Weeklye News (August 16, 2023)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

(United Mortgage Nation  8/16/2023)

Federal Fund Rate: 5.25% -5.50%        Prime Rate: 8.25%-8.50%

HyunDai purchased a hotel in Meatpacking District at $22.5M: 현대자동차, 밋팩킹 구역에 2천3백만불에 호텔 구입

(WSJ   7/31/23)

• HyunDai Auto has purchased the Liberty Inn Hotel at 51 10th Ave, Manhattan, NY at $22.5M, reported Crains NY.
• The liberty Inn Hotel which is a 3 story building with 6,735 sf was owned by an individual and it is very possible for the company to build a exhibition center for new EV model demonstration.
• HyunDai Auto maintained “Genesis House” near by in the district at 40 10th Ave, Manhattan where they have a fine dinning restaurant, Genesis display show room, pavilion, Genesis Studio, etc.

A New York City Suburb Eases Way to New Housing: 뉴욕 교외 지역 대형 새주택지 조성

(WSJ  7/30/23)

• Amid struggling with red tape and community opposition to plans for more housing, one New York City suburb has successfully navigated these obstacles to ramp up construction of new downtown housing.
• The Westchester County city of New Rochelle, N.Y., has added about 2,500 apartment units over the past eight years. Recently, this city of 82,000 has approved construction of 6,300 apartment units across 30 real-estate projects near the New Rochelle train station, which is about a 40-minute ride to Manhattan.
• The mayor, other city officials and executives at RXR, the property developer that led the construction, expedited the zoning and environment review process.

Wall Street Gets ready to Buy Real Estate at Steep Discount: 뉴욕 월가, 헐값에 부동산 구매 준비 완료 

(WSJ  8/15/23)

• Wall Street firms are raising new funds to acquire office buildings, apartments and other troubled commercial real estate, looking to scoop up properties at a fraction of the price investors paid a few years ago.
• Commercial-property values already have fallen about 10 to 15 percentage points from their peaks in the third quarter last year, and might decline by a total of 20 to 25 percentage points, Hill said. “You have to go back to the [savings and loan] crisis and the global financial crisis to see such big declines in property valuations,” he said.
• It is still possible that distressed opportunities won’t arise if the U.S. economy has a soft landing, in which inflation is tamed by the Fed without tipping the economy into recession.

High Housing Costs, Evictions Push Homelessness to a Record Increase: 주거비상승과 강제퇴거 조치 증가로 무주택자 최고  

(WSJ   8/15/23)

• The data so far this year are up roughly 11% from 2022, a sharp jump that would represent by far the biggest recorded increase since the government started tracking comparable numbers in 2007. The next highest increase was a 2.7% jump in 2019, excluding an artificially high increase last year caused by pandemic counting interruptions.
• The Journal’s tally thus far includes more than 577,000 homeless people.  These are preliminary numbers, and a final estimate is expected later this  year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The numbers come from so-called point-in-time counts conducted early this year. Point-in-time counts are widely considered to be an undercount. Still, D considers these numbers a vital tool to measure the homeless population and allocate resources.

Homelessness in the U.S

Inflation Eases, Fueling Hope on Fed Rates: 인플레이션이 잡히면서 기준이자률 감소에 희망

• Price pressures continued cooling last month, inflation figures showed Thursday, likely deterring the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates at its September meeting.
• The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the economy, rose a mild 0.2% in July, the same as in June, the Labor Department said. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, also increased just 0.2% in both months, extending a broader slowdown in price pressures. The figures led to 3.2% annual inflation in July, up from 3% in June. Annual core inflation ticked down to 4.7% in July from June’s 4.8%.

CPI, change from a year earlier

Inflation, Housing Set to Turn a Corner: 인플레이션과 주택경기가 변환점에

(WSJ    8/11/23)

• Americans are paying more to rent or insure their homes than a few years ago and much more to buy one with a mortgage, but there’s a silver lining in that hardship: A cool-down could help convince the Federal Reserve to pause its series of interest rate increases.
• The overall rate of inflation in July was in line with the expectations of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal, rising 0.2% on a seasonally-adjusted basis— the same as June. That puts the 12-month increase at 3.2%, down from the multidecade peak of 9.1% hit in June 2022.
• A letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco notes that all sorts of private sector indicators of rents and house prices are slowing.

Goldman Sachs forecasted lowering Rates next year from 2nd Qt: 연방금리 내년2분기 부터 0.25%씩 인하

(Korea Daily  8/15/23)

• Goldman Sachs forecasted that the Fed will lower the federal fund rate by 0.25% from the 2nd Qt in 2024 as the inflation rate approaches to the target rate of 2.0%.
• Jan Hatzius, Chief economist at Goldman Sachs said he would expect 0.25% decrease every quarter, but the speed of reduction is not certain for now.
• Jonathan Miller, Chief economist at Barclays Capital mentioned that th inflation rate decline give some time to the Fed, but there will be no clear picture for at least next 2 quarters.