Weekly News (December 3, 2024)

Mortgage Interest Rates Review

United Mortgage Nation 12/2/2024

                  Federal Fund Rate: 4.50 -4.75%        Prime Rate: 7.50 – 7.75%

More than a half of movers head to South

 이주자 절반이  남부지역으로  

Korea Times    12/2/24(Mon)

• 46% of U,DS, movers this year headed to South, like FL and TX, said NAR, and 25% moved to West, 18% to Mid-West, and 11% moved to North East.
• 372,670 population moved to FL and 315,301 moved to TX this year.
• In GA, 2010 population was 9,712,209 and it grew to 10,912,876 in 2022 which is 12.4% increase, while U.S. overall population grew 7.7%. Among other counties, Gwinnett County had the largest growth with 167,374 more residents.
• The reasons to move South are 1) house price is low 2) property and income taxes are low 3) more active jobs and opportunities 4) mild weather.

Due to high price, Assembled Small houses are popular

집값 부담에… 조립식소형 주택 인기 

Korea Times     11/25/24(Mon)

• According to CNN report, younger generation home buyers are starting look into purchasing homes like tiny assembled houses, mobile homes, and containers homes through Amazon, Paybook Market place, etc.
• This year 77,000 such small houses were made which increased 16% from a year ago, and they cost home buyers $30,000 – $50,000. They can be delivered too. Most of them are located in rural areas.
• Cons are 1) some local regulation prohibits such homes 2) possibly relatively big cost for infrastructure such as water and drainage 3) most mortgage lenders don’t allow to lend money which leads to private loans.

$30K-$40K houses from Amazon.com

Korea Times 11/25/24

Price premium/Repair Cost/Average age of U.S. housing

WSJ  12/3/24

Immigration Plan will Curb Job Growth

이민 계획이 노동시장 성장에  저해       

WSJ 11/30/24(Sat)

• President-elect Donald Trump’s plans are almost certain to slow that source of growth. The question is by how much. Employment has grown an average of 170,000 jobs a month this year. Depending on exactly how Trump plans to clamp down on illegal immigration and deport unauthorized migrants, independent estimates suggests that growth could be reduced by 25,000 to 100,000 jobs next year.
• Since 2021, immigration has added about 10 million people to the U.S. population, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Less than one-third came into the country legally on immigrant visas, work or student visas, or as refugees. Many of the rest crossed the border without authorization or overstayed their visas, often requesting to remain after they entered..

Foreign born workers w/o college degree

WSJ 11/30/24

Top 10 industries that rely most heavily on foreign born workers w/o college degree

WSJ 11/30/24

Googling is for Old People: Problem for Google

        구글은 이제 노년충에게 적합: 구글의 문제                   

WSJ   11/30/24(Sat)

• And it’s not just demographics that are weighing on the search giant. Its core business is under siege from Amazon, TikTok and AI. If Google were a ship, it would be the Titanic in the hours before it struck an iceberg— riding high, supposedly unsinkable, and about to encounter a force of nature that could make its name synonymous with catastrophe.
• The company’s core business is under siege. People are increasingly getting answers from artificial intelligence. Younger generations are using other platforms to gather information. And the quality of results delivered by its search engine is deteriorating as the web is flooded with AI-generated content.
• As with its attempt to break up Microsoft, the government’s case against Google may be outpaced by competitive forces far more powerful than antitrust enforcement.

       Share of US search advertisement Revenue

WSJ  11/3024

Alphabet Segment Revenue

Sales of Bibles are Booming, Fueled by First-Time buyers

                성경 판매가 처음 사는 사람들로 인해 증가

WSJ  12/2/24(Mon)

• Worries about the economy, conflicts abroad and uncertainty over the election pushed readers toward the publication in droves. Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period.
• “People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” said Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers As-sociation. “It’s related to AI, election cycles…and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”
• HarperCollins Publishers, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, cited Bibles among a handful of particularly strong sellers in its latest earnings report. Also on the list was the memoir of Vice President-elect JD Vance, “Hillbilly Elegy.”