Weekly News (May 13, 2025)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation  5/13/2025

                  Federal Fund Rate: 4.25 -4.50%        Prime Rate: 7.25 – 7.50%

New Jersey is #1 for Education in U.S.

뉴저지, 교육에 가장 좋은주 1위    

Korea Daily   5/13/25(Tue)

• According to U.S. News and World Report, New Jersey becomes the best state for education, beating Florida who has kept #1 for many years.
• The report researched the education level from Kinder to K-12 and college education by analyzing factors such as nationwide accomplishment scores, high school graduation ratio, college graduation ration and tuition, etc. New Jersey did especially outstanding performance on Kinder to K-12.
• New Jesey keeps #1 ranking for Kiner registration ratio and SAT and ACT preparation: High graduation ratio is 90.5%, NAEP(National Assessment of Educational Progress) English score ranked #2, Mathematics score did #5, which lead to #1 for Kinder to K-12 nationwide.
• Overall, Florida is #2, Colorado is #3, Yuta is #4, and Massachusetts is #5.

Spring Home Sales Season Looks Like a Dud

봄철 주택 판매, 부정적    

WSJ   5/12/25(Mon)

• Demand is still soft despite an increase in inventory as rates, prices deter buyers.
• Inventory of homes for sale is steadily rising, but demand is still tepid. Home prices in parts of the country are falling. But with prices not much below record highs, many would-be buyers are still squeezed out. Mortgage rates are hovering around 6.75%, more than double the level of only a few years ago.
• The real-estate industry had higher expectations going into this year after existing-home sales in 2023 and 2024 dropped to the lowest levels since the mid-1990s.
• Many sellers who have to move because of job relocations, growing families or other life changes can’t put off listing their homes indefinitely. That is helping wind down a long stretch when historically low supply kept sales depressed.

U.S. Existing Home Sales

WSJ 5/12/25

Boston Home Owners Face $1B Tax Bill

보스톤 주택 소유주들, $1B 재산세 담당해야…     

WSJ   5/7/25(Wed)

• When the value of the city’s commercial buildings falls, that places a higher tax burden on Boston residential owners. Since it can take years for tax assessments to change, tax bills earlier this year were the first since the outbreak of Covid-19 that boosted residential tax rates because of a major decline in commercial values.
• While homeowners in other cities are starting to feel this tax burden, it is particularly extreme in Boston.
• Continued downward pressure on commercial values would shift more than $1 billion of Boston’s tax burden to homeowners over the next five years, according to a report from the nonprofit Boston Policy Institute. Those increases would be on top of additional tax hikes many owners face because their homes have risen in value.

Boston office vacancy

WSJ 5/7/25

U.S., China Slash Tariffs for 90 Days

90일간 중국과 관세 휴전    

WSJ    5/13/25(Tue)

• The U.S. and China agreed on Monday to slash punishingly high tariffs on each other’s products, jump-starting global markets and resetting the tone between the world’s two largest economies from outright conflict to constructive engagement.
• The world’s two biggest economies unwound for now most of the tariffs they had imposed on each other since April in a battle that was threatening to stoke U.S. inflation, crash China’s export engine and upend the global economy.
• The U.S. agreed to lower the base level of tariffs on most Chinese goods to 30%, from 145%, while China said it would cut its levies on U.S. products to 10% from 125%.
• Washington and Beijing agreed to keep the new tariff levels in place for 90 days, with the goal of working toward a broader deal on trade in further talks.

Trump unveiled Framework for a Trade Deal with U.K.

트럼프, 영국과 관세 협의안 발표     

WSJ    5/9/25(Fri)

• President Trump said Thursday his administration and the U.K. agreed to the outlines of a deal on trade, the first in what the White House hopes will be a series of agreements in the wake of U.S. tariffs imposed on allies and adversaries alike.
• The pact, which appeared to have been put together hastily by U.S. and U.K. officials, is fairly limited in scope. The Trump administration agreed to roll back tariffs imposed on British steel and automobiles in exchange for purchasing Boeing jets and giving U.S. farmers greater access to U.K. markets.
• Under the deal, most U.K. goods will still be subject to the global 10% tariff the U.S. imposed on all countries in April. But U.K. steel and aluminum will be exempt from the U.S.’s 25% levy and U.K. car tariffs will be lowered to 10% from 25% for the first 100,000 vehicles.

Disney Plans Theme Park in Abu Dhadi

디즈니사, 아부다비에 디즈니단지 게울 계획

WSJ   5/8/25(Thu)

• Disney is planning a theme park in Abu Dhabi, an expansion of its lucrative Experiences business that will give the entertainment company an anchor in a major new market.
• The Disneyland project will be the company’s seventh global park. It will be designed by Disney Imagineers and financed and built by Miral, a local company that has built theme parks for other companies on the same island where the new project will be located.
• The company’s shares rose 11% $102.09 on Wednesday.
• Disney hasn’t announced how big the new Abu Dhabi park will be. Iger said in a CNBC interview Wednesday that parks typically take 18 months to two years to design and five years to build.

Concept of the the Theme Park in Abu Dhabi

WSJ  5/8/25