (47th  Week)

(By Fairway Home Loan)

   30 yr fx (%)  15 yr fx (%) FHA (%) 10 yr Tr Y (%)
A year ago      2.625       2.375     2.625          0.921
A month ago      3.100       2.375     2.750          1.538
Last week      3.200       2.500     2.750          1.646
This week      3.125       2.290     2.625          1.449

 

  Prime Rate:3.0% / Ref IR: 0.00- 0.25% .

  • 3% Down payment for 1st home buyer is available.
  • 5% Down payment 2-4 units FHA program available
  • 15% Down payment 2 families -conventional program available.
  • Potential home buyer — Have a pre-approval first before the shop.  Now we have 48hour underwriting turn-around times for regular loans.
  • 2022 Conventional loan limit: Conforming SFR : $625,000/ Conforming high balance: $937,500 / Confirming 2 Family: $702,000/ Conforming High Balance: $1,053,000

 

Q line on 2nd Ave in East Harlem, Manhattan will be extended soon

(Korea Daily   11/26)

  • Hochul visited 2nd Ave subway construction site and announced that Q line extension project will be resumed soon as early as next year because $23B fund in transportation infrastructure has been budgeted.
  • Currently Q line stops at East 96th St and it will be extended to the 125th The subway stops will be constructed at 106th St, 116th St, and 125th St.
  • This Q line extension project has been stalled for 100 years so far. The extended span will be 1.6 miles and it will cost $6.3B ( $3.9B per mile) which will be the most expensive subway construction in the world and it will take 6 – 8 years to complete.

 

NYC Townhouse Sale Sets Record

(WSJ  11/26)

  • A renovated Chelsea townhouse has sold for $22.5M, the highest price paid for a townhouse in the neighborhood to date. Spanning more than 7,000 sf, the brick Greek Revival house was listed for $25M in March, according to Jim St. Andre of Compass, who had the listing with colleague Robert McCain.
  • The previous record-holder for the most expensive Chelsea townhouse sale was a $16.25M transaction in 2014, according to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel RE Appraisers and Consultants.
  • The five-bedroom home has five floors topped by a large skylight. Amenities include a marble-and-mahogany kitchen as well as a screening room, wine cellars, gym and three fireplaces, he said.  As a rooftop terrace with view of St. Peter’s church and glass skyscrapers in Hudson Yards to the north.  At 25 feet wide, the house is wider than most townhouses in Manhattan, which is a big selling point.

 

NY State still keeps eviction ban till 1/15/2022

(Korea Daily   12/1)

  • The East NYC district federal court turned down the appeal of landlord association to stop eviction banning, reasoning that it is against the federal law.
  • RSA(Rent Stabilization Association) and the landlord group insisted that renters are making false proof of income and hardship to be protected from eviction.
  • The court will order mandatory ERAP assistance if renters’ income and hardship are proved, and the eviction ban will be extended till 1/15/2022.

 

Online Retailers Demand Real Store Locations

(WSJ   11/26)

  • After losing ground to e-commerce, bricks-and-mortar stores are back in style. Retailers this year are expected to open more stores than they close for the first time since 2017, according to an analysis of more than 900 chains by IHL Group, a research and advisory company. Most of the growth is coming from mass merchants, food, drugs and convenience chains.
  • Stores have become integral in fulfilling e-commerce orders. They serve as distribution hubs and convenient places for shoppers to pick up and return online purchases – services that will be key this holidays season as orders once again threaten to overwhelm shipping carriers.
  • Stores those retailers are opening today are different. Some are smaller, and more of them offer experiences beyond browsing. “People research online, but many times they want to try before they buy”.
  • It’s not like it’s stores against e-commerce anymore,” said Brendan Witcher, a Forester Research principal analyst. “They paly an integral role in supporting each other. The old story that stores are dead is simply not true.”

