Lenders originated some three million auto loans and leases in March, up about 53% from the same month in 2020 and the highest monthly figure on record. Auto balances for new originations also hit a record of $73.6 billion in March, up 59% from a year prior.
Expected Returns
A recent survey U.S. individual investors found these people expect to earn 17.3% this year, after inflation. That’s more than twice the return on U.S. stocks since 1926, which has averaged 7.1% annually after inflation.
Self-Storage Bounce
As of June 30, total returns from self-storage real-estate investment trusts reached 36%, outpacing other REIT sectors except shopping center and mall landlords. Over the same period, the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs Index gained 22% and the S&P 500 climbed 15%.
Jobless Claims
Worker filings for jobless claims fell to 364,000 last week, reaching a new pandemic low as layoffs continue to recede.
CFPB Moratorium
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a final rule that extends its foreclosure moratorium through August 31 — but allows foreclosures to resume after that under limited circumstances. The new rules require mortgage services to give borrowers a chance to avoid foreclosure, including resuming regular mortgage payments and deferring the missed payments until the end of the mortgage term, lowering of monthly mortgage payment amounts or selling their homes.
Katerra Construction
Venture-backed startup Katerra Inc. aimed to revolutionize the construction business by mastering every element of the trade at once. Instead, its June bankruptcy filing wiped out nearly $3 billion of investor money, making it one of the best-funded U.S. startups ever to go bankrupt.
Existing Home Prices
The median existing-home sales price in May topped $350,000 for the first time. The figure was nearly 24% higher than a year ago, the biggest year-over-year price increase NAR has recorded in data going back to 1999.
Hotel CMBS
CMBS hotel loans weigh on industry recovery as delinquencies decline but more borrowers are seeking workouts for their debt.
Fannie Mae
The Biden administration ousted the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the Supreme Court ruled it was structured unconstitutionally, and rejected most claims by a group of investors who challenged a government decision to channel the firms’ profits to the Treasury Department. The most commonly traded class of Fannie Mae preferred shares closed at $2.52 a share Wednesday, down about 62% from its close a day earlier.
Weekly Occupancy
Including temporarily closed hotels, weekly U.S. hotel occupancy was 63%, the highest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and weekend occupancy also set a pandemic-era record at 75%.