Weekly News (May 29, 2024)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation  5/29/2024

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

California Plan to Add Housing Falls Short

 캘리포니아  조닝 플랜이 주택난의 문제

Korea Times   5/22/24 

• The law, SB9 allows owners of properties with single-family homes anywhere in the state to sell or split off part of their lot, and permits each lot to include up to two units, including duplexes.
• Two years after the law went into effect, fierce resistance from local officials, as well as complex hurdles for homeowners to add multiunit buildings to their properties, have kept neighborhoods of only single-family homes dominant in the Golden State.
• Fewer than 500 property owners have sought to subdivide their land under the SB9, according to state data. The number of new housing units completed is in the dozens. California’s median home price reached a record $904,210 in April, according to the Cal. Ass. of Realtors.     

Home Sales Fall in Prime Season

          주택판매, 성수기에 하락… 

WSJ  5/23/24 

• Home sales fell in April for the second straight month, as high mortgage rates and near record prices continue to stall the market during the prime selling season.  Said NAR, sales of previously owned homes decreased 1.9% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.14M. 
• The decline last month came as a surprise to housing analysts. Economists surveyed by WSJ estimated sales of previously owned homes rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4% in April from March.
• That shortage is pushing prices higher. The national median existing-home price rose 5.7% in April from a year earlier to $407,600, NAR said. 

U.S. median Home Price/Home Sales 

WSJ 5/23/24

Reinsurance Market Driving Rise in Home-Coverage Costs

       재보험 시장이 소비자 주택 보험료 인상 요인

WSJ    5/25/24 

• Insurers buy reinsurance policies to limit their risks. After suffering a sharp drop in profits, reinsurers raised rates and cut coverage at the start of last year. That hit home insurers, making it harder to manage their losses from storms and other extreme weather events. Many of them passed on the higher costs and reduced coverage to their customers.
• Home insurers are hiking rates and pulling back from disaster-prone areas, such as Houston. Since the start of last year, regulators have greenlighted a 26% home-insurance rate increase in Texas, one of 45 states to suffer a double-digit increase.
• On Thursday, the NOAA predicted an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season with the largest number of major hurricanes it has ever forecast.

Robust Growth in Home Prices Persists

      주택가격 상승은 꾸준해…

WSJ  5/29/24 

• The S& P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose 6.5% from a year earlier in March, the same as the prior month, according to data published on Tuesday.
• The Case-Shiller 10-city index rose 8.2% on year in March, following a 8.1% increase in January.   The 20-city index rose 7.4%, a small uptick from the 7.3% in February, in the prior month. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected the 20-city index to rise 7.3%.
• The index, which measures repeat-sales data, reports on a two-month delay and reflects a three-month moving average. Homes usually go under contract a month or two before they close, so the March data is based on purchase decisions made earlier last year..

S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index

WSJ 5/29/24

U.S. supports $6.4B to SamSung’s Semi-conductor Biz

      미 “삼성전자 64억갈러 반도체 보조금＂

Korea Times  4/16/24 

• The Department of Commerce announced they will provide the supporting fund($6.4B) to SamSung Semi-conductor business in U.S. and they signed PMT
• The Department said that SamSung is expected to invest over $40B in U.S. , which could lead to create more than 20,000 jobs. 
• SamSung Electronics’ semi-conductor factory is currently under construction in Taylor, TX, costing $17B, and they will plan to expand to invest $40B till 2030.
• U.S. supported $8.5B to Intel and $6.6B to TSMC(Taiwan) so far in order to boost semi-conductor biz in U.S.

OpenAI, News Corp in Content Deal

 Open AI와 News Corp 사와 기사내용 교환 계약 체결

WSJ  5/23/24 

• WSJ owner News Corp struck a major content-licensing pact with generative AI company OpenAI, aiming to cash in on a technology that promises to have a profound impact on the news publishing industry.
• The deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years, including compensation in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology. OpenAI would use content from News Corp’s consumer facing news publications, including archives.
• The News Corp-OpenAI deal is the latest illustration of the differing approaches adopted by publishers looking to address the rise of generative AI.

U.S.-China Divide Stalls Shein’s IPO

      미중 관계가 Shein사의 뉴욕 주식 상장을 방해

WSJ  5/29/24 

• Fast-fashion giant Shein seemed to be on a roll. The purveyor of $3 T-shirts, $10 jeans and other ultra-low priced clothing had become one of the world’s biggest fashion companies, with hundreds of millions of customers. In November, it filed to go public in New York, raising expectations it would be one of the biggest IPOs in years.
• Now the company is awkwardly stuck in the middle of U.S.-China tensions, and its hopes for a New York initial public offering have faded.
• The SEC told Shein its application wouldn’t be accepted unless it submitted a public filing, people with knowledge of the matter said—a move that securities lawyers say is unusual. Shein still hasn’t done so.