Jobs are everything to the economy and ultimately to the demand for real estate. Following the pandemic plunge when 22+ million jobs were lost in March and April, the U.S. followed with seven consecutive months of job gains recouping 12.3 million (55.6 percent) of the lost jobs. Until now. December saw an estimated 140,000 net …Read more
Retail sales typically make up 70 percent of GDP and thus are the core of the US. economy. On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales dipped 0.7 percent sequentially from November, making it the third consecutive monthly decline as the pandemic increased intensity. On a year-over-year basis, however, sales were up 1.6 percent – after …Read more
Electricity costs can be a significant monthly recurring expense for households. For some households, in high-heating and cooling requirement locales, approaching or exceeding $1,000 per month is possible. Electricity costs vary broadly from state to state just like economies and real estate markets. As usual the TINSTAANREM axiom is applicable — There Is No Such …Read more
Jobs are everything to the economy and to the ultimate demand for real estate. Period. U.S. job numbers have been on a wild roller coaster ride since the pandemic, with the country still shy 9.8 million jobs when compared to February of this year. The loss and recovery rates of jobs have not been uniform …Read more
More than 60 percent of the states and the District of Columbia (32 out of the 51 total) added jobs from October to November based on seasonally adjusted job numbers as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The first table shows the percentage change, ranked from best to worst. While Hawaii posted …Read more
The U.S. brought back 245,000 jobs in November, the lowest rate of gain since the 22.2 million plunge in jobs from March to April according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The November gain, however, was the largest number of new jobs compared to pre-pandemic levels since May 2015. Unemployment slipped to 6.7 …Read more
Jobs are everything to the economy. Period. The latest summary metrics of employment as of October 2020 as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are included in the following tables. Included are 380 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) having monthly data and are based on seasonally adjusted employment numbers allowing an apples-to-apples comparison …Read more
Jobs are everything to the economy. Period. The U.S. lost 22+ million jobs from February (pre-pandemic) to the trough, which was April for the country as a whole. Good news is jobs are continuing to come back. Bad news is there are still 10 million jobs missing as of October compared to February of this …Read more
The economy continues to claw back from the economic punch of the pandemic, with 638,000 jobs recaptured in October on a seasonally adjusted basis as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There still remains 10.1 million jobs yet to be brought back out of the 22.2 million lost from February 2020 (pre-pandemic) …Read more
The purchase of a light weight vehicle (a car, truck or SUV that weighs up to 10,000 pounds) is the second greatest expenditure for most U.S. households, exceeded only by the cost of a home. The average new car in 2019 cost $37,629 — according to Kelley Blue Book – 54.8 percent of the median …Read more