by stephenlee This week’s Interest Rate (40th Week)
30 Y Rate: 3.625%/ 15 Year Rate:3.125%/ 10 Y Treasury: 1.551%/ Prime Rate:5.00%
Ref IR: 1.75- 2.00%
New Jersey 300 school districts might be re-structured
(The Korea Times 10/9)
- The Governor Murphy announced that $10 M budget will be used to lead the New Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP). A part of this budget, $2 M might be dedicated to K-12 grades re-structuring which indicates the Governor Murphy is considering school district consolidation/re-structuring seriously.
- Senate President Stephen Sweeny mentioned this plan will reduce from current 600 district down to 320, which will induce tax savings, increasing education quality and efficiency. Those towns which run only K-6 or K-8 will be merged into bigger towns which run K-High school.
- The merged town will include Alpine, Closter, Demarest, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, Harrington Park, East Rutherford, Allendale, etc.
Highest Rent area in US is Zip code 10282 in Manhattan
(The Korea Daily 10/8)
- According to RENT Cafe annual report of 130 zip code area, rent ranking #1 through #3 are in Manhattan. Most of top 50 area are in NYC and California. NYC zip codes are 28 among top 50: 26 Manhattan, 1 Queens, 1 Brooklyn. The rest are 18 California area and 4 Boston area.
- Zip 10282 in Manhattan is #1 with $6,211: ranking #1 for two consecutive years. It was up by 12.4% compared to the last year and 1st time above than $6,000.
- Ranking #2 area zip code is 10013 in Manhattan at $5,033, which is up by 5.4%.
- Ranking #4 area zip code is 90024 in California at $4,944, which is up by 4.1% from last year.
Forever 21 bankruptcy affected many other legal action against the company
(The Korea Daily 10/4)
- Total of 52 civil suits are under process and all stopped due to the recent bankruptcy file of the company: Civil suits are related to patent law, labor law, mass tort suit.
- Chapter 11 allows owner to run the company through re-structuring, delay debt payment, etc. to help re-gain the control of the company.
- Usually the whole process of Chapter 11 takes 3 -5 years and therefore it becomes very difficult for plaintiff to get 100% reward out of the claim even if the company is survived after bankruptcy.
IMF chief said Trade conflicts fuel synchronized global slowdown
(The Record/NYT 10/9)
- The new head, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva mentioned that the updated IMF forecast to be released next week will show growth falling to its lowest point since the beginning of this decade. The world economy is in the grips of synchronized global slowdown for 90% of the world this year.
- She blamed much of the slowdown on rising trade conflicts which could mean a loss of around $700B in output by the end of next year – 0.8% of the world GDP, which is equivalent to the size of Switzerland’s entire economy.
- IMF is monitoring a total of 189 nations world wide.
18 Story, 230,000 sf building in Murray Hills, Manhattan sold at $122.5M ($532/sf)
(The NYT 10/9)
- The building at 300 East 42nd St at 2nd Ave was built in 1964. It has 4 ground level stores and it is being vacated in preparation for the major renovation.
- Buyers are Keith Rubenstein’s Somerset Partners and Meadow Partners.
- Seller is ULM Holding and Seller broker: Darcy Stacom of CBRE.
- 265 Lafayette Street between Price and Spring St in SOHO, 800 sf was leased at $280/sf by Safire Homme, a man’s fine jewelry store, to annual rent of $224,000. This building is pre-war, 6 story mixed use, including 2 retail units and residential units.
White cabinet with Stainless Steel is the trend
(The Korea Daily 10/5)
- According to NAHB’s recent report, M Gen likes White color design by 31%, Dark Brown by 18%, Medium Brown by 16%, Black by 14%, Gray by 13%. For home appliances, M Gen likes Stainless Steel by 64%, Black by 22%, White by 12%.
- M Gen chose Granite and natural stone counter top by 62%, Quarts engineering stone by 17%, Laminate by 12%.
Real Estate market is moving toward Seller Market in US
(The Korea Daily 10/7)
- According to Refin, house price in August rose 2.7% from last year. While house price increase stays in the medium level, the market is moving toward seller’s market between supply and demand. Also Refin reported that house sales in August was increased by 10.8 from last year, while house supply was decreased by 5.7%. Among 85 towns, only 20 towns have more listings than last year.
No appraisal needs for a mortgage process for under $400,000 house
(The Korea Daily 10/4)
- FRB, FDIC, OCC announced that exemption limit for no appraisal will be from $250,000 to $400,000 as of 1/1/2020.
- The current limit was decided in 1994 and there was no change since then.
- According to Prime mortgage, Brian Chung, some banks started waiving the appraisal process already. Those banks will use the sale contract price if the price is within 7% with their internal estimated price.