From CNBC:
Home prices hit record high in May as sales stall
Sales of previously owned homes are sitting at a 30-year low and didn’t move much in May as prices hit a new record and mortgage rates remain high.
So-called existing home sales in May were essentially flat, down 0.7% from April to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.11 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors, or NAR. Sales fell 2.8% from May of last year.
This count of closed sales is based on contracts likely signed in March and April. The sluggish sales pace came as rates took a big leap in April.
The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan started the month just below 7% and then rose to just over 7.5% by mid-April, before settling back slightly in May, according to Mortgage News Daily. That rate is now right around 7%.
“Home sales refuse to recover,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR. “I thought we would see a recovery this spring. We are not seeing it.”
Sales were unchanged month to month in all regions except the South, where they fell 1.6%.
The biggest change in May is that the inventory of homes for sale jumped, up 6.7% month to month and 18.5% higher than in May last year. At the current sales pace, there is now a 3.7-month supply. While inventory is gaining, it is still very low given demographics and demand.
…
That demand continues to push prices higher. The median price of an existing home sold in May was $419,300, a record-high price in the Realtors’ recording and up 5.8% year over year. The gain was the strongest since October 2022. Prices gained in all regions.
The Realtors noted in a release that the mortgage payment for a typical home today is more than double what it was five years ago. Not only have rates climbed, but home prices are more than 50% higher than they were five years ago. That comes in part because the median is skewing to the higher end.
Sales of homes priced below $250,000 were lower than a year ago, while sales priced between $250,000 and $500,000 were up just 1%. Sales priced between $750,000 and $1 million were 13% higher, and sales priced over $1 million were up nearly 23%.
Cash is still king, accounting for 28% of sales. First-time buyers are hanging in at 31% of sales, up from 28% the year before.
Two-thirds of homes went under contract in less than a month, so competition is still strong despite higher prices. Redfin, a real estate brokerage, is reporting that an increasing number of listings are becoming stale, so if a home comes on the market that is well-priced and doesn’t need much work, it goes fast. Other homes are sitting longer.
First F-ckersss
I see all 31 arrested at the Columbia academic building takeover had charges dropped. The only ones in trouble are those who directly assaulted police officers.
A Swiss court handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family, the Hindujas, on Friday, branding them “selfish” for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion.
Lawyers for the members of the Swiss-Indian family — who were not present in court — said they would appeal the verdict.
The defendants were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted on other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at 37 billion pounds ($47 billion) by the Sunday Times.
Prakash Hinduja, 78, and his wife Kamal Hinduja, 75, each got four years and six months, while their son Ajay, 56, and his wife Namrata, 50, received four-year terms, the presiding judge in Geneva ruled.
They were convicted of “usury” for having taken advantage of their vulnerable immigrant staff to pay them a pittance.
“The employees’ inexperience was exploited,” judge Sabina Mascotto said in her judgement. “They had little education or none at all and had no knowledge of their rights.
“The defendants’ motives were selfish,” she said, adding that the Hindujas were motivated “by the desire for gain”.
yes, but nobody is above the law
Bannon wishes he was.
Medical news JJ style
https://nypost.com/2024/06/22/lifestyle/penis-cancer-cases-surge-across-the-globe-docs-reveal-how-to-protect-yourself-avoid-amputation/
When they say the quiet part out loud.
Here’s Trump alluding to the fact that Project 2025 will end free and fair elections.
“In four years you don’t have to vote, ok. In four years don’t vote, I don’t care… We’ll have it all straightened out so it’ll be much different.”
https://x.com/TrumpFile/status/1804583483953582215
For a venue with a capacity of 10,500, Donnie is packing them into the rafters.
https://x.com/WUTangKids/status/1804646616663564462
This really should be mandatory viewing for anyone in here that wants to discuss politics in depth! It is Scary!
LEFT,I will be interesting in understanding how you are balancing this?
The Heritage Foundation explains Project 2025.
https://x.com/FordJohnathan5/status/1804603996314751127
Pool is 86F from just the sun today… Stay frosty my friends.
75 and overcast in Cleveland
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY&pp=ygUXY2xldmVsYW5kIHRvdXJpc20gdmlkZW8%3D
Odds on a full Trump meltdooooown on Live TV…???
Or will he just be a petulant cunt? Film at 11.
Republican strategist Karl Rove said Saturday that former President Trump has been declining in the polls since his New York hush money case conviction.
“I agree; in fact, take a look at the evidence,” Rove said when asked by Fox News host Paul Gigot on “The Journal Editorial Report” if he agrees there is “movement towards” President Biden in the polls following the conviction.
Rove also held up a whiteboard that appeared to list polls.
“Here it is,” Rove continued. “These are the polls since June 1st. If they’re in red, Donald Trump won ‘em, if they’re in blue, Joe Biden is leading, and if they’re in green, it’s a tie. And take a look, from the 1st of the month, where it’s Trump up by 1, Trump up by 2, Trump up by 1, Biden up by 1, a tie, Trump up by 2, Biden up by 2, tie, Biden up by 2. So there’s been a trend since the … May 30th guilty verdict in the New York case.”
According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s average of national polls, Trump is ahead of Biden by only 0.6 percentage points, at 44.5 percent support versus the current president’s 43.9 percent.
The former president became the first former U.S. president to have the status of being a convicted felon last month, following a jury finding him guilty on all counts of falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair amid his 2016 campaign.
Biden and Trump are set to debate next week for the first time since 2020, and Rove has previously said that a debate between Biden and Trump would be the most significant one in recent decades.
“This will be the most important presidential debate, if it happens, since at least the 1980 presidential debate,” Rove said on Fox News to anchor Martha MacCallum back in April.
Donald Trump made a very interesting immigration proposal on a podcast released Thursday: giving green cards to all foreign college graduates in the United States. But hours later, his campaign said the plan would not be so clear-cut.
Appearing with right-wing tech baron David Sacks on the All-In podcast, Trump said he would implement the proposal helping international students if he returns to the White House. It’s a departure from Trump’s usual anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the statement came after one of the other podcast hosts, investor Jason Calcanis, asked him to “promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America.”
“I do promise, but I happen to agree,” Trump said, and added that “what I will do is—you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges.”
If Trump was serious, it would open up citizenship possibilities to a large number of foreigners—there were about one million international students in the United States in 2022, for example. But Trump’s campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, walked back the plan hours later, issuing a statement to The New York Times that it would include an “aggressive vetting process,” excluding “all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.” She added that the plan would only include the “most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America.”
This would seem to bring the college plan in line with Trump’s previous immigration policies, which have been long criticized as xenophobic, racist, and cruel. The mention of “aggressive vetting” seems very similar to “extreme vetting,” which was the language used to describe Trump’s travel ban, frequently referred to as a “Muslim ban” for its targeting of nationals from several Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, Trump’s new proposal for international students came shortly after he claimed that high levels of immigration constitute an “invasion of our country.”
Trump’s recent rhetoric also makes clear his views on immigration haven’t improved: He’s discussed a mass deportation plan involving police, continues to smear immigrants as criminals, and makes crazy rants at the southern U.S. border. Even before his campaign walked back his college plan, it should have been taken with a big grain of salt.
Drove to Boston today, what a sh1tshow. 1 hr delay in GWB on a Sunday. 1 hr delay in CT. 1 hr delay in MA.
Eat my bird, It’s only a swallow.