Private Credit

July 16, 2024

Last year, private credit assets topped $2.1 trillion globally, most of this in the U.S.

Residential Evictions

July 15, 2024

Even with the higher eviction rates in several major cities, evictions more broadly have settled to roughly where they were before the pandemic. The first five months of the year had about 422,000 filings for eviction across the 33 cities and an additional 10 states tracked, down slightly from prepandemic norms in those same places.

U.S. Workers

July 11, 2024

The number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs in one month peaked at 3% in April 2022, prompting many employers to boost salaries, give more time off and offer flexible schedules in an attempt to retain talent. Since then the U.S. rate of quitting has drifted below prepandemic levels to 2.2%, where it has held steady so far this year.

Las Vegas Mirage

July 10, 2024

The 3,000-room casino hotel that changed Las Vegas when it opened in 1989 will close on July 17.

Recession

July 9, 2024

The Sahm rule, a rule of thumb popularized by economist Claudia Sahm, says that if the average of the unemployment rate over three months rises a half-percentage point or more above the lowest the three-month average went over the previous year, the economy is in a recession. Over the past three months, the unemployment rate has averaged 4%—0.4 percentage point above the three-month average low of 3.6% over the past year.

Powell Outlook

July 2, 2024

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he was pleased with how inflation had resumed a downtrend following a rebound at the start of the year, a sign the central bank might be able to lower interest rates by the end of the summer even though he declined to endorse such a move.

Real Estate Funds

July 1, 2024

Investors will redeem $16.5 billion from real-estate funds this year, compared with $1.5 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, new fundraising is expected to dwindle to $5.7 billion this year, compared with $34 billion in the funds’ peak year of 2021.

Mortgage Lock

June 28, 2024

Two-thirds of outstanding U.S. mortgages have a rate below 4%. Were these homeowners to move, they would have to pay close to 7% for a new 30-year mortgage. The gap hasn’t been as wide since at least the late 1980s.

Home Prices

June 27, 2024

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index, which controls for changes in the mix of homes, is up 51% since the end of 2019.

Cruise Industry

June 26, 2024

Many less-efficient vessels were scrapped, and there will be slow growth in 2026 and 2027 as the absence of industry orders during the height of the pandemic works its way through specialized shipyards.