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%