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 40th St and 7th Ave shot down by authority on 13th
  • 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)

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