Weekly News (May 27, 2025)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation  5/20/2025

                  Federal Fund Rate: 4.25 -4.50%        Prime Rate: 7.25 – 7.50%

New York’s Wealthiest People All Want To Live Downtown Now

뉴욕 거부들, 다운타운에 살기를 원해…

WSJ   5/23/25(Fri)

• Following tech and finance firms to Lower Manhattan, buyers are flocking to the Village, Tribeca and West Chelsea, a seismic shift is taking place in downtown Manhattan. Traditionally, the city’s most expensive real estate has been uptown, on Billionaires’ Row, Central Park West and the Upper East Side. But with a spate of big-ticket sales and listings below 14th Street, downtown prices are starting to rival the city’s most expensive uptown enclaves. As finance and tech firms have migrated downtown alongside new retail, parks, and cultural institutions—a new wave of luxury condo development along the West Side Highway is luring wealthy buyers to neighborhoods like the West Village, Tribeca and Chelsea.
• “There’s a whole bunch of very wealthy people working in the vicinity, meaning they often want to live in the vicinity,” said real-estate agent Clayton Orrigo of Compass. “They’re buying up the West Side Highway.”

Wealthiest People move to Downtown

WSJ 5/23/25

Immigration Drives Growth in States

미국내 각주들, 이민자들이 성장을 유도     

WSJ   5/27/25(Tue)

• An influx of workers to the U. S. helps offset the residents who are leaving. California is growing again because of immigrants like Dhanakeerthi who is a just-arrived CTO from India. The state’s population rose 0.6% in 2024, reaching 39.43 million by adding almost a quarter-million people, according to Census Bureau estimates.
• Yet California’s growth is tenuous. Without immigration, it would have shrunk significantly in the past year. Net immigration rebounded to more than 300,000 people in 2024, after plunging to as few as 44,000 in the worst year of the pandemic.
• How President Trump’s immigration policies will affect this growth remains a crucial question. Tech leaders—including Elon Musk—defend H-1B visas as essential, but some MAGA supporters argue companies should be forced to hire American workers. Trump so far has supported the program.

Migration to and from California

WSJ 5/27/25

How Higher SALT Cap Will Affect Taxpayers

지방세 공제 한계가 시민에게 미치는 영향은…     

WSJ    5/23/25(Fri)

• Republicans’ giant tax and spending bill aims to give people a bigger break for taxes they pay to state and local governments, but not everybody will benefit.
• The bill would let some people deduct up to $40,000 on their federal returns for the property taxes on their homes, and state income or sales taxes. That deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, would be four times the current cap of $10,000, though it comes with income limitations and other caveats. The changes could go into effect for the 2025 tax year.
• The issue became a sticking point when Congress began negotiating an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, sparking disagreements between Republicans in high-tax states and Republicans who see a higher SALT deduction as a subsidy for state governments. The bill must now go to the Senate, where none of the highest-taxed states are represented by Republicans.

Construction cost in New Home Price is highest in history

신규주택 가격서 건축비 비중 역대 최고

Korea Daily   5/27/25(Tus)

• According to NAHB recent report on 2024 construction costs, major reasons for the high construction costs are increasing labor cost and material costs.
• Among new home price contributors, material and labor costs has hit 64.4% in this report. Among the total material costs, In detail, cost for interior finishing is 24.1%, cost infra facilities is 19.2%, const for flaming is 16.3%, cost for exterior finishing(roofing, windows, siding) is 13.4%, cost for foundation is 10.5%, cost for entitlement is 7.6%, cost for the site management(gardening, etc) is 6.5%, etc.
• In average, the construction cost has reduced generally from 2015 through 2022 except 2024 because the builder is leaning toward the rend that average home size becomes smaller.

Tariff Truce Spurs 90-Day Rush To Move Products Out of China

90일간 관세유예로, 중국 생산품 수입에 난리..    

WSJ   5/27/25(Tue)

• Sky-high tariffs pummeled U.S.-China trade, and now the cease-fire is causing a snapback. Firms across the U.S. are racing to rebook canceled orders and find space on containerships to get products out of China and bring them stateside before the 90-day window closes in August. The turbulence comes as Trump over the weekend eased off his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union, delaying until July 9 levies he said on Friday would take effect June 1.
• In the week beginning May 12, when the trade truce with Beijing was announced, bookings for containers to the U.S. from China more than doubled compared with the week before as the tariff rollback un–leashed a wave of pent-up demand. Bookings surged to the equivalent of around 2.2 million 20-foot boxes, a level not seen in more than a year, according to data from Vizion, a container-tracking software company, and data provider Dun & Bradstreet.

Container move change

WSJ  5/27/25

The Fed is more serious about dropping rates before September

연준인사들, 9월 전 금리인하에 신중론    

Korea Daily   5/27/25(Tue)

• The members of the Fed becomes more cautious about dropping the Federal Funding rates before September due to uncertainty of tariff policy and U.S. credit level’s recent declining. They seems to need more time to watch out and analyze for more time like 3 to 6 months.
• According to Bloomberg/Reuter, John Williams, NY Central Bank president, mentioned in the MBA conference that he doesn’t think anything in U.S. economy will happened in June and July.
• Originally, the FOMC has the meeting schedules in June, July, September, October, and December in 2025

Trump Eyes Privatizing Fannie, Freddie

트럼프, 다시 Fannie, Freddie 민영화에 눈을 돌려…

WSJ   5/22/25(Thu)

• President Trump said he is giving “very serious consideration” to taking the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public after years un-der government control. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right,” Trump wrote in a social- media post Wednesday.
• Skeptics caution that privatizing Fannie and Freddie could, if not done carefully, drive away buyers of mortgage–backed securities and lead to higher mortgage rates.
• A proposal circulated among members of Trump’s team in recent months estimated that the privatized entities would be valued above $330 billion, with the government’s stake at more than $250 billion. Fannie and Freddie would raise an additional $20 billion to $30 billion from new investors, akin to an initial public offering.