MarketWatch: Weekly Real Estate Update for Riverdale, Bronx – 12/30/2024 – 1/6/2025

Did You Know?

* Over 30 million square feet of office space was leased in Manhattan in 2024….A record 28 new leases were done at rents above $200 per square foot in 2024. 212 deals were inked for at least $100 per square foot…WOW!

* Chatter is growing to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac again…. in 2008 in the midst of the Great Recession, the Federal Government placed both into government conservatorship. They were bailed out at a cost of $187 billion after poor decisions purchasing risky subprime mortgages with a high likelihood of default. Conservatorship allowed government to allocate taxpayer money to these government-sponsored entities to ensure their stability.

* The algorithms that assign people credit scores between 300 and 850 are proprietary. The sense of randomness is especially frustrating for people with spotless credit. Most people could benefit from using roughly 1% of their available credit….try doing that when building or renovating! My credit score is not 850 even though I have never carried over a credit card balance in over two decades…. 1.54% of people with perfect scores tend to have lower credit-card balances than the average consumer. (WSJ)

* YouTube became the first streaming platform to reach 10% of all television viewing. 81% of Gen Alpha viewers said they watched YouTube recently, compared to 62% who said they watched a subscription streaming service. 44% said they watched TikTok.

* Feral hogs in Texas cause about $400 million damage annually, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Nationally, $1.4 billion of damage is done by wild hogs. WIld boars in Italy have become an expensive menace too where 177 soldiers are part of a campaign to reduce the boar population by up to 80% in 5 years in an attempt to prevent the spread of African swine fever which is a problem in Africa. About 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur in the US each year, resulting in over $1 billion in vehicle damage and more than 150 deaths…..and they cause about $100 million in agricultural damage. Deer are also a blood source for ticks that carry Lyme disease.

* Median wages for full-time workers ages 35 to 44 are up 16% between 2000 and 2024, from $58,522 to $67,652 adjusted for inflation (Labor Department). The overall wealth of 30-somethings, too, rose 66% between 1989 and 2022 (St. Louis Federal Reserve) from $62,000 to $103,000. This age group is in a better place financially, on average, than their parents were at this age. The problem is that they don’t seem to know it. Only 21% of adults in their 30s rated the overall economy as good or excellent last year, per the Federal Reserve, and economists say young adults are significantly more pessimistic about the future than prior generations were. (WSJ)

* The percentage of young men aged 20 to 24 who are neither in school nor working has tripled since 1980. Workforce participation among men has fallen below 90%, while median hourly wages are $3 less per hour, adjusted for inflation, than they were in 1970. (Scott Galloway)

Mortgage Rate Updates:

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage backed by Freddie Mac rose to 6.91% as of January 2nd, the highest since July. The rise was aligned with the surge in long-dated Treasury yields, prompted by hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve and strong economic data. “Inching up to just shy of seven percent, mortgage rates reached their highest point in nearly six months,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Compared to this time last year, rates are elevated and the market’s affordability headwinds persist. However, buyers appear to be more inclined to get off the sidelines as pending home sales rise.”.

Source: Freddie Mac