Weekly News (March 28, 2018)

1. Jaguar HQ will stay in Mahwah, NJ

Jaguar Land Rover North America celebrated new HQ in Mahwah off RT 17 – 144,000 SF (Former Sharp location)
$30 Million investment: Show room plus 30,000 SF for research center, training and development center – 360 employees
One time, moving out considered → decided to stay with offer for 10 year, $28 Million tax break in 2015
They were located in MacArthur Boulevard, 5 miles away
Mercedes-Benz moved to Atlanta along with about 1000 jobs recently
Jaguar has a total of 232 facilities in North America

2. NJ Towns (Heavily Korean populated) Property tax increased

Palisades Park: 2.5% , Ridgefield: 3.3%, Fort Lee: 1.5% increase
Palisades Park → $29.78 town education budget introduced
Murphy Governor announced $9.6 Billion budget ($283 Million increased) for shortage of education budget for each town → Still each town needs more budget for teacher’s salary
Ridgefield will receive $2.73 Million from the State → Still Tax increase is unavoidable

3. New York City, 1 out of 10 Apartments →Vacant

According to 2017 Census, 11% (237,977 units) of total apartment units → Vacant
35% Up, compared to 2014
Among vacant units, 28,000 units → No tenant yet / 8000 units → Under development / 9,600 units → Under litigation / 12,700 units → Tenant (Senior) went Nursing homes / About 100,000 units → Pieds-a-terre (Visitor use) / 27,009 units → Without specific reason (→ Possibly Airbnb, etc.: hard to get statistics)

4. This Year, First Home Buyer?

2018 for FHB is not so bright ← Tax reform, Interest rate increase, Low inventory
Low inventory/High demand → Pushing house price upward
January inventory increase to 1.52 Million → 4.1% Up, compare to last month (Lower than last year by 9.5%)
According to NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun, Wall street investors buy low / middle priced houses and converted to rental properties → Partial reason for low inventory
Also seller does not lower house price → Low/middle price houses: 5-6% higher than expectation
SALT deduction limit to $10,000 → Not so good effect to NY / NJ high taxed houses

5. Home prices post 6.2% gain

Case-Shiller index climbed to 6.2% in Jan from a year ago (December, 6.3%)
Main reason: Low inventory and price surge will continue and tough competition
Strong economy boost influx of younger millennials to shop for home anyway
Price rose 12.9% in Seattle. 11.1% in Las Vegas, 10.2% in San Francisco
Chicago, Washington DC posted 2.4%
Average consumption rate of inventory shortened to 3.4 Months from 6 month since 2000

6. Mortgage program with no income verification become popular

‘Stated Income Mortgage’
Interest rate difference becomes minimum (About 0.25% higher) and Credit Score condition is less important (640 or higher)
Last year: 1 out of 10 applicants → This year: 3 out of 10 applicants
Self-employee → More than 2 years business (2 year financial statement instead of income doc)
Mortgage industry foresees bright future in Real Estate market

7. 1^st Year of Trump era → Korean immigrants reduced under 20,000

19,284 New Green card issued in2017 → 5 Down, compared to last year
2000 → 15,107 / 2004 → 19,441 / 2005 → 26,562 / 2006 → 24,386 / 2008 → 26,666 (Peak)
2015 → 17,138 / 2016 → 21,801
In 2017, 14,356 → Green card while they are in US / 4,298 → Applied in Korea
32 got Green card, escaped from North Korea / 12 got Green card as refugee
Total 1,128,194 Green card → 4.7% Down, compared to last year

8. Tesla Model X got accident on California Highway and killed the driver

On 3/27, Model X hit the divider and collided with 2 cars → The driver was killed
Authority said it is not sure the car was with driverless mode or not at this moment

9. G2(US and China) Trade War affects US Stock market last week

Worry about beginning of G2 War → Dow Index dropped by 424.69 (1.77%) to 23,533.20 (Total 1,150 dropped including 724 points drop at the Trump’s signing executive order: Tariff Package)
S &P 500 index dropped 55.43 (2.10%) to 2,588.26
Nasdaq index dropped by 174.01(2.43%) to 6,992.67
On 3/26, Worry on G2 War is being easy due to G2 Negotiation
Dow index finished to 24,202.60 / S&P 500 finished to 2,658.55
Nasdaq finished to 7,220.54

10. New York City, lowest unemployment rate ever

Last month, UE rate to 4.2% (NY State: 4.6%) → Lowest since July 2007 (6 month before financial crises)
Jan 2018 → 3% ( NY State: 4.7%)
NYC increased 28,700 jobs in civilian sector in February → Total employment: 8,151,000
US nationwide UE rate → 4.1%

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