 

Home Prices September Rose at Slightly Lower Rate

(WSJ  12/1  )

  • Home-price growth slowed slightly in September as sky-high prices deterred some buyers. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home index, which measures home prices in more metropolitan areas across the nation, rose 19.5% in the year that ended in September, down from a 19.8% annual rate the prior month.
  • Sales of previously owned homes are on track this year to hit the highest level since 2006, and home prices have climbed to records.
  • The median existing-home sales price on October rose 13.1% from a year earlier to $353,900, NAR said. While number of home sales rose in October, the proportion of first-home buyers fell to 29%, down from 32% a year earlier, according to NAR.
  • A separate measure of home price growth by the Federal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA) also released Tuesday found a 17.7% increase on home prices in September from a year earlier.

                         

 

Powell: Fed considers moves to counter inflation

( Record  12/1 )

  • Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the Fed will consider acting more quickly to dial back its ultra-low-interest rate policy to counter higher inflation, which Powell acknowledged will likely persist well into next year.
  • The fed is currently reducing its monthly bond purchase, which are intended to lower longer-term borrowing costs, at a pace that would end those purchases in June. But Powell made clear that Fed officials will discuss paring those purchasing more quickly when it next meets in mid-December.
  • Doing so would put the Fed on a path to begin raising its key short-term rate as early as the first half of next year. A higher Fed rate would, in turn, raise borrowing costs for mortgage, credit cards, and some business loans.
  • Powell also said that the Fed should know more about the potential impact of the omicron variant on the economy in time for that next meeting. But he suggested that for now, omicron hasn’t much affected the Fed’s economic outlook.

 

CDC recommends All Adults get Booster to Fight Variant

(WSJ  11/30 )

  • The federal center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strengthened its Covid-19 booster-shot recommendations, reflecting the potential threat of the new Omicron variant to the pandemic response in the U.S. and world-wide.
  • The CDC recommended on Monday that everyone 18 and older get an additional shot after completing a first course of Covid-19 vaccination.
  • Omicron, identified last week by scientists in South Africa and initially known as B.1.1.529, has rattled officials in the U.S. and around the world, as researchers race to understand the changed pathogen.
  • The World Health Organization(WHO) warned Monday that the variant has high potential to spread globally and could drive fresh surges in Covid-19 infections. Spread of variant also risks intensifying supply-chain disruptions that has fueled a surge in inflation this year, fed Chair Powell said in prepared testimony released Monday, ahead of an appearance before Congress Tuesday.
  • Biden said “this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic”. Most don’t expect a surge as deadly as last winter’s. They have said basic migration measures like masking, testing and staying home when sick remain critical.

 

Stocks and Oil Rattled by Variant

(WSJ    12/1  )

  • Global stock indexes and energy prices skidded for the second time in three days, fueled by the uncertain impact of a new Covid-19 variant and inflation. Nearly all the stocks in the S&P 500 fell as investors pulled away from riskier assets and sought haven in government bonds.  The financial, communications, industrials, consumer staples and material sectors all declined more than 2%, and all 11 sectors in the index slid at least 1%.
  • The S&P fell 1.9%, or 88.27 points, to 5467. The Dow Jones also fell 1.9%, or 652.22 points, to 34,482.72, The Nasdaq Composite, fell 1.6%, or 245.14, to 15,537.69. Brent crud , the global benchmark for oil prices, skidded 3.9% and has now fallen in four of the past five sessions. It lost 16% in November, capping the worst month for the commodity since March 2020.
  • The emergence of the Omicron variant has unsettled how investors view inflation. Prices of oil and other commodities dropped sharply on the prospect for slow growth, which should feed through to softer inflation figures. Lower bond yields also reflect waning bets on runaway price rises. Yields on longer-term U.S. government bonds, which fall when bond prices rise, dropped substantially overnight on renewed concerns about the new variant and largely maintained declines after Mr. Powell’s comments about a quicker wind-down of the central bank’s bond buying program.

 

Others/Tech News: KIA “EV6” Battery Power exceeded Tesla

  • It took only 7hr 10mins for battery charging from NY to LA(2880.5 miles)
  • Tesler’s record was 12h 48m.

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