Market Update | OCT 11

DID YOU KNOW?

Top Headlines: Delivered by Leonard Steinberg

October 11, 2023

01  More home builders are starting to offer ADUs as amenities. In Alpine Springs, a new-home community in Saratoga Springs, Utah, half of the 16 homes sold include an ADU in the basement at an added price of $35,000 to $70,000. As of 2020, about 1.4 million US homes have an ADU. 

(WSJ)

02  Austin, Phoenix, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Las Vegas and Orlando are seeing rental prices coming down.....but while this is making headlines with some seeing this as a great reason to rent rather than buy, these same articles fail to mention the rent increases over the past three years. Average those years with the recent declines and the rent hikes are still enormous!

(BARRONS)

03  The No. 1 lesson for a longer, happier life according to older generations? Time is finite, don’t spend it regretting things.

(CNBC)

04  Adjustable-rate mortgages can lead to higher default rates when interest rates rise, but they now represent less than 5% of total purchase and refinance loans, compared with over 35% at the peak of the pre-GFC housing cycle.

(FORTUNE)

05  Gasoline consumption in the US is down from 9.52 million barrels per day in August 2019 (before COVID) to 8.98 million barrels per day this August, 2023.....a drop of 5.6%, even though US GDP has grown by $4,5 trillion since 2019...and US population has grown about 6 million people. Average vehicle fuel efficiency improved by about 2% in this period.

About 2% of vehicles were EV’s in 2019 and this year it’s over 6%.... triple. Last week the world told us oil was heading to “well over $100”, while this week WTI crude oil prices dropped 11.6% since September 27th as there are signs of global economic slowing. More signs of slowing? Tesla has dropped prices again.