The vacancy rate of apartment units stopped rising for the first time in three years last quarter, as demand for apartments rose to its highest levels since 2021.
Commercial Foreclosures
The national commercial foreclosure market peaked in May, at 752 total foreclosures that month. Prior to 2020, the peak in commercial foreclosures by month in the past decade was in October 2014, with 889.
Job Market
After showing remarkable strength and resilience since the pandemic, the job market has started to cool off significantly. The unemployment rate has risen to 4.1% from 3.6% in June 2023, and the number of job openings continues to trend downward.
Office Delinquencies
In September, the delinquency rate of office loans converted into securities increased to 8.36%, the highest rate since November 2013.
AI Projects
KKR and Energy Capital Partners have agreed to invest a combined $50 billion in data-center and power-generation projects to support the development of artificial intelligence.
Office Vacancy
The vacancy rate is stabilizing at a near record level of 13.8%, up from 9.4% in the fourth quarter in 2019. Since the second quarter of 2020, U.S. office tenants have vacated close to 209 million square feet of space, the highest amount ever for a four-and-half-year period.
Auto Loans
Roughly a third of people who financed their vehicles have negative equity on their auto loans which means their loan is larger than the value of their car. That share would amount to some 31 million of the more than 100 million auto-loan accounts.
Consumer Confidence
U.S. Consumer confidence is declining as the election nears. The survey showed a continuing frustration with high prices.
AI Fund
SoftBank and Apollo Global Management are in discussions for creating a fund worth more than $20 billion to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure including chip manufacturers and data centers.
Capital Call Loans
Goldman Sachs this month sold $475 million of public asset-backed securitization, or ABS, bonds backed by loans the bank makes to fund managers that tide them over until cash from investors comes in. The first-of-its-kind deal is a lucrative byproduct of the New York bank’s push into loans to investment firms, such as these so-called capital-call lines.