Weekly News (February 21, 2018)

1. Leonia, NJ, traffic ban for non-residents → Leads to Protest

The mayor said town will change the sign contents → Residents and Customers may enter…
About 80 Business owners protested and demonstrated on the street, requesting that the ban should be lifted
The policy to ban detour traffics has created bigger problem → Critical damages on business

2. Palisades Park, NJ → Good signal for the First Korean Mayor

Chris Chung was elected as Mayor candidate in the Democratic party meeting
Chris Chung received 40 votes out of 71 (Current Mayor got 31) → Might lead to win
Bergen County support → If Bergen county support achieved, he will get the first position in the Ballet
3 Korean candidates (Jong Chul Lee, Pual Kim, Yoonku Woo) will fight for 2 council member seats

3. Manhattan SPA, owned by Korean, was shut down due to illegal prostitution

In Time Square, ‘Elis Spa’ between 40^th St and 7^th Ave shot down by authority on 13^th
Sting operation by a police → Negotiate at $60 for a sex → Repeated same arrest twice → shut down the store
In 2016, 2 owners arrested for arranging prostitution
Open advertisement : ’20~24 years old Asian girls provide service: massage and sex’

4. Investors in Korea are looking into US commercial properties (Interview by WD Park)

Korean government announced higher tax for real estate investors : Two type of taxes:
1)Property tax (low) and 2) General RE tax (Depending on the value of the property)
They start looking into US commercial market with more or less than 5% Cap rate
Kangnam area in Korean provides 3~4% Return rate (Properties in good location goes under 3%) (Properties in rural area go with 7~10%)
Unclear political situation is one of reason that investors are interested in US properties
They deem US has much less regulations and almost no interferences from government
EB-5 immigration investment is another avenue to come to US and do RE business
They like less risk than high return à could expand to development as they are familiar with local environment

5. Home building jumps in Jan

Groundbreakings on new homes jumped 9.7% last month → Highest level since Oct 2016
33 Million in January from 1.21 Million in December (1.24 Million in Jan 2017)
Single family rose 3.7% and Condo / Apartment rose 19.7%
Northeast went up by 45.5%, West went up by 10.7%, South went up by 9.3%, but Midwest dropped by 10.2% → Builders haven’t been putting up homes fast enough to in meet demand
According to Standard & Poor’s (Corelogic Case-Shiller Index, US home prices went up by 6.2% in Nov from a year earlier
The National Association of Home Builders / Wells Fargo builder sentiment index read 72(Usually 50 is good rather poor / The index has been above 60 since September 2016)

6. Renters increased sharply for last 10 years

23 Million renters increased between 2006 and 2016
In 2006, 20 cities among 100 has more renters → In 2016, 42 cities has more renters
Newark : 74%, Jersey City: 70%, Miami: 68%, DC:65%, Boston: 64%
US nationwide, 36% are renters

7. Rent payment records will be reflected to Credit Score

The system might be helpful to low credit score renters
The target is 27 apartments renters in South Bronx → Called ‘Making Rent Count’ program
About 600 renters registered → Rent payment records will be sent to credit companies
NYC starts from low income area first → spread to wider area

8. Non-immigration Visa entry form Korea to US continues to grow for 3 years

2015: 73,402 → 2016: 77,370 → 2017: 79,107
B1,B2, E, F, H (Job), J (Exchange Program), L (Corporate Tr),M (Vocational school), O (Specialist), P (Art& Athletic), R (Religion), etc.
2007: 448,636 → In 2009 during financial crises, dropped to 122,370 (70% down) → Reduced to 73,000 in 2014
But H visa dropped from 3945 (2015) → 3654 (2016) → 2812 (2017)
F visa dropped from 30,565 (2015) → 28,491 (2016) → 25,678 (2017)