Neighborhood grocery stores can signal home price trends.
• Areas with higher-end stores like Trader Joe’s or Sprouts saw home prices rise about 6% above average.
• While areas with discount stores like Walmart saw growth about 4% below average.
• However, experts say this is not caused by the stores themselves—rather, retailers choose locations with certain economic conditions.
• Which grocery chain enters a neighborhood can serve as an indicator of that area’s economic strength and growth potential.”
• For homebuyers and investors, analyzing nearby retail brands and commercial areas can help anticipate long-term housing price trends.
Affordable Rental Complex is available in Englewood Cliffs.
• The Sylvan at 1 Valetine St, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
• The total 90 units are available as affordable houses : Studio, 1Br, 2Br, 3Br
• Income level: Very Low, Low, Moderate
#1 $26,730 $44,550 $71,280
#2 $30,540 $50,900 $81,440
#3 $34,350 $57,250 $91,600
• Preference given to applicants who live/work in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, or Sussex counties.
• Amenities: Elevator, Fitness center, Pool, Resident lounge, Game room, Yoga room, Court yard, Kids room, Private dining room, Co-working space, TV room.
• $30 per month per pet.
• Credit check required.
• No co-signer allowed.
NYC Net Migration Plummets 70% Last Year.
• NYC–Increase of 66,000 foreign-born residents last year; 70% decrease compared to the previous year’s 220,000 increase; population growth stagnates.
While the city saw a recovery in migration following the COVID-19 pandemic, factors such as high costs of living and anti-immigration policies have led to a drastic slowdown.
• As of July last year, NYC’s total population was estimated at 8.58 million, down from the 8.8 million recorded in early 2020.
• John Mollenkopf, a professor at CUNY, notes that since 4 out of 10 New Yorkers are immigrants, the city relies heavily on them for growth and essential services
(such as healthcare for the aging population).
• Borough Breakdown: * Queens: Population decreased by 8,900.Brooklyn: Decreased by 4,700. Manhattan: Decreased by 650.
Staten Island: Decreased by 1,700. The Bronx: The only borough with growth, adding 280 people.
Mortgage Rates Climb To a Six-Month High.
• Mortgage rates rose for the fourth straight week to the highest level since September, a sharp reversal that threatens to chill the start of the important spring home-buying season.
• The average rate for a 30year fixed mortgage was 6.38% this week, up from 6.22% last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Rates are the highest since early September 2025, when they stood at 6.5%.
• Mortgage rates fell below 6% in late February for the first time since 2022 but have since surged.
The war in Iran and subsequent oil-price increases have spurred expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep short-term interest rates higher for longer.
Bruised by Stocks, Investors Find Little Relief in Bonds
• The Hormuz blockade has spurred one of the largest oil shocks on record, raising fears of an economic slowdown
that have dragged stock indexes to their lowest levels since August.
But bonds—often a place of safety in times of market turmoil—have offered no relief, hit by worries
that resurgent inflation will keep interest rates higher than expected and undermine the value of their fixed payouts.
• The resulting market strain has been painful for both investors and the economy.
• At the same time, falling bond prices have driven up the yield on the 10-year Treasury note by nearly a half percentage point,
lifting borrowing costs throughout the economy.
Rates on 30-year mortgages recently jumped to 6.38%, reversing a slide that had carried them
to their lowest levels since 2022 and threatening the spring homebuying season.
Oil Supply Crunch Is Spreading From Mideast to Rest of World
• At the center of the supply squeeze in the Middle East, traders are paying an eye-watering $160 a barrel for the Emirati oil
that can dodge the Strait of Hormuz, far above those global benchmarks.
• “The disruption is so massive, we will turn into full panic mode if this situation is not resolved rather quickly,”
A resolution means oil flowing through the strait again. Even then, for prices to fall toward prewar levels,
traders want to see Persian Gulf producers reverse output cuts from the early days of the war.
It would also require long-term sanctions relief on Iran and Russia.
• As of Monday, the closure had sheared 16 million barrels from daily oil supplies, according to JPMorgan Chase analysts.
That shortfall could shrink next month with more oil flowing through the pipe and releases from strategic stockpiles in the U.S. and its allies.
The world economy would still be short 10 million barrels of oil daily.
Powell: Fed Looks Past Oil—for Now.
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday the central bank is inclined to hold rates steady and look past the energy shock from
the war in Iran but cautioned that it might not be able to sit on the sidelines if rising prices shift the public’s expectations about inflation over time.
• Powell, speaking to students at Harvard University, laid out the textbook case for patience:
Energy disruptions tend to be short-lived, and monetary policy works too slowly to counteract them in real time. He added a critical caveat,
however, by noting how five years of above-target inflation made it harder to assume the public would simply shrug off another round of rising prices.
• The Fed held rates steady at its meeting on March 18, voting 11-1 to keep the federal funds rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
Fed governor Stephen Miran, a Trump appointee, was the lone dissenter in favor of a cut.
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