The U.S. added an impressive 250,000 net new jobs in October 2018 (preliminary), with 1.488 million net new jobs year-to-date compared to 1,464 million a year ago for the same period – an increase of 1.61 percent. The total gain in the prior 12-months of 2.516 million represented a 1.71 percent annual job growth rate …Read more
Existing home sales dropped for the fourth month in a row, down percent 4.1 percent in September 2018 versus a year ago to 5.15 million on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis (SAAR) according to National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Sales were down from August 3.4 percent (SAAR). On an unadjusted basis, housing sales in the …Read more
Having returned from the ALTA ONE 2018 conference held at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, I’ve had time to reflect on the sessions, meetings and dinner conversations that stood out. In thinking about the topics, two big themes seemed to rise to the top: consumer protection (wire fraud) and consumer experience. Here’s what the title …Read more
No doubt there is general agreement on the idea that we should leave Mother Earth in better shape than when we arrived. The extent to how much should be done to preserve and improve this planet, however, likely varies across every individual and from city to city. WalletHub developed a methodology to rank the 100 …Read more
Not only have vacation homes been a benefit for owners in escaping the stresses of life, those recently selling are pocketing some impressive gains on the way out of the closing. As usual, I invoke the TINSTAANREM axiom — There Is No Such Thing As A National Real Estate Market or a National Economy. The …Read more
Just as words have meaning, taxes have economic ramifications. This annual blog on the Best State Tax Business Environments begins as it commenced and ended each of the past two years in the prior sentence . Each state varies in one form or another in how much services their government provides and how those services …Read more
Retail and food service sales (including growing, processing, manufacturing, preparing, shipping and selling), make up more than one-half of the GDP of the U.S. and hit a record all-time high in July 2018, as shown in the following graph. The robust U.S. economy is being driven by strong retail and food service sales – with …Read more
We all use technology daily, but technology impacts some economies and commercial real estate (CRE) markets more than others. The tech sector, with 7.2 million workers at tech companies in the U.S., now makes up 4.8 percent of the U.S. workforce. A just-released study, Cushman & Wakefield’s Tech Cities 2.0, examines where tech has the …Read more
Technology continues to be a market-leading growth industry, attracting the best of the best workers given potential financial rewards. Some of the major technology hubs, however, rank among the most expensive places to live. Those cities costs often overwhelm even the higher tech incomes. While San Francisco and San Jose were the original tech meccas …Read more
The average American’s commute time to and from work (according to a study by Wall ST 24/7 based on analyses from the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator)is: 27 minutes twice a day 270 minutes a week 13,500 minutes per year (for 50 weeks per year or 225 hours which equals 28+ days) When added …Read more