Weekly News (June 19, 2019)

This week’s Interest Rate

     30 Y Rate: 3.875%/  15 Year Rate:3.375%/ 10 Y Treasury: 2.058%/  Prime Rate:5.5%

 

A house in Ridgefield burn down completely due to explosion by gas

(The Korea Times  6/18)

  • A House at 360 Abbot Ave. Ridgefield was burn down at around 11:30am on 6/17/2019.  Gas leaking ignited fire and explosion and resulted in complete burn down the house including inside furniture and fixture.  A 48 year old white man was inside at the time of accident, and he was rescued by fire fighter, and he is not in life-threatening condition.
  • Neighbors can hear the explosion noise from a mile away.
  • Some cars were damaged near by.

 

The residents in Englewood Cliffs are protesting against new apartment complex

(The Korea Times  6/14)

  • The proposed plan is to build 600 units including 100 low income units, at the former Unilever site on Sylvan Ave.  Former councilman Park, MyungKeun is organizing protesting assembly against the development project by Normandy on 6/13/2019.  Within a week, 400 people joined. Normandy’s argument is the town needs to supply low income units according to the State law, but town does not have any low income housing currently.
  • The mayor Mario Kranjac, Republican, said the developer’s position on low income housing is just an excuse to develop the complex.
  • The protesting residents are pointing out that the complex development will cause lowering house values and increasing tax burden.

 

NJ Meadowland Power Plant project will be delayed 

(The Korea Daily 6/19)

  • NJDEP decided to delay its review for The North Bergen Liberty Generating Plant in Meadowland, NJ.  The decision was possibly due to strong objection from residents near by, including Ridgefield, Palisades Park, etc.  In response to the decision, the developer Mitsubishi in Japan and its US subsidiary “Diamond Generating” announced that they will re-submit its revised plan.
  • Preparation for new hearing by NJDEP might take about 1 year and it might take 18 months for Governor Phil Murphy to sign off the plan.
  • Total development cost is $1.5B and power generating will be 1,200 M watts which is good for 12M residents. The plant will be the biggest one in NJ if it is built.
  • Short term employment will be 2100 and the plant will hire 30 permanent jobs and will spend $5M annually to sub-contractors for cleaning and maintenance.

 

Manhattan 32nd Street will have new pavement and 10 more garbage cans

(The Korea Times  6/19)

  • The K town chamber of commerce (President Park, Hae Hwa) has requested continually new pavement and drainage systems, and organized a sponsoring meeting for Carolyn Maloney (12th District Fed Representative) and Keith Powers (D. NYC 4th District council man ).  The 32nd St has been notorious about bad smell from food waste and garbage disposal.
  • Currently it operates 6 times cleaning per week stating 6:00am, but it is not enough due to short of fee collection from chamber members.

 

A Manhattan Condo near by Columbus Circle sold at $26.5M 

     (The Korea Times  6/17)

  • 3Br condo unit at 220 Central Park South sold at $26.5M which is most expensive deal in May.  The size is 3,114 sf at 44th floor, and sold at $8,509/sf.  It was sold $1M higher than the unit right below.
  • This condo is also famous because that the hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin purchased 240,000 sf condo unit, which is 4 floor unit combined, in this building at $240M this year.
  • Kenneth Griffin is founder and CEO of global investment firm Citadel, founded in 1990, and currently the company is managing $25B in investment capital.
  • Another unit, 2Br (2,500 sf) sold at $15.8M – $6,320/sf in the same building.

 

Low inflation rate in May will force to lower RI rates by Fed?   

(The Korea Times  6/13)

  • May inflation index CPI is only 0.1% increased.  March and April CPI have increased by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.  May inflation increase was weak due to low energy price, mainly related to oil price.  This low inflation increase might affect Fed Reserves to lower RI rates.
  • FOMC meeting is being held between 18th – 19th this month and next meeting will be held between 30th -31st in July.  The probability of lowering RI rates in July meeting is 81.5%.

 

US home construction tumbles 0.9% in May      

(The Record 6/19)

  • According to Commerce Dept., construction was started at a seasonably adjusted annual rate of 1.27M homes and apartments, a decline of 0.9% from April.  Application of building permits, a good sign of future activities, came up by 0.3% in May to an annual rate of 1.29M.  Construction of single family homes fell 6.4% while construction of apartment rose 10.9%.
  • Despite lower mortgage rates, home prices remain somewhat high relative to incomes, which is particularly challenging for entry-level buyers, said Robert Dietz, chief economist of NAHB.
  • Residential construction has been a drag on the economy over the past years, but it will turn around in the coming months with home construction boosting growth in the second half of the year and into next year, spurred by falling mortgage rates.

 

Other/Tech News : Facebook expands into Bitcoin’s world

(NYT 6/19)

The company unveiled plan on Tuesday to create an alternatives financial system that relies on a cryptocurrency, “Libra”

 


 

Join The Discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Compare listings

Compare