Weekly News (August 3, 2022)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review (30th Week)

(by Fairway Home Loan 8/2/2022)

Portal Bridge project did Ground Breaking: Gateway project의 첫사업으로 “포털 브리지”  공사 착수

(Korea Times  8/3/2022)

• As the first phase of Gateway Project, the Portal Bridge renovation has begun and had a ground breaking ceremony on Aug. 1. About 450 trains are passing through daily this bridge which is bridging the rail roads between NY and NJ, and the bridge is getting aged for 112 years.
• The total cost will be $1.6B and 60% of the cost will be paid by Federal Government and the remaining portion will be shared by NJ and NY. The new bridge will be open in Nov. 2025 and the project will be completed by 2027.
• The Hudson River tunnel project is expected to begin in 2023.

ADM misses Aug.1 deadline for debt payment: 아메리칸 드림, 8/1일자 할부금 미납

(Record  8/3/2022)

• The developers behind the American Dream megamall and entertainment complex missed an Aug. 1 deadline for payments on $290M of debt used to finance the mall – latest signs of financial stress for the Meadowlands project.
• According to a notice to bondholders by U.S. Bank Trudst Co.,Canadian developer Triple Five missed an $8.8M semi-annual interest payment to bondholders.
• American Dream reported $60M in losses last year amid the pandemic, and is challenging $9M that several neighboring municipalities say the mall owns them.
• Mall officials expected 40M annual visitors as they opened attractions like 300-foot Ferris wheel, an indoor ski slope, an ice-skating rink, an amusement park and water park – all amenities that Triple Five says separate it from traditional malls and will help the facility overcome the challenges facing brick-and mortar retail.

Apartment Rent Increases Taper Off: 아파트 렌트비 상승률 감소 시작 

(WSJ   8/2/2022)

• After more than a year of record run-ups in apartment rents, growth is starting to cool off, a trend that could help housing affordability and ease the rise in overall inflation, according to several market measures.
• Nationally, average apartment rents rose 9.4% in the 2nd Qt compared with the same Qt in 2021, said Costar Group. While that is high by historical standards, it is down from the more than 11% annual increases seen the previous two Qts.
• The run-up in rental prices has occurred alongside an even more pronounced increase in home-sale prices, which are now also beginning to slightly decelerate. A softening also is being seen in single-family home rentals, which like apartments have had record rent growth. May was the first month since January of 2021 that annual rent growth for single-family homes didn’t increase over the rate of the previous month, CoreLogic said.

Average National apartment rent, change from a year ago

WeWork Joins Rush to Offer Office Software: “위웍“ 이 사무실용 소프트 웨어를 무료 제공 시작

(WSJ 8/3/2022)

• WeWork Inc. is hoping to boost its drooping share price by joining the growing number of technology companies selling apps, data tools and other software to landlords and office tenants trying to adjust to hybrid workplaces.
• Nine months after going public, the shared-workplace operator in July launched a service named WeWork Workplace, which includes the software tools that WeWork has been using to power its locations. For the first time, WeWork is offering these tools to all tenants regardless of WeWork membership.
• But WeWork isn’t alone in looking into new business opportunities in the upheaval in the office-space industry caused by the pandemic, competitors offering apps, data, telecommunications and other software include technology companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Honeywell Int’l Inc.

U.S. Factories are Far from Recession: 미국내  공장에는  불황이 먼 소리

(WSJ  8/2/2022)

• Historically, even garden-variety economic slowdowns, much less full-blown recession, have sent U.S. manufacturers into a deep funk. But right now, factories aren’t a source of gloom.
• The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said its index of factory activity came in at 52.8 last month, down slightly from June’s 53, but above the 50 is break point between manufacturing expansion and contraction.
• The ISM says index readings below 48.7 over a period indicate that GDP is declining. Yet even though the Commerce Dept reported last week that GDP contracted again in the 2nd Qt after contracting in the 1st Qt, the manufacturing index is in growth territory.
• It is a reflection of what a strange state the economy is in right now, and of odd juncture that U.S. factories are at.

Fall in Job Openings Signals Cooling Labor Market: 풍성하던 일자리 수자가 줄어들면서 고용시장도 식기 시작

(NYT  8/3/2022)

• The number of job openings fell for the third consecutive month in June, a sign that the red-hot U.S. Labor market may be starting to cool off.
• The employers posted 10.7M vacant positions on the last day of June, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is high by historical standards but a sharp drop from the 11.3M openings in May and the record 11.9M in March.
• The drop was concentrated in retail, the latest sign that the sector is struggling as consumers shift their spending from goods back to services as the pandemic ebbs. But job postings have also fallen in leisure and hospitality, the sector that was the most strained by labor shortages last year.

Keeping the Mortgage in the Family: 가족, 친척내에서 모기지로 주택 구입 – 높은 이자률 극복

(WSJ 7/23/2022)

• For those who can afford it, now is a great time to help out house-hunting relatives. Such loans are of the last places borrowers can get a 3% mortgage. With average mortgage rates near 6% for a 30-year loan, some lucky home buyers are snagging rate at half that. They are borrowing from family members instead of a bank.
• If the loan is for $10,000 or more, the default IRS rule says the parents have to charge interest. A loan agreement should spell out the amount borrowed, the interest rates, and the terms of the loan. The key thing is structuring the agreement and treating it as a bona fide loan.
• Parents can use a combination of gifts and loans. For 2022, an individual can give up to $16,000 to any number of people, known as the annual gif-tax exclusion. (Both parents can give $32,000.) If the child cannot make a payment, parents might make additional gifts of cash, keeping under the annual gift tax exclusion threshold.

Mortgage Rates Fall; 30-Year Is Now 5.3%: 모기지 이자률 내려; 30년 고정이자가 5.3%로  

(WSJ 7/29/2022)

• Mortgage rates fell after rising for two straight weeks, another indication that recession concerns are affecting the U.S. housing market. Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 5.3%. That is down from 5.54% last week and below the 13-year high of 5.81% recorded in June.
• Over the past week, investors have piled into U.S. Treasury, often seen as a haven during times of economic uncertainty. This week, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell to it lowest level since April. Yields fall when prices rise.
• The U.S. economy shrank for the second quarter in a row, the Commerce Dept said Thursday. GDP from residential investment, including the construction of single and multi-family homes and remodeling, fell 14%. This category accounts for between 3% and 5% of GDP, said NAHB.

Average rate on 30-year fixed mortgage